Day 7 – July 2, 2025
Even though we were not too far from the Austrian border, breakfast was no longer the hearty food that gets served there, a bit more Italian - lots of cakes, white bread, biscuits. Really good was their croissant filled with pistachio. The nationality of the staff was interesting - the waiter was from Kosovo, the cleaning lady from Pakistan and the cook from Slovakia - he spoke perfect Hungarian.
After some confusion of where the road would continue, I found the right place and headed towards the south. In Alto Adige, you often feel as you were transferred back a couple of centuries - there are wonderful castles flanking the road. Below is a small collection.
I stand tall with walls of stone...
...a guardian of kings unknown...
...within my halls, tales echo loud...
...yet I move not, though I draw a crowd...! 
...who am I? A castle! Thanks, AI!
After this riddle, let me continue my story. So there was this nice bike path - which I followed as long as it was open to traffic. There was a section that was closed and would have meant quite a large detour - I just rode on the main road. The town of Brixen was the next highlight of this trip, one of the oldest towns in Alto Adige.
The main square, with a market
I love those narrow streets behind the arch
The cathedral on the outside...
...and inside
Town hall
If I recall correctly, I had a drink with my girlfriend there a dozen or so years ago
I bought some produce at the farmer´s market and told myself not to forget my water bottle. When it was time to leave - yet another place one could spend easily a day or two at - I rode through town and found the continuation of the bike path. At the first fountain, I wanted to fill up my bottle - guess where it was...? Oh well, I paid another visit to the center of town, luckily, the bottle was where I had left it.
Klausen was the next small town, really cute was that the nameplate of the various businesses on the main street were bicycle wheels - well, biking is a major industry there.
Really cute town of Klausen
Nameplates as bike wheels...nice!
The bridge crossing the Eisack River is a must-stop for all cyclists, offering a wonderful view of the valley, the roaring river and some more castles. Here there were two guys standing - the bike of one was heavily loaded. If I was a tank, this one guy was riding a battleship. I struck up a conversation, they were from Chile, the one was on a smaller 2-week trip, the other on a 2-year (!) trip to Europe - he had covered 23,000 kilometers, including Iceland, Russia - name any country on this continennt, he had been there.
My humble tank on the right, the battleship on the left...wow!
The route of his trip...@juliancfoto, if you prefer to follow him
Bolzano came next, the capitol of Alto Adige, with an mpressive main cathedral. I did miss out on Ötzi, but made a point to return in a not-so-distant future. Not sure why I was in a such a hurry for, but I wanted to make progress that day.
Proud cathedral...
...with its entranceTown hall, where I consumed my lunch
A nice square...
...and small alleys
Now I was riding on not the most memorable section of this trip. The bike path was well maintained, but it got a bit boring, leading next to huge apple plantations. Nice were the mountains flanking the road - other than that, I was just gulping up the miles. I noticed that riding on the main road is shorter than on the bike road, so went for that, was fine for a while. Then, oooops, I had to backtrack, as no longer were bikes allowed, so I had to spend time looking for the bike road and then make a long loop. Dammit. Maybe I should have risked biking along - but better not being hit by a crazy speeding driver.
Anyhow, it was 9 pm by the time I had reached Trento. Many years ago, when I was living in Munich, I had 2-3 days off and went biking to Alto Adige. I reached Trento and called Rupert, my good friend who is no longer with us, to tell him how nice the town was. He goes: "What did you say you are?" Me: "In Trento" Him: "Noooo waay, I am also there on a short outing!". It was a memorable encounter...and Trento really is impressive.
Such beauty...
...I was really glad...
...to have made it back...
...to this really special town of Trento!...
The cathedral
The red building was my hotel
At 9:30 pm, I had no idea where I was staying. Yet again prices were sky-high (if available at all), I contemplated on leaving town and finding some place to crash. The funny thing was that there were lot of inhabitants of Pakistani origins, one man told me his entire life story, how he ended up in Trento as a refugee.
I was quite disappointed and noticed there was a hotel right at the central square (the red building on the last picture) - I took my chance and was successful - asked if they had vacancy and they did - just for €66, not a bad price at all! Well, the toilet was on the outside, the bathroom one floor below - still, I was in right in the center. This gave me extra energy and I back then, I had the mindset of being on the road for another couple of weeks - so it was time to take my clothes to laundry. The friendly receptionist noted they might be already closed, but I thought to combine a city tour with a laundry scouting.
The receptionist was correct - there were quite a few laundries around, all closed. I discovered that there was also a modern part of town, with cool architecture, but nothing open. There I struck up a conversation with some youngsters, university students, who were sympathetic to my cause, they even wanted to send me to their dormitory, as there was a 24-hour laundry there- but it was too far.
Before returning to my room, I told myself to visit one more laundry, it was already 11 pm, about a mile away. That one, for whatever reason, closed at 10 pm, but the lights were on and the doors open. The worst that could happen is that someone comes and I would have to collect my clothes the following day - so I entered and started washing my stuff. No one came and I was busy cleaning all my stuff till past 1 am. Man, I was really glad to have all my stuff clean, it´s a great feeling. I rode around the empty streets of Trento for a while, took a very late shower and hit the bed.
Here is the map of the day - Day 7 - July 2, 2025 - about 145 kilometers.