Inn Bike Path – 15 May
We heard it raining in the night, and must has also snowed, as when we awoke the snow on the hill outside our balcony was really low. The cloud cover was also pretty low, and it was cold (around 1 degree).
Today’s ride, from Zams to Innsbruck was entirely alongside the Inn Bike Path, which follows the Inn river. It was a relatively easy ride, dropping around 200 m over 80 km. There are just enough little up hill stretches to keep you warm while riding, which was just as well as it remained quite cold the whole day.
The cloud was low most of the day, which was a pity as it obscured the tops of the mountains. However it did begin to clear up a bit towards afternoon and we could get some glimpses of the higher peaks.
At one point, near where this photo was taken, we rode past a herd of cows in a field. They were all grazing at once and the sound of their cow bells was like a loud discordant glockenspiel.
The last 30 km of the ride, after Telfs, was quite flat. Telfs was the largest town along the route, but we didn’t turn off. We were keen to stop for a rest and a coffee, but thought we would find something along the route.
There were still some interesting sights along this flat part of the route, such as this church built right at the top of a hill – I wonder how the people get to it?
We were speculating about what this contraption, up on the hill above the town of Stams was. Kris asked a local passerby and was told that it is to train for ski jumping. Evidently they can jump off these without snow. The little one is for beginners. I would love to see someone jump off these.
We were impressed by these sheer cliffs a little further on. It looks as though there is a bridge built along one side, but it looks as though it may not be in use any longer.
We stopped for a coffee and cake to warm up about 15 km out of Innsbruck, in a nice warm cafe attached to a supermarket.
We had done around 80 km when we got to Innsbruck at around 3 pm. However, we circled the town a bit looking for our accommodation in the Youth Hostel. One odd thing I noticed about Innsbruck was that the pedestrians all seem to walk around looking at their mobile phones. I noticed this around 4 or 5 times just on our short ride through the city – quite alarming if you feel they are about to walk in front of your bike.
By the time we got to the hostel, we had done 91 km. We still felt quite energised after we checked in and dropped our stuff off. We got back on the bikes and did another 14 km exploring. We had two draft beers in a cafe in the old town and bought a few things to eat.