If you would like to see details about our journey, check out our itinerary and our bike route.
It stormed all night: 2.75 inches of rain. And it was 53 degrees when we got up. I dug down to the bottom of my pack and hauled out the tights for the first time. What a change!
We stalled a little getting ready to leave, and by the time we loaded the bikes, the sun was out. Three other people were also loading bikes in the entranceway: a couple from Albuquerque and their friend/guide from Austria. We saw them again several times on the trail during the morning and had fun comparing notes on great places to bike in Europe and the US. The husband was originally from Eden Prairie. Small world.
It was a little confusing getting out of Cortina because of all the construction going on there for the Olympics. When we finally made it to the bike trail, it was crowded with walkers and bikers.
The first 9 miles were a slow climb to Passo Cimabanche, at a little over 5,000 feet. Just before the pass, we stopped for a lunch of cheese and crackers. As we neared the pass, we agreed that it would be awesome if there were a cafe at the top, with cappuccino. And there it was! It was actually a full-fledged restaurant filled with bikers and hikers. If we had known, we would have waited to eat there. But we settled for cappuccino, and it was good.
The last 11 miles were a gradual descent, past quite a few parks and resorts busy with early weekend and holiday people.
Dobbiaco is a small town, barely more than a village, with a Sudtirol atmosphere. The agent who checked us in to our apartment was born there, and said she and maybe 90 percent of people in that area speak German as their first language.
We have an entire new apartment to ourselves—total luxury. It was the only place we could find that would rent for just one night in Dobbiaco. There's a washer down the hall, and a new Conad supermarket below the building, with everything we needed for a simple dinner and breakfast. After dinner, we walked across the corner for Linzertorte and fruit tart and espresso. We wandered the few streets around the piazza and discovered a fantastic macelleria (butcher shop), where we got hard sausages for lunch tomorrow. The owner said we were the first Americans to come into his shop; he has seen a few in Dobbiaco, but not many, and they don’t come in to buy meat.
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| Most of the day we were riding on the Monaco-Venice/E1 bike path, popular for hiking and bikepacking. |
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| Picnic lunch at about mile 8. |
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| We celebrated our summit of Passo Cimabanche with cappuccini. |
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| Linzertorte in the square near our apartment in Dobbiaco brought back memories of sharing that dessert with Meghan and Josh in Vienna six years ago. |
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| The old part of Dobbiaco is small, with just a few restaurants and shops circled around the main square. |
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| The Chiesa San Giovanni Battista is an 18th-century Baroque church, built on the foundations of a Gothic church, built on the foundations of a Roman church. The terrace of our apartment was just a feet from the back of the tower. |
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| The architecture of the church also reminded us of Austria. Dobbiaco is just miles from the Austrian border, and is known as much by its Austrian name (Toblach) as its Italian one (Dobbiaco). We get confused trying to speak the local language now; we hear German more than Italian, and both are a struggle for us! |
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| Behind the church is this old building, and then streets of houses. |
