The Alps are REALLY REALLY BIG

Boy oh boy, the Swiss Alps are big and unforgiving! It has been a tough but beautiful couple of weeks. From cycling along rivers to cycling over HUGE mountains. The Swiss Alps proved to be a much more daunting than expected. (at least for Sherry)



Where do we begin.....the day we left Bad Ragaz we knew that we had a big day of mountains ahead of us. The sky was cloudy but somewhat dry, just an occational sprinkle. The route seemed fairly easy to follow and we were enjoying the beauty of the surrounding mountains. Several short but very steep hills later the route (Swiss Nat'l route #6) changed to an unpaved road. Normally not such a problem but with 2 weeks of rain the surface was less than accomodating for the touring bikes. But the alternative was the busy autoroute with cars going 80miles an hour.



Bob was throughly enjoying the challenge but as the day went on and the hills got steeper I grew weary. One hill was so steep that Bob had to push his bike up. It was so steep that I had to wait for Bob to come back and help me push my bike up to the top.



Close to the top we came to Klosters Platz which is where we put our bikes on a train to take us through the mountain! The mountain is so steep at that point that they just punched a hole right through it. We were told that on the otherside it would be all downhill to Innsbruck!



They lied!!!!! We got off the train and were greeted with yet another big climb. With the rain coming down and the day growing short it proved to be just too much for me. We finally made it to the little mountain village of Guarda only to be faced with cobblestone streets and even steeper roads! I had a melt down right in the middle of climbing up main street. Poor Bob he didn't know what to do. I made it to the top of the hill parked my bike and walked over to a field and had a good old fashion cry. Bob in the mean time went to the first chambers he saw and booked us a room!



A nice warm bath a glass of wine, and a short walk in the mountain meadow and all was better. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant in town and slept well.

The morning got off to an interesting start. We locked ourselves out of our room. Now normally that would not be a big problem. Well the chambers we were staying in was built in 1740! The lock on the door was probably from the 1800's one of those big skeleton type keys and it was the ONLY key! A locksmith had to be called and he had to go back to his shop to make a special tool to get the door open. ARGH! And of course the owner spoke NO english in fact she only spoke Romansch which is kinda like German but a little different.

So this is the neat part of the story. Here we are in this really little village at the top of the Swiss Alps and we hear about this woman who was born there who moved to Reno, Nevada as a child but had moved back and runs the tourist office in the next village. So I got her number from the man at the restaurant. I called her, she talked to the chambers owner for us and explained that we were NOT going to pay for the locksmith and that it was foolish for her not to have a spare key or to at least have a sign on the door explaining the key situation! All worked out well we got into the room (finally) and then cycled to the next Village of Ardez where we met Theresa Grey from Reno, Nevada. She invited us to her home for coffee. When she took us out to her deck to sit and relax I was just amazed to see dragonfly ornaments decorating the deck. It was truly an amazing moment for me. For those of you who don,t know, dragonfly's are a special symbol for me and let me know that I am being watched over by a very special angel. So to find a woman from Reno in the middle of the Swiss Alps and she too has a special understanding of dragonfly's was pretty special!

From that day forward we have been blessed with warmer weather and sunnier skies. Innsbruck was really beautiful and very cool to see all the stuff from the olympics.

So how did we end up in Germany and then Salzburg? Well once in Innsbruck we headed east towards Slovenia. We started climbing up a really really steep mtn. About halfway up we stopped and asked ourselves if we really wanted to be doing this agian. The answer was no! So we turned around and returned to the Inns River where we could cycle along the bike path along the Inns River with the sun shinning and a gradual downhill grade. We stayed on the Inns for the next 2 days and found ourselves in Rosenheim, Germany. In the Bavarian region of Germany it is surrounded by mountains but we found a bike route through a valley and over just a few smaller mountains that would take us to Salzburg. We enjoyed one night in Germany and then rode to back to Austria where we are now.

We had met other cycle tourists who mentioned that Salzburg is a beautiful city. They were right! It is the birthplace and home of Mozart. Also the place of the story of the Von Trapp family from the sound of music. We have spent the last 2 days enjoying staying in a hotel and exploring all that Salzburg has to offer. Yesterday we took a cable car to the 1853m ummit of Untersberg Mtn. Talk about feeling like your on top of the world! We visited Mozarts home, rode the oldest Funicular in Austria (built in 1892) to Hoensalzburg Fortress. Today we visited the Abbe where Maria Von Trapp lived. This was really amazing. The Abbe is not open to the public because it remains an active abbe but the church was open. When we went in the church we just happen to be there at the same time the nuns were singing their daily chants! It was truly a wonderful experience and gave me goose bumps.

Tomorrow we take a train to Ljubljana, Slovenia! From that point in Slovenia it should only take us a few good riding days to get to Croatia. It is all very exciting and we are looking forward to this next adventure in what has already been truly an amazing trip.

Bob & Sherry

P.S. We down loaded many new pictures!!!!!