Ride Summary

Distance: 17mi
Climbing: 500 feet
Descending: same
Difficulty: easy
Link to workout in Strava

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Link to photo gallery from this trip - sorry, I won't be able to link individual photos in these posts!

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Another all day travel fest got us into Salzberg just before midnight and into the hotel just after midnight. Bit of a language barrier with the front desk fellow who asked if we spoke Italian or Spanish and then declined to converse in Spanish when I offered. But we got situated and passed out.

The "Continental" breakfast spread here is so much nicer than what passes in the states and we've certainly been enjoying all you can eat rolls and meats (including pate which I've grown fond of) and cheese and yogurts and muesli and hard boiled eggs just about every morning. This morning also featured cute individual coffee service which Lori was enamored of - she loves small dishes in general. I told her she could have one if we downsized our house to match, but my offer was laughed off.

We met a fellow bikepacker (we've seen dozens so far - tis the season and location, it seems!) yesterday on the train who was somewhat amazed with how much stuff we were carrying - probably 3x as much as him - and he had a tent with him! We are not light packers, even if I have a good system to carry what I'm carrying, it isn't compact nor light. BUT I AM PREPARED. And since it might snow on us over coming days, I guess it was worth bringing the puffy jacket and extra layers.

Lori found us a "walking" tour of the city and we biked it, visiting some historic bridges, biking under the Autobahn, and climbing up to the Maria Plains which was a popular pilgrimage route a hundred years ago. The climb topped out at a rather gorgeous cathedral with incredible art inside, but mass was in progress when I peeked in so I dipped out before taking it all in.

We got tired of the tour before we finished it so we stopped for lunch at an Austrian restaurant with street seating so we could watch the world go by. Beers were (thankfully!) smaller than yesterday - turns out 1L of beer is a lot to drink out of a single glass! - and the food was pretty fabulous too. Lori got her schnitzel and her strudel cravings met!

After that we stopped for a nap (sleep last night was fine, but not copious due to late arrival) and then headed up to a rooftop bar with a view for a drink before heading to dinner at a pizza place nearby, which was also quite good. It says something about how we've been eating that the salad was the MVP of the meal; usually salad is more like a supporting actor in my world but this was quite good; guess I needed some veg. (It was also really well done and pistachio heavy, which was surprisingly good).

Now to get to bed a little early to sleep a lot, trying to erase sleep debt. In the morning, another included breakfast, and we'll stop at one of the 3 balkan pastry shops on our block to stock up some snacks before the bike shops open - I need to buy a backup saddle as mine has started creaking ominously and I've broken 2 in the past year and don't want to end up stranded since the next bike shop we'll see is in probably a week. Annoying to carry an extra, but less annoying than having to stop riding if mine breaks. Fortunately, a bike shop that opens in the morning is in the same building as our hotel...

Tomorrow we start the riding in earnest! Big climb out of town, probably will have to walk some pieces...but then we'll be in a town with ice caves which we intend to go see, as long as the predicted cold wet weather doesn't get us down too much.

As usual, quite a few fun pictures in the gallery!