Day 62: Berg to Strassen/Hof

June 13, 2022

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There was breakfast included with our little cabin, and although it was held in the restaurant, we were brought our own plate of meat and cheese, and some buns. The offering was pretty weak, but at least it allowed up to store away some sandwiches. We had looked ahead to what bakeries might be in store, and found the "Egger" in Oberdrauburg, about 13 km distant. I checked out their web site and was intrigued by their introduction. It begins (in translation) " Stop, calm down, enjoy the moment, and meet nice people." Why would I need to calm down? We were about to find out.

The day began rainy, so we began with full gear. The photo of our cabin looks sunny, but it was like that - quite heavy rain and then sun and back again.

The path does reveal the rainy conditions.

For most of the day the path was paved, but there were significant gravel stretches. Wet gravel really sticks under our fenders.

Although the profile in the track does show a day of climbing, the story of the day was really simple, just a matter or mostly cycling beside the Drau, as it rushed down from its origin, near Toblach, about 75 km distant.

Along the way, our main activity was gazing in amazement at the huge mountains near and far, and the villages placed high up on the green slopes.

At one point we spotted this castle up on a ridge. But we found no information about what it is, much less how any reaches it.

I liked this illustration. And yes, if you don't take the right turn you are going swimming in the Drau.

These guys were repairing a bridge over a tributary. Dodie said "Hey, leave the bridge up 'till we pass!"

They had really nice wood to use in the bridge repair. Forest industry is the main activity in this area and there are lumberyards stuffed with quality material like this.

Lots of yards like this, plus piles of logs and chips.

While cycling along we speculated on how people found their way initially through these mountains. Of course, like anywhere, it's a matter of following the rivers and looking for passes. We figured the Drau was about to go through the gap ahead.

When we drew abreast of Oberdrauburg, a busy road stood between us and the town. There was an underpass, but it used only stairs for down and up. This started me losing my calm. On the other side of the road, construction stood between us and the bakery. We scouted a way around, but were less calm again. At the bakery, Dodie asked the lady for a piece of the "schnitte", of which there was only one type - erdbeeren. "Do you mean the erdbeeren?". The lady was just making sure, but at a calmness cost. We went outside and chose a nice calm shady table. Then at the next table, a man lit up a foul smelling cigar type cigarette. He must have been the advertised "nice people" we would meet.

Maybe good bakery, if you can get there.

The town was also pleasant, and we headed off for a look at the church.

Angels (and apparently cherubs) have wings. Do they flap them to fly?

A modest but nice chapel down by the river.

Near the entrance to town was this bizarre, tortured, cycling type sculpture. We know nothing further about it.

We proceeded through farm country, with the broad valley on either side, and the wonderful views up the mountain sides.

Sometimes we had to yield the path to superior power!

During the hours of cycling your mind(s) are free to wander a bit, and a favourite daydream for us is about anti-car devices, like big horns or paint balls. One that made us chortle a lot was the potential for use on tailgaters of a manure spreader:

We even dreamed up a bicycle version, could be a 1 litre, powered by co2 or bicycle pump. The company we would form to produce and market them could offer dried manure packets, different flavours - pig, goat, cow!

We don't want anyone to get the impression that we were at all crabby this day, despite the manure spreader daydream. But as we approached Lienz we fired up Google to find out if there was an exciting reason to go in to the town. We found "15 Things to Do in Lienz". Mostly these were not things for strictly in Lienz, but were based on this being, after all, the Tirol. So you ride on rodelbahns, kayak wild rivers, go zip lining, or hike up into the hills. These are not quite Grampie style. But wait, there is an historic old town street. We could check that out.

The Drau radweg does not deign to take you into the town, but it does point you in the direction. The direction, it turns out, is toward a busy boulevard, with no traffic light for the direction we would need to cross. We looked at the Mcdonald's and the Intersport, we looked at the big trucks, and we said you know what, the old town does not really want to see us. So we flounced on.

Even as we continued past Lienz we did have an eye out for any of those 14 other activities. For example, we came up a kayak course set up in the river.

From the quite broad and fast moving river we had been following, the Drau began to clearly narrow and shrink. It looked at one point like a narrow but wild mountain river, and then like almost a trickle. Streams continued to enter frequently, but the total volume of water was just overall less.

Have a look at the river a bit further from the source, at the beginning of today:

By afternoon we were seeing the river much narrowed.

The total valley also became very narrow. In the photo below you can see that there is room for the radweg, the river, the road, and the rail line, and that's it.

The narrowness of the valley did not help when in 2010 a slide wiped out the radweg. "Hangrutschung" is a landslide, eh.

Our stop for the night was near the town of Strassen. We think there is a bakery there, but it's up a hill. Forget it!

We are almost at our stop. This house and barn is just in front.

Yes, that's it. We're home for the night!

The views from our windows.

What gave Meaning to Life today? "Despite all the glories we saw, our vote goes to our effective rain gear!"

Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 3,484 km (2,164 miles)

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