Happy Birthday Maples – she turned 13 today!!!!! And going strong though a lot slower. No doubt she is being spoilt by Joannie and Simon.
Today was the last day of Phase 8 – that being the end of the 17 day Austrian bike ride from Innsbruck to Salzburg. We now have four days back in Aschaffenburg with Elfi and Horst before commencing Phase nine.
So the goal today was to get from St Gilgen down to Salzburg on a day where it was predicted to get to 26c when it actually got to 30c. The ride involved substantial up hills so Di ditched at the beginning and caught a bus back which only took 50 minutes whilst Fras headed off to do battle on his own. A photo of us squirrelling Di’s bike underneath the bus.
The bike trip for Fras was through the hills of the Sound of Music.
In total Fras has done approximately 1200k’s whilst Di has done about 900k’s. Unfortunately our taco only goes up to 999.99 and then it clicks over to zero again. It is about what we predicted that we would do. The bikes have gone well and were a good buy. We have decided we will sell Di’s bike as she is ready for an e-bike to be able to do these long distance rides and tackle the hills.
We have opted to stay close to the train station in Salzburg as we have an early morning train at 8.00am. This is the first hotel where we have had air conditioning- whoppeee!!!! Fras got in about 2.30pm and after a well deserved shower collapsed on the bed for a bit of R+R before we head out foraging for food.
We rode our bikes back into town hoping that the crowds had thinned out which they had to some degree. We came upon this free opera but in the marketplatz which was a fantastic location just below the castle.
We hung around for about half an hour to listen to the opera which was in German with German subtitles…..hmmm. Not being particularly that versed in opera we snuck out but not before capturing this great shot.
We found this fish shop that specializes in fish wraps which was just what we needed. Something light and healthy. We then hightailed it back to our air conditioned cocoon which is much appreciated tonight as it is extremely warm.
We will be off the radar until about three days whilst we train back to Aschaffenburg to monopolize Elfi and Horst’s washing machine and partake of their very kind hospitality. On our return we will commence Phase 9 which is our quick trip down to a Rodez in southern France to catch up with some good Ozzie friends Belinda and Dom.
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