June 6, 2022
Day 55: Spittal to Villach
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Last night's dramatic storm had passed, leaving only a soaked towel, which we had been using to slightly prop open our balcony door. But we would see more signs later, in branches littering the cycle path and hunks of wood floating in the Drau.
Breakfast at the hotel featured some items that we had never seen before. My favourite was a stir fry of sweet peppers, onions, and tomatoes. There was also boiled bockwurst, hot dogs, and small sausages.
Out on the trail, we looked at the clouds clearing from the mountains, and knew we could anticipate a clear and warm day.
The river had lots of debris floating in it, and also ducks who were going with the quite fast flow, but also paddling toward shore. That's the same technique that Manni mentioned to us, to get to shore if you happen to fall into his fast moving stream at Feldkirch.
Our path for today was very straightforward and attractive. It has the now familiar bits in grain or corn fields,
and for a good bit it was what appeared to be a rail trail, by the river.
We had taken the advice of the Alpe Adria route creators, and booked our stopping places according to their published stages:
We figured in setting distances as short as 37 km, they must know something about the route that we do not. But no, we just sailed over to Villach from Spittal on the flat, and arrived before noon. We stopped by our hotel, the Goldenes Lamm, and they predictably told us to come back later.
The Goldenes Lamm is right on the Villach pedestrian street. We went down to the end, where the Rathaus is, and found a shady bench on which to eat our sandwiches. The rathaus is very plain, and relatively new, and in fact although not unattractive, the Villach downtown does not rate highly compared to some we have seen.
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We also did spot two attractive churches in town. For some reason we did not see if we could go in to either of these. Perhaps we are feeling crabby with churches today, since their holiday Pfingst has caused everything to be closed, here on a Monday. Pfingst, by the way, is Pentecost, and by rights is the seventh Sunday after Easter, or 50 days, hence the name Pentecost. But I think the stores close on Monday, just to bug us! (Another religious closure is coming our way soon as well - Fronleichnam - which is Corpus Christi. It will be a week from Thursday. It was invented in 1264, so we can't say we didn't have fair notice about it!).
Having explored Villach to our satisfaction we thought, ok, maybe we can cycle to Slovenia, just to say we had been there.
We downloaded the Slovenia map to our GPS, but it turned out to be too far for a casual jaunt. Still, we took off sort of down the Drau, targeting the relatively nearby Faakker See, just to look at it. You can see our track for that below.
There was a certain amount of climbing to this little excursion, but the tough Grampies, after two days on the flat, were looking for some exercise!
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The Faakker See has a beautiful turquoise colour, but oh, was the beach ever crowded! I am continually fooled by being in the mountains, which in Canada often mean wilderness, only to find lots of people, cars, and towns everywhere. Intellectually I know this to be the way of things here, but my instincts come from a lifetime in Canada.
What gave Meaning to Life today? Not having to stay at the Faakker Sea beach.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 3,121 km (1,938 miles)
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2 years ago