clairedavieswriter

Well that was epic.

I’d felt very different an hour earlier, as I pedalled towards the wall of hairpins rising behind the town of Stuben:

After Guillaume’s scare stories about double-figure gradients, I was full of self-doubt. The sceptical looks from hikers waiting at a bus stop didn’t help. When their bus drove past, with cycle racks on the back, I seriously wondered whether that would have been a wiser option. I gave myself a serious talking to, and dropped Bernard into his granniest gear, trying not to look at how steep the ramps were:

But the beauty of hairpins is that they take you up a mountain incredibly quickly, and with less effort than you might think. Before I knew it, I was halfway up, looking down at the rooftops of Stuben:

And in less than half an hour all the hairpins were done. But the climbing wasn’t over yet:

Our objective was the 1,800m Arlbergpass at St Christophe am Arlberg:

Our welcoming committee was there to record the moment (and provide coffee and snacks) when we reached it half an hour later:

Without exaggeration, it was virtually all downhill from there:

Though there were times when I would rather have been climbing: I was braking so hard on this stretch that I had to stop several times to rest my hands:

And to admire the views:

Aside from conquering the pass (and my fears), today’s highlights included:

The strange sensation of freewheeling downhill into a ski resort:

And (at the risk of repeating myself) the excellent, well-signposted cycle paths:

Which carried me safely round tunnels (bikes went onto our own private forest track to the right):

Past picture-postcard alpine villages:

And beside glacier-melt rivers – this was the Inn, rushing east towards its date with the Danube at Passau:

Side note: the river Rosanna (bottom right in the picture below) that I’d followed from St Anton empties into the Inn (flowing towards me) at Landeck. If I’d followed the Inn upstream a few miles, I’d have come to the Austrian border at Schalkl where my Swiss end-to-end began last year. Are you still awake at the back?

One more thing on cycle paths (sorry): special mention to the separated lane provided for bikes on this temporary bridge while repairs were carried out on the permanent one. Cars had to wait at traffic lights, but we just sailed through:

Other highlights included passing (in the unassuming town of Pettnau am Arlberg) the official training area of the Norwegian Alpine Ski team:

And seeing a couple raking grass by hand into piles, for their adult son to fork into loose clovery stacks in the barn behind:

Speaking of traditional Austrian farming methods, can anyone tell me what these sticks are for?

They’re about 4ft long, with short horizontal sticks coming out of them. I’ve seen them hanging outside quite a few barns:

No signs of note today but my Sight of the Day was this castle, which appeared to be deep in thought. Captions in the comments please.

I confess that the legs are a little weary tonight, but I’m cheered by the prospect of a lighter day tomorrow and a rest day after that. Plus, my domestique procured my favourite Austrian refreshment: the delicious, alcohol-free, and delightfully named Almdudler, which celebrates its 50th birthday this year. Prost!