20 July 2025 (cloudy, sunny, hot) 58km

Ju here and for a change it's me going on about the church bells! 

At 7am they started, the church bells. Wake up everybody, especially you lot in the campground less than 100 meters away. And because it's Sunday, you get the extra special rendition which lasted three minutes. But ever thankful for small mercies as we are, we were just thankful we were spared the eight minute performance we got 12 hours ago .

Tough luck if you went to the festival last night and only got to bed at 2.30pm. It is time for EVERYONE to wake up.

So being given little choice in the matter, we did indeed get up and posted another blog so we're not quite so far behind.

The church bells continued to ring, in no apparent order. At first, it was just a reminder, “hey everyone, it's Sunday. I let you lie in until 7am, but now it's time to get up. Don't think you can roll over and go back to sleep, because I've got keen bellringers very keen to remind you every fifteen minutes that today is indeed Sunday and you should be making plans to get to church.

Hello, 7.30, and an extra long spell on the bells to say, “I mean it! Get out of bed and ready for church!”

At 8am we get another three minutes of bells. I guess this is the, “time to get a shower. Cleanliness is next to Godliness you know,” reminder.

8.30am and more extended bells. This must be the ‘time to grab a coffee’ tune. I don't want you falling asleep during the sermon.

Three more minutes at 9am. This is the perfect amount of time to brush your teeth so you don't overwhelm the vicar with your bad coffee breath during your Italian air kissing.

At 9.45, it turns from timely reminders to all out harassment.

Ten minutes of bells, insisting you get to church for 10am or face the consequences.

At 10am we set off on our own path to worship. The joy of cycling in the fresh morning air, body and bike moving as one to propel you forward, unencumbered with the worries of traffic so able to enjoy the views of nature all around us. A friendly Gud Morgen exchanged with fellow cyclists, as despite being in Italy, everybody seems to still speak German.

What a lovely morning ride to Merano. No uphill at all, just flat or downhill, which is just what we needed. Despite the church bells waking us up at 7pm and at first imploring, but then seeming to insist we get our asses into church, we had our own cathedral to attend.

A traffic free ride on mostly perfectly sealed cycleways, with only other cyclists to contend with.

Pete here: At 8pm last night, we facetimed Shaz in NZ. It was an early wake up call for her, but we chatted and laughed about the local church bells going crazy here every fifteen minutes.

There was a music festival in town, but after the torrential downpour last night, I wondered if it would go ahead. It did. Just about the time we began talking to Shaz, you could hear it faintly in the village, just down the road. 

During the afternoon, as we were just finishing putting up the tent, I heard a guy playing guitar and singing. He was going between German and English and it was excellent.

At first I thought it was on a radio, or someone's speaker, but then wandered around a caravan close by and there he was. Just one man, sitting in a chair with his guitar, happily singing and playing, nice ballads and folk tunes. It made me wonder if he was here for the festival and just getting his vocal chords warmed up. 

I saw him coming out of the amenities an hour later and asked him if he spoke English, as he'd been proficient singing in it. Yes he did, and I told him how beautifully he played and sang.

He thanked me and smiled, but he'd given me a lovely forty five minutes of simple musical pleasure. 

By 9pm, we'd finished chatting to Shaz, always good to catch up with her and everyone back home. It makes you realise just what you've got in life. 

The music at the festival seemed to have been set at a good level and as we drifted off to sleep, it was in the background. At 10.39pm, I was woken by a full on base, dance rave beat and it was loud. 

I thought, as I was forced to listen to it, about all our teenage years when my Dad would tell us to turn our music down and how after hearing the guy singing and playing that afternoon, I had presumed a local gig would sound something like Val Doonican or Des O' Connor. 

Anyway, you get the picture.

Europeans tend to eat late and retire to bed late. We know that. The gig finished at 2.36am and for the next twenty minutes all you could here were drunk screaming females, making their way past the camp, a lot on the other side of the narrow river. 

So, sorry Dad, for all those parties in the UK when we had virtually the whole neighborhood at our place and music blasting out til all hours. I guess you really do reap what you sow. 

Just in case you might have been wondering....Julia only woke to go to the loos and then went straight back to sleep. Envy is a powerful thing sometimes. 

Up and into breakfast which we bought last night. Delicious as usual.

Spoke to the Swiss girls next to us who were going to Bolzano. Said we might see them on the way...and we did on the cycle path.

Left camp at 10.20am and took the cycle path to Merano. 

The riding today started with a nice gravel section for about 10km which was nice riding, especially because it was all downhill. Then we got lovely smooth track passing by mainly apple orchards. In fact there were apples for Africa throughout the massive valley we were riding. (That's probably the wrong thing to say, since kids are starving in Africa)

The orchards went on and on. We rode 58kms today and they were there the whole time. Not quite ripe though.

The surrounding hills (well mountains) certainly aren't your Swiss mountains, but more rugged. Still as high though. Same goes for the villages so far. Not quite the same visual appeal, but hey, we'll give it time.

As we weren't packing any lunch or dinner, we were keeping our eyes open from lunchtime for a takeaway of some sort seeing as all the shops are closed.

Nothing.

Sat on a bench at the side of the trail and had a nectarine, nuts and a piece of chocolate each.

The riding today was probably the easiest we've experienced on any of our tours in a single day. Downhill or flat and a nice easy pace. But that didn't stop us pulling over for a coffee at Radbike, a cafe by the cycleway.

Ju had an affogato and I had a cappuccino and a piece of apple strudel.

We cruised along, and had quite a steep, long hill down into Merano. Felt sorry for all the people going the other way.

We rode through Merano which didn't seem at all special but we didn't make an effort to go and visit it.

That's because, in the afternoon the temperature rose to 34 degrees by 4pm. Oh my god it was scorching.

For the final 5kms we were riding by industrial estates, which wasn't so nice, but we were on the outskirts of Merano. 

After that we had about an hour of riding alongside the canal, railway and more apple orchards, but at least it was flat.

At 3.30pm, we pulled into a small camp amongst the orchards. By the time we set our tent up in full sun the sweat was literally running down our faces.

Over to the showers for a cold one. And whilst in there, it was incredible. Immediately you were out, you started sweating again. 

The camp gave us a pass each to a natural pool about 200 metres away.

We wandered down and found a pizzeria, but no food on the menu to suit Julia, except chips.

So whilst I had a pizza, Julia tucked into the biggest bowl of chips I've seen. Finished our meals by 5.50pm and went for a dip in the pools as by now we were sweating profusely again after our cold showers about an hour ago. That was just what the doctor ordered. Natural spring pumping water into a pool. It was fantastic and so cool.

They've done a great job with that facility, as have the people with the pizzeria and cafe/ bar. After an ice cream each, we wandered slowly back to the tent, but had to have another cold shower to cool down enough for bed.

According to the forecast, we've got a low of 21 overnight, but the week's weather looks like it will have rain, thunder and lightning. Tomorrow especially is not looking good.