Snowy mountains – Monday 13 May
The route today consisted of a steady climb to Resia/ Reschen, a small tourist village at the top of lake Resia, almost the highest point before descending down the Reschen pass on the other side. We only did 38 km, it was good to be able to take our time on the uphill bits.
It was still cool today, but more sunny, with mountain views even more stunning than the day before.
The first town we reached was Glurns, only around 8 km into the ride. It is a stunning walled 16th century town. We circled around a bit admiring the old buildings before continuing on our way.
We had our first long uphill slog (alongside the road) after Glurns. Here is the view on the mountains looking backwards.
From here the cycle path diverged completely from the road, still climbing steadily through alpine fields. It was very windy due to the openness of the terrain.
The wind abated a little once we got into a little valley. We continued to work hard, just about all uphill. The scenery remained stunning. We enjoyed pausing to say hello to some cows lolling in their field with bells around their necks.
At around midday I felt my energy level reducing and we stopped for some yummy dark chocolate and hazelnut clusters.
We had a slight descent down to the lake, which has a dam wall at it’s southern end. The cycle path took us over the dam wall to ride on the western side of the lake.
Kris found some remnant snow, at the bottom of a ski run just before the Resia town. Skiing is clearly the main tourist activity here.
We reached Resia at around 1.30pm. The town was very quiet.
We found the supermarket was closed until 2 pm! We find this throughout Italy – lots of shops close for a couple of hours over lunch. The coffee shop was also closed! We decided to wait and shop before going to our accommodation. Once we got into the shop we may have gone a bit over board buying lots of treats. We had to buy for breakfast as well, as that is not included in the accommodation.
We have a whole apartment here – it is quite big and great value costing around the same as hotels elsewhere. It has comfy sofas, a balcony with lake and mountain views, and a kitchen! I made a pasta meal and in the end we had more food than we could eat.