Thursday 3rd September Cycling around the lake

To my slight surprise the LLW suggested that I (and she) needed more training for the Ride and Stride event on the Saturday on our return and that we should cycle round the lake the opposite way to our normal route and then back again.   she explained that we would stop in St Gilgen to finish the first round trip and To start the return which means that she does not have to cycle (walk the bike,) up two rather steep hills to get out of Furberg.  

 

Anyway I was definitely up for the challenge which I expected to be in the region of 30 miles in total and far more than the LLW has done on a normal bike to date (15 bring about the longest). 

 

 

The weather was reasonable sunny as we set off on the boat from Furberg to Reid Frankenstein which is the one bit of the lake which you have to do by boat and the plan was to do this at the beginning of the first leg and at the end of the second leg.   All went well  and we arrived in St Gilgen  and stopped for two cappuccinos and a waifer bar which we thought was just the right level of sustenance needed.    

We were about to start the journey back when we found that the LLW had a flat back tyre.  A quick change of plan saw us take the boat from St Gilgen to Furberg and our hotel where we were delighted to find  they had a spare bike which we swapped and off we went again.  However, this did mean tackling the two hills out from Furberg and even I found them tough.  

 

Once over those, the LLW was in good form and we cycled to St Gilgen and on to the Abersee part of the lake using the Seeweg  where given the delay and the forecast of impending rain, we had agreed to take a rain check as to how much further we would go.   The LLW proposed that we continue into Strobl at the other end of the lake and then see what we felt like.  At Strobl, we decided that the slightly sore "rears" needed a rest and given the convenient timings we took the boat almost right back down the lake to Furberg .  In total we had covered about 24 miles and we still have the twice around the lake challenge for another day.  

 

As we got back to our room the rain began, so we felt we had timed the trip to perfection. 

 

There is something very satisfying about cycling in such beautiful countryside and of course it burns up the calories ( or so we tell ourselves)