15 August 2014
Bruck to Lofer, Austria (33 miles; Total = 725 miles)

We’re passing through the town of Saalfelden, about halfway through our planned ride for the day, when we start noticing that all of the stores are closed. It’s not Sunday, last I checked, so what is going on here? Stopping a gal on the street, Gina asks her if it’s a holiday. Yes, she says, and then something about Christmas which made no sense. I mean, Australia holds Christmas in July because it’s cold out (which is weird enough) but Austria’s in the Northern Hemisphere so why the heck would they celebrate Christmas in August? Obviously we’re misunderstanding something, but what we do understand is that the only thing worse than Sundays in Europe are unexpected holidays. Need to eat? Good luck with that.

But there is a stroke of luck coming and just in the nick of time. While we aimlessly pedal around this town of Saalfelden, having lost the route signs and our tempers, what do we see but the Golden Arches, brightly lit from within, teeming with others like us who haven’t properly planned ahead. I’m sure my arteries are groaning under the weight of two burgers in two days, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Thank you, McDonalds, for upholding the American way of never, ever closing, even on random holidays in Austria.

Energized by burger-fed fat and cholesterol, we refuse to give up on The Route That Cannot Be Found and instead ride our bicycles up sidewalks and busy roads until at last we see a town name that is actually on our map and voila, back on the route we ride. We refuse to give up because we are headed to Lofer, a super cute small village in the Austrian Alps that we visited on our inaugural bike tour back in 2006. Will it be just as cute as we remember? Well, that’s like asking if Austria has random holidays in August. The answer, obviously, is You Bet.