On my own

In the morning I said goodbye to my friend outside a supermarket in Livigno. He would keep travelling; I would fly home in two days. We did not say anything special. Just the usual “take care”, and then each of us got on our own bike.

Once I was riding alone, I kept noticing that there was no one in my mirrors. I followed Lago di Livigno north into the Munt la Schera Tunnel, 3.4 km long and only one lane wide, with traffic lights taking turns in each direction. On the far side was Switzerland.

km 13Swiss border

Down the Engadin valley and back into Austria. On a road beneath a cliff I got stuck in roadworks traffic, the line of cars barely moving. Until yesterday, my friend and I would have just exchanged a look and laughed.

km 169Fern Pass 1,212 m

Over the Fern Pass, an old road through the Tyrol, Germany was close. I rode into Füssen in the late afternoon, dropped my bags at the hotel, changed into running shoes and went out for a run.

Running along the lake shore, I thought back over the last three days. I wondered where he was riding by now.