August 3, 2012
Day 76: Pfarrwerfen to Irdning, Austria
We had hoped to make it to Radstadt last night, but by 7:30 we still had 20-30 km left to go. Arriving in a place at or close to dark and not knowing even where the camping is is no fun. So we bailed out and camped at Pfarrwerfen.
It was the right decision, but that does not change the fact that we were left today with 90 km to reach Irdning. Irdning was an unchangeable target because we have family there and plan to stay for a couple of days.
So we got up early (though not crazily early - 6 a.m.) packed up and set out.
Although we are sticking to river valleys, this is now mountainous country and the mountains can not help throwing up a small hill or two, just to slow us down. Consequently, it was about 11 when we reached Radstadt.
On the way to Radstadt we naturally encountered a fair number of people along the path. As usual, we greeting them, but we found ourselves sort of ignored by a few more than expected. We began to wonder about the people here, but this was dispelled in the town by a mom and four kids who peppered us properly with all the usual questions. We snapped their photo and promised to put them in the blog. Here is the photo. We will put the names in shortly.
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The main shopping area of Radstadt is up a short but steep hill. Despite the distance to be covered in the day we decided to have a look and began to push the bikes up. The family thought they should give us a boost, and did they ever! It was like having an electric bike! Thanks friends.
A market was just finishing in Radstadt, but there was still time for us to buy some cheese and salami. It turned out these were are bit "too authentic" for Dodie, and I found them a bit weird too. Still, they kept us going.
Radstadt is not too far from the source of the Enns River, and the Ennstal Radweg is our route back to the Donau. We used a combination of Dodie common sense, the Bikeline maps, and the GPS to quite handily find the Radweg as we came out of Radstadt. From that point on, the posted signs plus the good maps made it reasonably easy to carry on without getting lost.
When thinking about the Austrian countryside my image includes houses with two stories, balconies, boxes of red flowers, and wood trim, situated high in meadows on the slopes of mountains, preferably with cows and cow bells. This image is not just a stereotype, it is real. And that reality is nowhere if not in the land we now passed through.
Not only could we look at unlimited variations of chalet style houses, alpine meadows, and high mountains, but somehow thanks to the Ennstal Radweg we got to ascend to one or two (or more) of the high (but not highest) villages.
My little camera produces images that lack contrast when shooting things that are too distant, so my attempts to capture the beauty of this landscape are not the most successful. Still you will get the idea. If not, pull out any calendar with beautiful mountains and chalets, and you have it.
We plodded along for quite a few hours, marveling at the surrounding mountains and pastoral scenes on the lower slopes. We finally arrived at Oblarn. Our brother in law, Erhard, is from this area and his parents live in Oblarn. They speak no English and we have never met them, so we would not search them out just yet. However we wanted some shots of town for Erhard. We also needed to pass through town, since that is the way the radweg goes.
No sooner had we entered town, but we came to a barricade that said no bicycles. Naturally, we ignored this, but soon encountered two young men wearing the tee shirts of the local town festival. They explained that we could not proceed this way, because of the festival in progress. "What if we walk the bikes?" - No. "What if we leave the bikes and just walk?" - No, because of the festival in progress. "But if we leave the bikes we are just people. How can you have a festival with no people?" Ah, now the light came on. The festival involves an elaborate play and we were headed in the back way where the actors were coming and going. It wasn't hard to swing around and come at the festival front way on.
We did not actually capture any of the festival activities, because it was getting late and we had to move on. Still, more people than usual, we are sure, were in traditional dress in the town, adding to the charm in our shots.
On the other side of town, a missing sign had us puzzling. As we stood there scratching our heads (as much as possible with helmets on), a car pulled up and a couple asked if they could help. They had stopped on general principle because of two lost looking cycle tourists. But they did a double take when they looked at us. They were Peter and Renate, old friends of Erhard, who had met us in Canada. What's more, they pointed out, we were standing in front of Erhard's parents' house!
So Peter called Christian (Erhard's brother) in Irdning (our destination) to let him know we were sort of arriving any time. I guess this kind of coincidental meeting is not so strange with small towns, still it was great to be welcomed and to have people know we were here.
We plodded on toward Irdning, and as we were within a couple of km here was Christian, who had come out on his bike to find us. It was a good thing, because though we had the GPS, the way home was a bit complicated.
Christian and Birgit have two beautiful children Johanna and Tobias, and they were eager to see us, staying up a bit late on account of it. The adults then talked about our trip, about Austria, and about the differences between Europe and North America, quite far into the night.
First thing on the agenda for tomorrow - go with Christian to check out the bakery, of course!
Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 3,613 km (2,244 miles)
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