September Holiday - Eigth Day

Our last full day in Austria was the 15th of September, and the warmest day of what had been a series of sunny days. We borrowed bikes from our hotel, and after getting some quick advice from the kind lady at reception, decided on a path along the river Gail, designed specifically for cycling.

View from our room just before 8:00

The first miles were so easy we just happily trundled along in the sunshine, enjoying the beautiful views, fresh air and the fact that we did not have to compete with cars and walkers but had the path largely to ourselves, only every now and then encountering other cyclists.

A few times, the path lead through picturesque villages, but mostly it was along the river

Looking back towards where our hotel is, on the slope of the mountain.

O.K. had been in the area before and remembered a place with a cable car and a summer toboggan run. We saw road signs for it and agreed that it would to be fun to go up there by cable car and go down by toboggan.

There was hardly anyone about at the cable car station in the valley. We paid for our tickets and had one cable car to ourselves. This was not the kind of open chair lift that I've shown you before, and taking photos out of the cabin was not feasible with the reflection of the cabin windows (and the dirt on them), but there were going to be plenty of photo opportunities once we were up there.

We remained on board all the way up to the highest point of the cable car, and then spent some time looking and walking around. The cross is at a height of 1,909 m, the peak is called Matritschn.

It was very touristy up there, as it usually is when a place is both beautiful and made easily accessible.

The toboggan run is designed so that you sit on a "toboggan" (like a small cart without wheels, just one person at a time) and it runs on a fixed rail, you can not choose your own route or go wrong or fall off. It is a lot of fun, and I would have loved to do it again instantly, after initially I had been (needlessly) worried a little about how I was going to fare. (Sorry - no pictures - I needed both my hands to hold fast.)
By now, we were in need for something refreshing and some caffein, and cycled a few miles more into the small town of Hermagor, where we had ice coffee at a café in the sun. This was most welcome, as we had been on our bikes for about 30 km then.

Going back the 30 km to our hotel was really demanding - the cycling path goes uphill ever so slightly; you can't really see it, but your legs will know it, especially after you have already been cycling in the sun all day! We still made it back to the hotel in time for a quick trip to the sauna before dinner. I guess it goes without saying that I slept like a log that night!