Can you believe it ??

We are sitting on the 3rd floor balcony high up in the Alps in the small willage of Reith. And we are still cold wearing a shirt and sweater and a jacket - what a complete change from yesterday in Vienna.
We headed west today not having any particular destination in mind - well that is not entirely true - we did want to visit the small village of Gmunden near here and stay for the night. It is also on a high flat plateau renowned for it's 3 working farms open to the public where you pay a fee and stroll around at will. Never did find the booth where we could pay and never did find a zimmer for the night so we kept driving. Ended up here at a farm/house/zimmer in the village of Reith. The calves are bawling for feed as I type. We went for a walk from one end of the village to the other thinking we might find something to eat. Went into the one restaurant that was open and asked for a salad - no food until later - not even coffee - they typically eat here after 8pm - guess after the chores are done. We did have a beautiful view down over the valley below with farms and things as tiny dots but in no time the fog rolled in and it started to rain. That's when it turned cold and very damp. Just a few serious hikers passing through town tonight otherwise it is quiet. There must be a whole lot more excitement somewhere - the 5th short train just rolled slowly past - very strange you can hear it coming for a long time and going down the tracts as well - guess the fog does that.

June 12 pictures

Hot in Vienna

Today happened to be the hottest day so far for us. The thermometer on our little Twingo read 32 C outside which if I can calculate correctly is about 94 F. We asked about staying at our zimmer for one additional night but it had already been rented out to other guests so we drove east a few km along the Danube and found a neat little zimmer operated by a sweet 80 year old lady - who looks like she milks the cows and cooks the meals and chops the wood and we did see here cutting the few patches of grass with an electric lawn mower. It is “in town” high up on the hillside right beside the RR tracks - a short 3 car train just chugged by. Boy they make use of every square inch of property. Part of their house is built under the roadway and right next to a major drain that runs down from them there mountains. It is thundering and lightning right now with buckets of rain hitting the windows. We are upstairs and it is hot so hopefully it will stop soon so we can open the windows.
We secured the zimmer this morning in the town of Schwallenbach then drove down river until we were approximately 16 km from Vienna. The last part looked like it was close to the Vienna Woods where we wanted to bike. We found the woods but they were too steep and no paths/trails that we found so we rode instead along the river toward Vienna. It is the capital city and largest city in Austria so you can imagine it is very spread out. Along the stretch where we biked was partly an industrial section with a few working class homes. During May they had almost constant rain and the Danube must have reached 15 feet above normal for many homeowners had flood junk setting out at the curb and they were in various stages of repairing the damage.
The city centre or Zentrum of Vienna was another 3 km but we just could not do it in this heat and besides we were warned to go into Zentrum only by train or bus and certainly not by car. We can say we rode along the Danube into Vienna even though we did not hit the Zentrum.
On the way back we found a MacDonalds and had a good old McChicken with fries and a good coffee.
We had planned to walk “around town” - but the rain sure put a damper on that idea.
Hey kids this dinosaur crossed the road right in front of us - we had to stop. Later they found some of his bones here.

No internet connection for last 2 days

We left Vienna yesterday and stayed overnight nearby then on the move today - on the autobahn - free internet - limited time though. We are somewhere west of Innsbruck austria looking for a zimmer. headed back across austria to switzerland and meet M&P near Interlaken on Thurs.

More later