Day 6 of riding (9 of trip)
85k ~ 53 miles - 10 hours
Today we made it to Austria. After waking up in a dry (!!!!!) tent despite torrential rains we packed up camp and got onto riding. Since I’ve been making dad take in more sights we stopped at the “bunker museum” — the sign was spray painted on the path (this should have been a hint). We schlepped our bikes over some train tracks and walked through a field to two bunker / pillboxes from WWII. We were hoping we’d be able to go inside but to no avail. Dad stood up top looking for the enemy but his neon yellow shirt must have scared them off……
Today we actually had sun, a rarity on this trip. A beautiful day through vineyards and acres and acres of sunflowers just past peak. If we had been here 3-4 weeks earlier the flowers would have been amazing. Coming to the Austrian border it was clear how things have changed with the creation of the European Union. No checkpoint no border guards. Also there is a stark contrast between the wealth of Austria and CR simply based on its infrastructure. I do think we will miss the small towns and simplicity thought. A great thing about Austria is the immense bike trail network. Couldn’t be better. Today was the first day I’ve really had any major muscular problems — my right calf was really bothering me as well as my lower back. Glad we are almost to some days off. Austria is famous for its wine so we pedaled through many vineyards and even snuck some grapes to eat with or lunch. We saw a forest we were aiming for on the map to camp and somehow it seemed to take forever to get there. We could see it in the distance and the last 5-10 k were brutal! Our "flat" map included a steep end of day climb and downhills were optical illusions as we didn't seem to coast. We ended up camping down a dirt path which seemed to be a logging operation and weren’t bothered despite being fairly close to a very loud road. Today I bought Nutella to mix things up from our normal salami/ cheese./ mustard sandwiches. Yum!!