I woke up this morning feeling like I was about to get the flu and thought about staying another night. There’s not much to do here, so I decided to ride 50 fairly easy kms to Zell am See and find a BnB. That way I can have a nap and try to recover.
The other cyclists were up early and ready to go by 8am when the reception opens. They were quite late opening up, so the guys were wandering around and waiting impatiently.
I was slow and still not great after I’d eaten, so I packed up, paid and said goodbye to the German lads who rolled in late last night. They must be in their mid 20s, pack very light and somehow manage to sleep in one tiny tent. They’d ridden 187kilometres yesterday with 1900 vertical metres – a massive effort. They were unbelievably happy and positive and great to talk with.
It was another day of two halves, the downhill to halfway then an uphill and a run into Zell am See.
I stopped frequently for water and to eat so I could keep my energy levels up, but as the day wore on, it got hotter and hotter and I started to feel worse and worse.
There were a couple of long tunnels with bike paths and annoying ebikes with blindingly bright lights shing up into my eyes. It was as if they had high beam on. The ridiculous thing was that the tunnels were well lit. There was no need for any lights at all. eBikers … mmmm.
The vast vast majority of eBikers are well overweight with many of the rest being quite old. The only skinny people ride regular bikes or bio bikes as they call them in central Europe.
There’s two things here. The first is, that I love the fact that the ebikers are all out there doing these adventurous things. Without eBikes, I doubt they’d be doing anything like this. It’s really great to see. But the second and most important thing is that they are all still overweight. Full stop. So doing bike tours on ebikes probably hasn’t changed them in the same way that a regular bike would. With all of the bike infrastructure here, I just think these people could do better, but I’m sure I could too.
The funniest are the ones wearing long pants and fleece jackets on days like today – 30 degrees. I’d just love to see them get out of their comfort zone.
It was a fairly easy day and the hardest part of the day was done by the time I reached Taxenbach. I stopped here and sat at a bench under a shady trees and had some lunch. The next part followed a valley along a cycle path and finally turned and ran along the “See” part of Zell am See. It was pretty nice and shady, so I stopped again, broke out the chair and relaxed.
I got onto booking.com to find that this town is pretty expensive with not too many options. I’d find out later, that unlike places like Greece, not too many rooms are advertised on booking.com. That makes it hard for people like me, but it’s understandable as they typically pay booking.com about 25% of their fee.
I booked a room at the Pension Alpenrose, checked in and slept for the afternoon and early evening. I’d end up staying four nights in town because I felt pretty ill, but often, sleep and forced relaxation like this is a great thing in the long run.
