From Maribor to Bad Radkersburg, Austria (Sept. 6, 2022)

September 6, 2022

After our wine shopping we headed out on the Slovenian D1 bike route - also Eurovelo 9, north of Maribor to the Austrian border. For a change the bike route markings (for the Slovenia D1) we’re frequent and clear. There was a bike lane all the way out of town. Riding was rural, pleasant and quiet except for one stretch where we were on a frontage road adjacent to a four-lane highway. We reached the border and you could tell it used to be a real border- lots of infrastructure and quite busy. After the border we veered sharply east to catch the Murradweg, an Austrian-signed route that roughly follows the Mur river all the way into Bad Radkersburg, Austria. Cycling infrastructure continued to be amazing. We stopped for beer and water at a watering hole, and saw this cute mini zoo. We saw some touring cyclists and quite a few riders.

Our cafe way stop complete with attached menagerie.

Even with goats, boys will be boys and these guys were practicing their head butting skills.

What I learned today on our cycling trip:

(1) This area of Austria is in the region of Styria, and is largely agricultural. Its primary crops are pumpkins (in German “kurbis”) from which they make a delicious pumpkin oil (kernol), apples, buckwheat and corn. How do I know this? Because we spent most of the day riding through all these crops being harvested! Not by accident, we AlSO had these products for dinner: apple spaetzle for desert, a buckwheat appetizer, and corn and pumpkin oil dressing on our salad.

. . . and sunflowers also getting ready for harvest.

(2) Our destination Bad Radkersburg is right on the border with Slovenia to the south. The area on both sides of the border was historically settled by both ethnic Slovenes and Germans and many ethnic Germans on the Slovenia side of the border fought for Nazi Germany. After WW2, with the creation of Yugoslavia and Germany’s loss, many ethnic Germans were expelled from this area of Slovenia.

Another rest area adjacent to the Mur river.

(3) Just outside of Bad Radkersburg we ran into the Park of Thoughts, a monument to 23,000 people who died in Germany’s futile attempt to build defenses to protect from the oncoming Russian forces between May 1944 and 1945. The Nazis also sent people to a nearby concentration camp and there was a “lane of pear trees”memorializing this sad event. I couldn’t find anything online abut this episode or the effort of building of the defenses.

(4) On a more meaningless note, getting a massage in another country is always an adventure and tonight’s Austrian version was no exception. We arrived at our digs in Bad Radkersburg, the “Kaiser von Ostereich,” and like all the other Austrian spas we have stayed at, it’s nice but in need of renovation. But, they advertised massages and I gladly signed up. Later that evening I arrived at the spa in my cushy robe to meet Tristan, a guy about my age who spoke no English. I hadn’t had a massage since Covid so I was excited, especially because my shoulder was still a little cranky from wrangling our bikes in the Ljubljana train station. In America the massage “custom” is that the therapist asks you a whole bunch of questions about how you are feeling, what hurts, what you want done, hard pressure, soft pressure, blah blah blah (hey - its all about you, isn’t it?) Well, not in Austria. In true Germanic fashion Tristan announced what he would be doing (half back/ shoulders, half feet - go figure?) and although he spoke very little (no) English he managed to convey the plan. I meekly submitted - even though I probably didn't need a 25 minute foot rub! So, its not like I have had a ton of massages around the world (I can think of two - one in Colombia and one in Morocco) but that draping thing they do in America where they work really hard at arranging and rearranging the sheets to preserve your maidenly modesty, appears to be uniquely American. And, true to form, it is NOT an Austrian custom. Tristan just motioned for me to lay face down and somehow I scooched my robe off my shoulders and I think he got the idea I was embarrassed so he let me keep the robe covering my lower half. But, there was not a draping sheet in sight! To his credit he knew what he was doing and found those awful cranky spots exaggerated by days of riding. But, given that we did not share a mutual language you would think he would just get on with it but he spent much of the hour educating me on the mind-body connection in totally broken English. I was just bemused, and it felt great. And, it was a break from thinking about complicated European history and wars….Aw, life on the road.

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 961 km (597 miles)

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