11 August 2014
Kostendorf to Eugendorf, Austria (17 miles; Total = 612 miles)

Today we’re singing Happy Birthday in the rain because it’s my birthday and it’s raining. This isn’t typically the case, my birthday being in August and all and us being in the Northern Hemisphere, but clearly we have hit Austria during an untimely wet summer.

But you know what’s wet in a good way? Pools. I swam in one this afternoon. Unlike the pool of my wet-weather gear from earlier today, the hotel pool was like an oasis in the desert except in the Alps. Well, not all the way in the Alps but getting closer to the Alps, provided we can find our way there. If this morning’s ride is any indication, we won’t. Seventeen miles over the course of 3 hours may be a new all-time low. But when route signs disappear and rain starts and stops and you find yourself sitting out another shower at the local bus stop, waving at the dump truck driver with a nameplate that says “Tom” and Tom waving back, eating your dry bread and cheese sandwich, waiting for those dark clouds to release their next round, all the while contemplating how you’ll word that Craigslist ad for your panniers because you are DONE, done with them, done with bike touring, done with poorly signed routes, done with this whole sloppy mess, then finding one’s way can take longer than usual.

Finding today’s room, though, took less than the usual amount of time. More rain falling, Salzburg on the horizon and us not wanting to navigate through there on this drippy afternoon, and the sight of two nice-looking hotels on the outskirts of town had us throwing up the gravel as we applied the gritty brakes and opting to stay. This suite with a pool is outside the budget but I say Happy Birthday To Me and pour me another Weissbier please, I’m staying for a few more laps.