August 22, 2014
Along the Inn to Zirl (10km from Innsbruck): The best coffee stop ever
It was a fast and furious ride from Imst down to the Inn. Now we left the Via Claudia Augusta and joined the Inn Radweg. Immediately we were in the narrow and spectacular Imst Gorge, there was just room for the bike path and the railway. Often it became too narrow for anything but the railway so we were sent up to get over these parts - it is spectacular riding. Just as we were coming out of the forest and I was grinding slowly up hill I was overtaken by a speedy cyclist on a mountain bike. Around the corner I came and there was Ken in conversation with this cyclist. It was Hamish he had seen Kens New Zealand flag (no he didn't as most people do think it was an Aussie one). Hamish is a delightful person he was brought up on a Taranaki Dairy Farm (NZ) and came here first as a rafting guide then trained as a teacher in Austria, married an Austrian girl and now teaches at a local school. We enjoyed talking to him and he assured us he didn't think it would rain and we went on our separate ways.
The rain started, then we decided to call into a town and look for coffee. No luck but just as we were about to turn back to the Radweg who should come along but Hamish now in his car. We chained up our bikes, unloaded the luggage into the back of his car and were wizzed back to his house in Haiming to meet his wife Uschi and their three little girls and to drink coffee and eat some of Uschi's delicious home made bread and jam. What a nice time we had - far our best coffee stop. Emilia, Georgina and Olivia are lovely little girls who understand and speak excellent English - even Olivia who is only three and a half. They have just come back from visiting New Zealand and I think that Olivia was a little mixed up about us and thought that some how I was a New Zealand grandmother! The house is beautiful and Ken enjoyed looking at the fantastic and productive garden - he was even able to examine the family tractor a 2 cylinder Steyre. Thank you for such a lovely interlude. By the time we left it had stopped raining!
Our bikes were still chained to the rails outside the courthouse and it was an easy ride to Zirl and the fantastic 4 star hotel I had booked as alast minute deal on Booking.com
Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,161 km (721 miles)
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