Alpine Boredom!!

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After a big night of drinking and partying, we woke up this morning to get some physical activity in, as if we haven't been doing enough walking. Most people decided to just sleep in as they were too hung over to go mountain biking. I didn't think that the course would be overly strenuous, boy was I wrong. About 12 of us went over to the bike shop where we were met by about 30 others from another tour. We all got fitted for our bikes and off we went. We all rode single file along some very easy trails and along the sides of the road. The ride was very scenic with the green mountains being topped off by the clouds and fog. We passed some kind of sheep show which might be kind of cool to check out later. One of the girls from Taiwan came along for the ride and she appeared to be totally struggling. She looked to be pedaling way too much with her bike not doing much in response. Maybe she didn't have it in the correct gear. I probably should have said something, oh well. I felt really bad when I saw her fall over. After about 30-45 minutes, we reached a roadside inn where we all pulled over to catch our breaths and take some group photos. Here, we were informed that we had the option to continue on the same trail that would be shorter and more scenic but very physically demanding as it was mostly uphill. The other option was to take the short cut which was longer but more even leveled. Patrice, Suzanne, Amy, and Mar decided to take the shortcut. I kind of wanted to but decided what the heck. Despite me being out of shape, my fat ass decided to take the physically more demanding route. Not taking into account that we were already at a high elevation, I would be regretting this decision later. From our group, it was me, Clay, Kevin, Big Dave, Chris, Wendy, and Mel who decided to take the more strenuous route. At first, it wasn't too bad as it was a gradual incline through a dirt trail. However, after a few kilometers, it started to hit me that I was exhausted and tired. I just kept focused on trying to pedal and concentrated on the top of the ridge hoping that it was more easy going beyond the ridge. Getting more tired and starting to lag further behind, I just had to concentrate and stop thinking about how much pain I was in. It really does work to start thinking about something else as you don't really focus too much on the pain. Ridge after ridge and curve after curve, it was just more of the same. I was just about to die when we finally hit a rest point. Of course, I was one of the last to arrive. We all got off our bikes, walked around a bit. I tried not to sit down as this would get me more tired but I just couldn't help it. These bike seats were not ass-friendly at all. My ass was completely sore and would be for the next few days. After about a 10 minute break and the worst behind us, it was time to continue on. We were heading towards some lodge where we were to meet everyone else for our barbeque lunch...I couldn't wait!!!! After a bit more of an incline, the rest of the course was downhill along some road. The views were absolutely incredible but I didn't want to stop to take a few photos as I was still lagging far behind. I finally arrived at the lodge ready to get my grub on....Everyone else had already starting eating or were finishing up. The food was so-so but being sooo hungry, it was like the best meal ever. Back on the bikes, we all rode back together to the bike shop. Thankfully, it was all downhill and level ground from here on out. From what I heard, the entire route was about 15 miles. I still cannot believe I survived 15 miles, most of it uphill, without dying!! Back in town, nothing was open as it was a Sunday. After returning our bikes, we all just sort of walked around trying to find something to do. With nothing else scheduled for the remainder of the day, we all just sort of sat around not knowing what to do. It's kind of weird having down time being that we have been going full throttle for the past week. While sitting around waiting for a taxi to take us back to the hotel, we were able to see some of the others who had gone paragliding in the skies above us. Back at the hotel, we realized that we had left our room key inside the room and was locked out. I knocked on Amanda's door who was 3 rooms away from us to see if I could climb over their balcony over to our balcony and try to open our door. No such luck as it too was locked. I searched around for anybody who worked at this guesthouse and had a hard-time trying to find anyone. Finally, I located a maid who got someone else and was able to let us into the room. The rest of the afternoon, we just layed around, took naps and checked our e-mails. The guest house was really cold and all I felt like doing was taking a hot shower and getting in my bed. Amy and I went to check our e-mails where we ran into Cassie who informed us that she was still sick and that a doctor was coming tonight to check her out. It also turned out that the doctor was coming to see Rebecca who had developed some kind of blood clot in her leg and couldn't walk. Suzanne and Clay had come up to our room to hang out when we heard a knock on the door. It was Andrea. She had heard us chatting and came in to see what was going on. We all hung out in the room where we all shared the latest in gossip. It was good times as nothing beats gossip sharing. After dinner, there wasn't much else to do. Most people came back to the dinner room where they had set up a TV to watch some movie. About 12-14 of us decided to head over to the Silver Bullet pub over in Hopfgarten. Matt called for a shuttle and somehow we had managed to fit all of us in. People were sitting on the floor and on each other's laps. It was quite a scene. It was definitely much more of a subdued night compared to last night. We just sat around drinking beers (Vodka Tonics for me) and discussed the differences between our respective countries.

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Comments

[Ella]

Lung Busting Biking
I will be travelling to Austria at the end of the month and was interested to read about your mountain biking experience. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to getting any excercise, so imagine my horror when you said the ride was about 15 hours!! I might rethink that one or feel brave when I get there:-O This makes great reading. Thanks for the tips:-)