Arrival in Austria

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When we arrive in Feldkirch Austria we get on the intercity train for Innsbruck.

The train ride is very scenic as we go by the highest mountains of our trip. There is a group of 8 retired Germans from Baden Wuerttemburg in our car. As we approach Innsbruck, the leader of the group gets out his map and cell phone in order to locate/contact their hotel. He has no luck on either front. He has been generally quite officious throughout the trip. Two local Austrians on the train proceed to help him - one phoning a friend to ask him to search on the internet. The leader of the group is very frustrated and perhaps embarassed by all this attention. Ray offers to lend him a street map of Innsbruck which the two Austrians pore over in a long attempt to help the group. Finally success. Ray then offers the leader a map of Graz (another Austrian city which he happens to have a detailed street index of) which the leader rebuffs in a painful way. Another woman in the group smiles so warmly and knowingly at Ray about the slight tease, that Ray enjoys this to some degree.
One of the two helpful Austrians recommends a campsite on the Natterersee (lake) in the hills to the south of Innsbruck and says it´s just a slight uphill but worth it for the nature. She turned out to be correct as there was a frog who joined us for dinner that night although we let him excuse himself.

Arriving in Innsbruck is somewhat of a down moment in comparison - as the rain restarts and the dark clouds hang on the mountains as evening approaches - especially coming from small town/rural Switzerland, the front of the train station is a reality inducing picture of derelicts and drug posters and people arguing - two police officers are talking to groups of young people obviously just in or out of some mischief when a man comes up to complain to the two officers about someone making a verbal assault on a nearby woman.
One of the officers is a very young and pretty woman who seems very relaxed and is letting hear colleague do the listening. So we ask her about getting to the campsite recommended to us by the nature loving Austrians in our train car. She suggests the road may be difficult but we eschew any suggestion of taking public transit at this point after sitting on the train for the afternoon.

The officer´s suggestion was a valid one. The speed limit on the road was 70km - the road has huge curves as it climbed the hills south of Innsbruck. The surface was slippery in spots. And when we came to agree with the pretty young officer, there was a billboard on the roadway stating 'Nightmare Stretch' with a picture of a helmet and blood on the pavement - don´t know if it was a general traffic safety warning or a specific one for that stretch of the road - but it did not add to the pleasure of the climb.

As we finally arrived at the campsite we had one very steep driveway to climb to the camping area. As we walked our heavily loaded bikes up the driveway our cleated shoes started sliding back on the pavement as our bikes rolled back with us. Andrew´s mood lifted though as he spotted a totem pole and two teepees nearby our eventual campsite.

We decided to take a rest day at the Natterersee (lake) campsite and stay there for two nights. Discovered there was a lovely historic street car which climbed the hill and took bicycles for free up to Natterersee.

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Photos

Arrival in Austria
1562 Tower in Feldkirch