Today was a day of transition to the next stage of our trip. We checked out of Pension Seelos and moved our baggage train to Gästhaus Neuwirt which is close to the Edelweiss Bike Tours. Beginning with a meeting tonight, we’ll prepare for our week on the road. All that riding gear we lugged from home is getting put to use.
We headed out for a couple hours of riding south and west of Mieming. We rode by a couple of pretty and rather secluded mountain lakes near Kühtai. (You can Google it if you like.)
The roads were perfect for riding and seemed pretty comfortable to some of the larger farm animals around, too. We met two very pretty brown draft horses clopping their way up the middle of the road. Fortunately, they left us enough room to scoot gently by. No one, animal or human, was overly tense so this must be a fairly common occurrence in this predominantly agricultural area.
A bit later, we rode by some substantial leavings in the road that were both abundant and distinctly aromatic. Sure enough, we came to the source: a half dozen cows lounging and frolicking (?) about the roadway. Real free range cattle! Unlike our encounter with a herd of cattle in Colorado on our tour in 2017, the cows weren’t alarmed. No one seemed put out. We all just eased on by each other while trying to dodge the bigger road apples.
We stopped for cake and coffee then started back toward Meiming. A little shopping for incidentals was important. Most stores and businesses are closed Sundays and we didn’t want to miss stocking up on snacks.
And here we are.
A last note. We had a question about border controls. Based on the Schengen Agreement, 26 European nations have open border agreements. It’s as easy to travel from France to Germany as it is from NJ to Pennsylvania. While staying in Austria these past few days, we had lunch in Austria, Germany and Italy. I find it’s still difficult to wrap my head around the fact that we move easily between different countries, sometimes without even noticing.
Wandering Retirees 