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Day 4 - Tuesday 28 June
I came to the conclusion that the Germans do the best continental breakfast in the Waldblick this morning: not just muesli, but a choice of 4 different mueslis, with lots of different seeds & dried fruit to "pimp your breakfast", as well as fresh fruit, an orange juicer and the usual cheese & ham. Coffee, however, should be left to the Italians ...
My route from Schenkenzell to my overnight stop in Austria took me along Lake Constance (Bodensee). The first of many beautiful lake & mountain combinations this trip. I rode past many vineyards & orchards - I find the sight of orchards strangely reassuring. The world may be going to hell in a handcart, but it feels less the case when surrounded by trees covered in cherries or apples. I stopped at a roadside fruit stall somewhere near Hagenau (oddly enough, next to a biker bar with a Monster for sale outside) and munched my way through the smallest punnet of cherries I could find (which was probably 1kg)! Vitamin karma after the fried fish & cake yesterday.
Heading into Austria, I stopped to buy the talismanic vignette (for motorway riding) on the basis that if I have one, I won't accidentally find myself on the motorway and needing it. Seeing the mountains and chalets, strangely, the theme music from a childhood Heidi TV show was running through my head. (Yes, I know that was set in Switzerland ...) It worries me the garbage that my brain retains, which has no doubt stopped some useful work-related knowledge from sticking.
I'd booked a room at the hotel Enzian in Landeck, part of a group of Tyrolean hotels who market themselves as "let's bike together" at the Birmingham bike show. However on arrival, I was told by the dirndl-clad blonde they had overbooked, had no room for me, that "I'd have to cancel" but that the Mozart hotel over the road had a room. I queried why no-one had told me before, and a feeble excuse about not phoning due to "pronunciation difficulties" was made. My suspicion was that I'd been bumped by someone joining the official BMW test ride group operating out of the Enzian.
I therefore trudged over the road to the Mozart, not a happy bunny and checked in. The hotel had a secure underground car park, the room was ok, although the hotel muzak was 70s & 80s cheese (not, I don't know, Mozart) and the decor rather 80s cheesy as well.
After a shower I wandered into Landeck, looking for dinner. The town is strung out along a railway line, road and the river Inn, and my hotel was at one end. The town seemed strangely quiet, the Donau Chimie chemical plant in the centre didn't exactly improve the view, and I'm sure that political poster I passed was for the worryingly popular far right party. It was odd: while normally in life I'm a pessimist, solo travel often brings out a glass-half-full side. Not tonight. How does the song go: "People are strange, when you're a stranger, faces look ugly, when you're alone ...."?
Having not found anywhere inspired, and not fancying a late walk back along the main road, I retreated to my hotel, and the restaurant there. Far from the happening biker filled place I'd hoped to be eating in, it felt like the sort of place a pensioners' coach tour would end up, and worse, there was only a set menu with no marked price. However, the hotel person was able to translate enough for me to see that the 5 courses did sound vaguely edible (even for fussy me), and on checking out the next morning, the bill was pleasingly low. Including a bland Austrian lager, dinner can't have been much over 15 Euros.
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