September 23, 2024
Friedrichshafen, lunch in Lindau, to Bregenz, Austria… and a huge downhill
Lisa sets a speed record
Day 8 Monday, Friedrichshafen - Lindau- Bregenz, Austria 30km SEPT 23
A beautiful day again. We had a nice ride mostly along quiet bike paths to Lindau. We walked around the old city on an island, and enjoyed the sights during lunch on a park bench at the harbour. We joined our BC friends for a walk in the old town. We first met them in our Stein Am Rhein hotel, and we keep seeing them walking and riding. Nice group.
At some unobserved point after Lindau we crossed into Austria on the way to Bregenz. We went straight to the Pfänderbahn gondola ride up the local mountain to beat the forecast rain. The BC crew had the same idea as they were right behind us.
We looked at the view for a bit, the had a wild ride down. We had no guidance on which route to take so I picked the longest one, hence less steep in theory. We soon were on steep rough gravel for a while, more like a forestry road. A couple of guys on full-suspension mountain bikes were doing repeats on one very technical section. They gave us the “silly tourists” look, but were friendly.
We had a short section of quiet paved road, but then were on a busy twisty valley road down to town that we had to ride fast due to the busy traffic speed. No pictures were taken:)
In total this was 14 km all downhill with 620 m of descent. We pulled off a few times when it was safe, to let traffic by.
I was impressed at how Lisa took it all in stride. The gravel road was too rough to race even on a gravel bike so we went slow on our city bikes. Then the steep valley road we went very fast to keep with the traffic, almost hitting 50kph. We saw a many dump trucks that drivers were trying to pass as well as us, with one especially sketchy pass that somehow didn’t wreck. We went through a short covered section which was OK, and finally into town to our hotel.
At least the rain held off.
We checked in and went for a drink on a covered patio just as a light rain started. Then out to a classic Greek place (tacky decor and old men servers) for a lovely dinner. Our hotel was in the pedestrian area of the old town (again), and close to everything, so we didn’t get really wet walking in the misty rain.
Some google street view pictures of the fast valley road that we took:
Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 275 km (171 miles)
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