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Song of the Month: June

Saturday, June 21st, 2014

Song:  On the Road Again by  Willie Nelson

Why: I can’t think of a better song to describe our travels this month, and I’ve always liked it anyway.  There is a 410km (that 255 miles!) bike trail from Salzburg Austria to Grado, a beach town on the Adriatic sea in Italy. It’s called the Alpe-Adria trail.  Last year I wrote about a day trip that we rode from Villach to Venzone, but I really want to ride the entire length.  While I don’t have time to do it all at once, we decided to ride sections whenever we have a few days.  A 3-day weekend this month gave us the chance to ride from Salzburg to Spittal, 160km.  The trail initially follows the Salzach River, so it’s nice and flat, but eventually if you go south you will have to cross the Alps.  The hardest section was on day 2 with an uphill finish in Bad Gastein, but the views from the waterfall there made the struggle worthwhile.  The trail cheats a little and takes an 8km train through a tunnel, rather than climbing 1000m over the mountain.  (The train is really cool – you can drive cars onto it or bring your bike).  You are then rewarded with a very long downhill glide into the valley.

The weather was beautiful, but unfortunately the hottest weekend we’ve had all year.  A nice side benefit though, is that when you are riding all day you can eat whatever you want, including many stops for ice cream! The pace of bike touring really allows time to soak in the scenery, plus the trails and side roads that you take give a totally different view of the countryside than what you get on the highways in a car.

One of the views we were treated to as we rode up the valley:

Another “country road”… (that’s me on the right)

Song of the Month: May

Saturday, June 14th, 2014
Song:  Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand
Why:  I was looking for a Scottish band or song and didn’t want to go with the obvious:  bagpipes.  We spent the last week of May (the reason why this post is late!) in Scotland exploring the city of Edinburgh, the Isle of Skye, and the highlands.  The weather cooperated and we had several surprisingly sunny days to go on a bike ride in the Loch Lamond/Katrine area and some walks in the hills.  We also tasted a few whiskies, but I can’t say that I found one I really like…  the shortbread cookies are much more to my tastes!
Here’s Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness.  The monster didn’t show up in any of my photos!