A Short Ride
August 30, 2018
No mountain panoramas this morning - the sky is grey and the peaks are hidden in the clouds, rain is predicted. It's not raining yet when we have breakfast, but the forecast says at 10 o'clock. Hope they're wrong.
When we are ready to leave after breakfast, it's still not raining. So instead of going to the train station, we just hit the road. The first kilometers aren't on the busy road and we find fun things to take pictures of and are just feeling good. When we do reach Highway 159, it is true there is no shoulder and there is fast traffic, but we have a bike path! So glad we are pedaling! And where was Pass Lueg? That didn't seem like much of a pass and inspite of the low clouds, the scenery is stunning.
Unfortunately, the path doesn't go on forever, as a matter of fact it soon ends. And punctually at 10 the rain starts. We have our jackets on the ready and can get into them just in time before it starts to bucket down. Now it's heads down, stick to the edge of the road and pedal. We encounter several construction sites with flaggers letting traffic through one-way at either end. That is good for us, except when we can't quite get through before the traffic starts coming from the other direction. We pedal madly and hope they will be considerate.
Fortunately, we didn't book in advance. When we reach Werfen, we are able to get a room in a small hotel on the main square. We can't check in immediately, but after an hour our room is ready. I am very happy that we have no time limits for this trip. We can afford to sit out the bad weather and wait for it to clear up. I really don't want to miss any part of this bike path by riding in the rain.
When we are ready to leave after breakfast, it's still not raining. So instead of going to the train station, we just hit the road. The first kilometers aren't on the busy road and we find fun things to take pictures of and are just feeling good. When we do reach Highway 159, it is true there is no shoulder and there is fast traffic, but we have a bike path! So glad we are pedaling! And where was Pass Lueg? That didn't seem like much of a pass and inspite of the low clouds, the scenery is stunning.
Unfortunately, the path doesn't go on forever, as a matter of fact it soon ends. And punctually at 10 the rain starts. We have our jackets on the ready and can get into them just in time before it starts to bucket down. Now it's heads down, stick to the edge of the road and pedal. We encounter several construction sites with flaggers letting traffic through one-way at either end. That is good for us, except when we can't quite get through before the traffic starts coming from the other direction. We pedal madly and hope they will be considerate.
Fortunately, we didn't book in advance. When we reach Werfen, we are able to get a room in a small hotel on the main square. We can't check in immediately, but after an hour our room is ready. I am very happy that we have no time limits for this trip. We can afford to sit out the bad weather and wait for it to clear up. I really don't want to miss any part of this bike path by riding in the rain.
We're on our way - maybe we'll have luck with the weather?
Along the way
The warm weather has produced bumper crops.
Scratching a living
This doesn't look so bad - we have a bike path!
A tunnel just for us - I love bicycle tunnels!
Fast forward to the end of the day. The previous pictures were taken at 9:50, at 10:00 the rain came. The next pictures I took were either from our hotel window or on our walk in the evening after the rain had let up.
View from our hotel window
Now some shots with my retro lens - nobody likes it except me - where you get a strange blur.
Hanging sign for milliner Zapf
Shooting flowers and windows in Werfen
Same in blue
A sunset might have been nicer.
Here's what Wikipedia has to say: Hohenwerfen Castle (German: Festung Hohenwerfen) is a medieval rock castle, situated on a 623 metres (2,044 ft) precipice overlooking the Austrian market town of Werfen in the Salzach valley, approximately 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Salzburg. Hohenwerfen is a "sister" of Hohensalzburg Fortress, both built by the Archbishops of Salzburg in the 11th century. (I'm again using the "funny" lens.)