Bike Trip days 1-2: Reinhold Messner

Monday June 20

Sunday was a rainy chilly day. We started our bike trip, with a company we highly recommend, based on a number of trips we've made in Italy, France, and Mallorca. Look them up: Customwalks.com. 

The trip began with a ~two-hour drive south from Innsbruck into Italy. More precisely, I should say the autonomous region of Alto Adige/Süd-Tirol, of which more later. We got the bikes out of the van and started riding in the chill, reaching the lovely city of Merano (Meran in German) in time for showers, naps, pre-dinner drinks, and a fine dinner (trout for me). The view from our room:

Monday included something totally unexpected and wonderful. It started as a sunny, breezy day in Merano. Like some other areas, the Alto Adige/Süd-Tirol is a region of strife.  Vastly oversimplified, it's a disagreement over being German/Austrian or Italian. Look up this history if you're interested; I can't summarize it here with the respect it deserves. 

The ride was very pleasant.  We ended the day in Caldaro (Kaltern in German), both near the Adige river and the larger city of Bolzano (Bozen). Along the way, we stopped at an amazing place. It was originally a medieval castle way up on a hill above the valley, which might have been enough reason to visit and enjoy it.

But it's now one of several museums created by Reinhold Messner, a famed mountain climber who became dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism during his many expeditions. Lions greet you at the entrance to the castle

and Tibetan images appear throughout the tour, which takes you all around the castle, down below and up above 

The exhibits include tributes to many other mountaineers, and there are displays of equipment, books, and photos of Messner's stupendous climbs in European and Asia. All were interesting, but I was really caught by the history of the Süd-Tiroleans' efforts to return to Austrian control. Lots of people here really don't like (to put it mildly) being part of Italy. Signs all have both Italian and German; at least a few people refuse to speak Italian at all (as one of our party who is fluent in Italian learned). Protests have called for the return to Austria since 1919 when the area was ~given to Italy. In 1954, a huge demonstration was held at this very castle, with the cry of "Free from Trento" (the capital of the region).

That demonstration may have resulted in the area becoming an autonomous region, which makes it somewhat independent of Rome. 

After a few hours of castle keeps and cellars, mountaineering, Buddhism, and history from the middle ages to the very recent, we pedaled on down, then mostly up, to Caldaro. This is more than a "bike" trip.