Hello everyone!

I thought perhaps it was time for another email/photo update. I’ve been meaning to email for a while, but I seem to always get into bed at night and fall asleep instead of staying up to type. That and the fact we’ve been staying in the tiniest of Austrian towns and when you ask about internet they just laugh at you and shake their heads. Oh the bother of all this traveling…

Anyway this first picture is of probably the absolute best hotel buffet breakfast that ever exsisted. It was while we were staying in Kirchberg and this was only one small corner of the breakfast display, but probably my favorite. Any grain, nut, seed it was there in a cute little glass bowl waiting to be scooped up and eaten, right there along side Cocoa pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch…my personal fav. This table is a nightmare for those who potentially suffer from anaphylactic reaction due to nuts, but for me, a dream.

Beside it was an equally impressive arrangements of meats, cheeses (approx. 7-10 different kinds of each) pickled anything, and an assortment of misc. spreads, all of which were labeled in German, creating too many “unknown factors” for my comfort level, therefore I ingested not one “spread”. Then we had the bread table, who knew they made that many breads, and then the egg, veggie, fruit and jam table. It was great. I LOVED it!!!

This is yet another photo of the Schwartzsee (Black Lake), and me doing my intensive training for the upcoming triathlon. I really feel like my technique here will definitely give me an edge over the other competitors. Yes, yes I do.

Yesterday brought us to Krimml, Austria a little town somewhere in Austria. I wouldn’t be able to point it on a map if you asked me too. It is small and Austrian, this is what I know of it. 

 Thankfully it was warm and got sunny so not only did we not completely freeze due to soaking, but it made many many rainbows appear all over.

Here we have our latest “Gasthaus” (guesthouse) where we are staying, which is almost directly across the street from the falls and is very sweet. Our bedroom is on the very top level, and I have been happily deadheading the petunias along my balcony this evening. Hans, the owner of the house, collects crystals that he finds and herds sheep. If only I spoke just a touch more german, or he spoke just a hair more english, I would have approximately 1000 more questions for him. As it stands he directed us to a fantastic pizzeria. It truly is amazing though how much communicating one can do without a common language. Ask Ryan, he is getting fantastic at charades. I also got to see my first firefly here tonight and perhaps the largest frog in existence. The frog was cute but the fireflies were amazing. I LOVE those little guys, so unassuming in their non-glowing state…

These last two pictures are from the GrossglocknerStrasse. The Grossglockner is a very very high peak in Austria, I do not want to mislead by saying the highest, but I’m leaning that direction. And the GrossglocknerStrasse is the CRAZY road leading up to it. The view points were amazing and the road was ridiculous. Motorcycles loved it and there were so many crazy cyclists going up, I can’t imagine how hard it would have been. There were road bikes with no granny gears, and mtn. bikes loaded down with panniers. I’ll have to find the stats on how far and how high, but it was very very far, and very very high and steep (some of the signs suggested a 10% grade). Of course with all of my fantastic-o training I have been doing for my triathlon, it would have been a breeze for me. Obviously.

Here is just a small sampling of the road. It zigged and zagged and wiggled all through the Alps and was nutty. I loved it and was terrified all at once. Watching the cyclists whiz down at ridiculous speeds right into the tightest of all switchback corners, made me highly anxious. Ryan at one point had to turn his head and he refused to watch.

So there we have it a little update in the going-ons of Austria. They aren’t the best of pictures, but they tell the story I suppose. Tomorrow we are off to find internet and Salzberg. I am now going to spend the rest of my night determining a way to convince two young men (Ryan and Mark) on why they should spend their afternoon at the Sound of Music sights.

 

I hope you are all doing wonderfully. Enjoy your summer!

 

Lots of love to you all!

Caryn

 

Caryn and I quickly overcame jetlag, and have settled in to our home for the next five nights in Kirchberg, Austria. By the way, the trick for dealing with jetlag is as follows: Lets say you arrive at 10am in the morning, in Munich, after traveling for about 16 hours, and dealing with an 8 hour time change. The trick is to keep your eyes open during the remaining first day and refrain from taking a nap (which surely would last a number of hours). Once it’s evening time, say 9pm, then go to sleep, and you’ll sleep beautifully for at least 8 or 9 hours and be good to go the next day….on with the story….

So we spent our first two nights in downtown Munich, exploring the city, drinking tea, eating ice-cream (the temperature was about 26 Celsius), and randomly meandered the walking only streets in the city center (much like Whistler Village only way bigger).

The first thing that struck me about Munich (much like many European cities) was the huge number of cyclists. It’s an official stat that 25% of the residents of Munich commute to work by bicycle, incredible!! My question is whether the positive effects of riding so much counter-balance the negative effects of all the heavy drinking and smoking going on?! I was psyched that there is no smoking allowed inside restaurants anymore, and that goes for all public indoor spaces, including Backstage Werk, the venue for the Xavier Rudd concert we went to last night; it was AWESOME! Perhaps this uber talented Australian is not as famous in Germany as back home in BC (where his wife is from) judging by the size of venue, but the fans attending sure were genuine and psyched. The real beauty this intimate venue was to see up close details and facial expressions during the performance. I love Xavier, what can I say.

I’ll be setting up for my first show tomorrow in Kitzbuhel for the KitzAlp Bike Festival, and look forward to riding with Thomas Ohler again. We explored this adorable mountain village today, and are excited to spend the next four days in the area.  Hopefully the weather holds strong, it was over 30 degrees Celsius today, and the heat was beat by swimming in a lake surrounded by views of the Alps, NICE!!

The dinnertime show was a thunderstorm where the rumble didn’t stop for over ten minutes, not even a breather, much like Xaviers didgeridoo skills; perhaps the amphitheater of mountains surrounding us was the reason.

Here’s an amusing photo that Caryn took today in Kitzbhuel, no disrespect, just a bit of a language thing I guess! (look to the writing on the wheelbarrow)

Hope you’re all well, peace…

 

Ryan Leech