Watch my Relive video here!: https://www.relive.cc/view/vevYoA5JWJ6
We start the morning in a holding pattern as another member of the Cycletooth Army has tested positive for Covid…this brings the total number of riders to 5. On a good note, Sarah received a negative PCR test and has rejoined the group!….the other 3 who have been in isolation in Lienz will take the train and meet us in 2 days time. So we hopefully ride out of Ramsau at 9:30, over an hour later than our usual start time.
Sam and Enrico have been excellent in their attempts to stay on top of the crazy logistics of dealing with this Covid situation, while still moving forward with the tour…we couldn’t be in better hands! We are testing each morning, masking and sitting at individual tables at breakfast and dinner.
Today’s Ride
The route today will be a little less climbing, only about 3,500 ft with length of 108km through the Stria region, but because we are in Austria, some of that climbing will be steep, in double digits!. We started out with a 12 km descent meandering through small villages, all beautifully displaying overflowing flower boxes.
As we were heading into eastern Austria, a lot of the churches have an ‘onion’ spire which is a sign of Eastern European orthodox religion.
Coffee was in a cute little village… FullSizeRender
Lunch was in a pretty park setting in Admont, just beside the famous Benedictine Abbey. It has the largest volume of eccliastical books, larger than that of the Vatican. It was built in 1074 but a fire in 1865 destroyed the abbey except for the library and its precious book collection. We checked it out after lunch as we only had 25 km to ride to our hotel. So Admont was a pretty famous place for its high level of education and centre of learning…who knew?
Continuing riding through rural Austria
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Our destination for today is the Scloss Kassegg, a castle/hunting lodge in the Strian Gesause mountainns, built in the mid 1800’s. It was built by Bavarian King Ludwig II’s architect, known for the building of the Neuschwwanstein castle in Bavaria.
Life is good in St Gallen, hoping for another negative rapid test tomorrow!
Tour Update: The Cycletooth Army has been hurt bad by Covid and has dropped farther behind Richard and Team Plantagenet, but we feel we will make up ground tomorrow.