Villach wed 2 july

A humble 8ks today many more by train retracing my tauern radweg ride and diving under the Tauern mountain through a long tunnel.

Leaving Salzburg I crossed the road to pay my respects to Constanze and Leopold her son.

I forgot to include in yesterday's log our visit to an Austrian sacred site...namely the place where in the Sound of Music Julie A and team hide behind tombs while search lights play at increasing the tension somewhat. The place is actually a  very well kept mausoleum with frescoes, wrought iron and fresh flowers. A very very old place still retaining its natural churchyard feel unlike the cimitaires of Paris. And a little hard to place in the S of M context which seemed far more menacing.

While talking WWII I watched today as a small brass plate was inlaid into the pavement. Everyone had gathered around to hear a dignified older gent speak about the details inscribed upon it. The plaque among others in Salzburg  remembers Jewish people taken away during the war outside their previous homes. A noble deed which makes me think very well of the Austrian nation.

Then off to the haupt-banhoff to wait 3 hours for the next train that would be able to carry my bike. A monitor alerted me to the correct end of the train with the cyclists carriage and I was able to sit inside another for 2 hours comfortably talking to a young couple (a psych nurse and a forester turned wardsman) returning home from a sojourn in Iceland where currently the sun sets at 11pm and rises unaturally early.

I've found some Europeans have a strange version of down under.....we have killer creatures....snakes... spiders crocs....or.....everywhere is beach... or.....hot and sunny all the time.....or everyone drives cars there are few cyclists because towns are few and far between. Many people have stories of New Zealand as a holiday destination or Thailand rather than Aus.

Alight at Villach and am guided to a friendly international youth hostel. It's only 4pm so conscious this my only time ever in Villach I tour the old town (commonly cobbled bits) and pay €2 to ascend 239 narrow wooden steps to the top of the local church once obviously a donjon. The splendid panorama is worth it all but my calves are still warm. I am now working to accomplish Zoncolan near Udine on the Alpe Adria trail and then as I'm unsure of pistae cyclable to Rome....might be on the Ferrovia more. If I can be in Rome by 27 July I can have a beeroffee with my friends L and L also from Canberra.

Then I will consider returning home a bit early as my retirement celebration journey will have reached its peaks and the new life at home beckons. I miss the hot dry days and the happy birds and the newcomer little dog and the multitudinous chooks and the broad accent and everything everyone home sometimes. Then I remember that adventures start and end there but force one in between to become vulnerable to many extraneous things. Growth spiritual and mental only comes through entropy. I need sometimes to be vulnerable to change rather than setting its limits in my life. Hence a cycling holiday is by far the best way in my opinion to embrace new cultures and learn something new.