Yesterday we crossed into SE Germany for our first real rest of the tour. Our other "days off" were really spent sightseeing by foot in cities which can be quite tiring. So after 5300k's in 52 days including our "days off" we are ready to just chill out. Fortunately Jen's boy Kyle knows people in Germany and we are enjoying what racers refer to as "host housing"....
Our hosts are great, three brothers that are all accomplished mountaineers as well as some endurance sports. Tomorrow we are going to watch two of them, Hanzie and Martin, compete in a relay in the Austrain dolomites. Mountain bike, handglide, uphill trail run, and white water kayak.....should be epic. I just got back from checking out another house member's workplace, a Lamborgini GT1 race garage. Wesley an Austrailian, and only 28, is an engeneer specializing in transmissions and he manages the race team mechanics. He cleaned up our bike chains in the parts bath for us.
We spent the first half of the week crossing Austria. It was great, lots of bike paths to seperate us from the cars that often took us winding thru a farmer's fields or some woods. And we had a tailwind a lot of the way letting us ease off the throttle. Sunday we rolled out of Vienna on a path along the Danube river. Just when it seemed like a hampster wheel of a river and bushes (flat & no view), we found ourselves in the beautiful Wachau valley with steep hillside vineyards, valley orchards, and the occasional castle ruin here and there. The roads up to the castles were steep so we enjoyed them from the distance.
On monday we journied into the lower Alps of Austria. I hate to use the same word over again but it seems like I always have to say "spectacular" to describe mountain scenery in Europe. Allen Kitscher would especially love this area with the lush green pastures being grazed on the steep mountainsides. Sometimes the bike route (there seems to be a whole network of them) would take us along back roads that we would not have found otherwise. On one such road we stopped at a cafe in a small town and met Harry and Hubert from Saltzburg. They were hiking for a week in the mountains and we exchanged stories. They paid our tab and warned us the clear sky would be changing to rain soon. Sure enough that evening we were setting up our tents in a downpour.
Tuesday started off grey but cleared by midday revealing even higher mountains. So amazing, and these are just the small ones. The climbing hasn't been too hard with an occasional steep couple k's here and there. I look forward to the high alps, or so I think. The scenery Wednesday was great as we transitioned back to hills. One section of lakes looked like the fjords of Norway and the tailwind was quite strong at times. Oracle Jen was especially motivated after reading her email about our host housing and took long pulls while I rested my knee which felt stiff and achy for a short time.
So far we have covered 5300k in 52 days. When we start again on Monday there will be a month left for me to reach Madrid. Jen stays another week or so. The map shows there is plenty of time to make it. And soon there will be four of us because in mid september Kyle and Hanzie plan to take a train to meet us somewhere west of here and ride with us for a week. Hopefully we can keep up the bandit camping because it is making Europe more affordable than I expected. We have paid for campsite/youth hostel/motel only one out of three nights thus far. The only time we used a lot of cash was to ride the Tallink across the Baltic sea. Oh, and our airplane tickets too.
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