Day 9
Today was going to be a big day. We were going to ride from
Austria heading south east to Italy. We would then circle round back through
Austria then into Germany. The day’s ride would have been just over two hundred
miles, covering some beautiful roads, valleys and passes.
However I changed the plans for the day at the last minute. I
had planned the whole trip and with prior knowledge I had worked in a couple of
rest days, a couple of days where we didn’t have to ride too far if we didn’t
want to. I felt today was one of those days as the weather was forecast to be
at least 33, but we saw the temperatures soar up to 36. This would be an ideal day to take a break
and have some fun. When planning the rest days I had also looked for things to
do, and I knew there was an adventure park in the mountains. I also knew that
the park had the longest toboggan ride (alpine coaster) in the Alps.
After packing up the cars and bike and saying good bye to
the baby bunnies and our animal clad hotel, we made our way to Hoch-Imst where
we would spend the day. The car park was empty when we arrived, but the views
were stunning and the sky was blue.
We brought some tickets for the whole family and took mum up
to the top on a chair lift up, the views just got better and better, we passed
over mountain meadows, pasture and cows until we got to the top where the
alpine coaster started. We then took a toboggan each apart from Ian, my brother,
who shared one with my mum and we rode down the mountain. It was excellent,
whizzing through the pine trees and meadows, hurtling down the side of the
mountain. Well boys being boys we went back to the top again and Hannah can
along with us while Mum and Sue enjoyed a rest and drink.
After our second ride we joined the others for a drink. My wife’s
slush ice drink was in a dubious looking palm tree. We had ice cream and
enjoyed the sun. Martin had a go on the electric trials bike which he decided
to get over confident on and decided to crash, which led to a minor graze and a
bruised ego. There were also push bikes and sedgeways to use if you wanted and
mountain walks.
We had had a lovely relaxed morning and decided to leave to
do the, approximately 40 mile ride to our next hotel at the Neuschwanstein Castle. It was only around
lunch time and the temperature had already reached 35.5 degrees.
Once sorted we did the short ride to the next hotel arriving
about mid-afternoon. We had a very lovely day and in a very hot late afternoon we
walked around the village and lake at the bottom of a stunning and beautiful
castle.
We found a nice restaurant and ate outside enjoying the evening views
and as the evening turned into dusk the warmth that we had been enjoying throughout
the day brought the sound of thunder over the mountains, but we were fortunate
and nothing came of it. We then did a little shopping on our way back to the
hotel. I think that I had eaten more ice cream this one week than, I have in my
entire life time. The hotel was lovely and clean with beautiful views of the mountains
and castles. I could not wait now until tomorrow, so we could go and explore.
