Day 6

August 9, 2003

Brixen, Italy to Sillian, Austria

72 Kilometres

Saturday we headed east. Again the road was extremely busy. There was a bike path paralleling it for a little ways, but it ended. There was a dirt road, but we stuck to the main road. But traffic came to a halt, and we couldn't get past the motor home ahead. We were debating whether or not to take the dirt road, when a woman got out of a car, and told us there was a bike path on the other side of the river.

So we took the dirt road, bypassing all the cars, and eventually took a bridge across the river to the bike path. It was much more pleasant, but again more windy, and at one point so steep that Ursula had to get off and walk.

That got us to Bruneck, and the start of a long, fairly gentle climb. It wouldn't have been that bad if it wasn't so hot. The top of the pass, in Toblach, was 1240 metres. We stopped to celebrate with ice coffee and gelato.

From there it was downhill, past the Austrian border, to Sillian. We stopped at an information place, and the guy told us about a bike path that would take us right to the campground.

At the campground we saw a giant moth that looked like a hummingbird. Despite what it said in the literature, there was no restaurant at the campground. The woman running the place was sending people to the guesthouse down the road, but said she had received complaints about rude service there. We went there, but they didn't have much selection.

So we walked into Strassen. By this time it was getting dark, and we were starving. It was 1.5 km to town, but we were on the bike path, so it was much longer. We stopped a local woman and her son, and asked about restaurants. There were two, and one was at a four star guesthouse.

After walking across a farmer's field, we arrived at the four star guesthouse and took a seat. Ursula didn't want to go any further. The service was very slow. And Ursula said the waitress was snotty. There was a kitten going around the tables, so I petted it. The next thing I know it had jumped on my lap. Ursula asked the waiter for our bill, but he never brought it. She went looking, but there was no one to be found. Finally, on the second attempt we found him.


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