friendly neighbours
Wednesday, 28 July 2010 14:32
Reto
german language, european mountain roads, bicycle pathes, barbecue with world cup live broadcastings, summit walks… it felt like being home already. in our neighbour country a lot of things really felt very familiar. it was nice getting closer and closer to our homecountry and feel the progress of getting closer.now, as we were back in rich western europe we were wondering whether we would face the same hospitality which we had experienced all over the world. in austria the answer was definitely yes. while cyling in new zealand reto met a cycling austrian couple. in vienna we could stay in their flat in ‘district 16’. by bicycle this was not far from the town center. so it came in very handy using the pushbike to explore the inner city center. on our way to graz we were lucky to meet people who happened to have the same (rare) surname as martina. naturally we could stay with them. it was like finding family away from home. definitely an incredible experience. in the beautiful city of graz we met another familiar face again. we had met guenther on nz’s south island and had spent some wonderful days together. now in graz we went hiking together and of course we had to watch the final games of the 2010 world cup. the day with guenther passed by too quick and once again we found ourselves on our bicycles.we decided to follwo the river ‘drau’. there was a bicycle path following the river all the way to ‘südtirol’ (italy). it was absolutely magic and while cycling in austria we were lucky to have wonderful hot weather. a lot of people were complaining (in switzerland and austria it’s either too cold or too hot) but after 17 months our bodies were used to cope with hot temperatures and we kept on cycling even though it was some 37°C. we enjoyed the heat and went for a swim in the river, in a lake or in the fountain if necessary.from südtirol we cycled over the brennerpass to innsbruck. thanks to warmshowers.org we could stay with helena which was great. we spent a couple of days in innsbruck before following the river ‘inn’ to finally reach the swiss border in a town called ‘martina’. so there we were. martina and reto in martina where the people speak r(a)eto-rumantsch. good way to come home after 17 months and around 17’000 kilometres on the road. at that very moment there weren’t any special feelings. there was still our fully packed bicycles so it felt like before: on the road as travellers.
