Villach - Deviating from the Drau - Poking Around Europe 5.0

September 25, 2018

Villach - Deviating from the Drau

Spittal to Villach

We were the only people at breakfast this morning in the Hacienda Mexicana and were treated like royalty by the breakfast guy. He had very little English but a good sense of humour (we think) and for some reason thought it was odd that I had come down before Keith. Didn’t he realize a girl needs her coffee? He kept cracking jokes that neither of us really understood but it was so much fun anyway. He made us a marvellous breakfast too.

Next stop was the Krankenhaus (hospital) to see about getting the stitches out. We had made an attempt, but couldn’t manage it, lacking the proper tool. They were so tight and buried and we needed, as Dr. Keith put it, a seam ripper. I headed in while Keith watched the bikes, and it was going to be a two to three hour wait. We just shook our heads and decided to try again in Villach.

Keith entertained himself taking arty hospital photos.

We decided to deviate from the Drau to go and see the lake nearby. We chose the dedicated cycle path on the west side of the lake. It was a great cycle path, no cars, but we didn’t get the views we were hoping for. We think the east side might have been more interesting in retrospect, but don’t know because we didn’t do it. We rode right by the more obvious way to get over the big hill between us and the Drau cycle path, and rather than turn around the ever creative CN found another way up. It involved going pretty much straight up on a narrow road. It just kept going, up and up and up. Pretty much all of today’s 712 m of elevation happened at this point. It was quite a challenge!

Our bike path was beautiful through the trees.

We had one big descent after our climb and then we were on the Drau. We stopped for lunch beside the most artistic water fountain we have seen yet. We had a head wind and I took the opportunity to relax.

I have discovered a helmet actually makes a great pillow.

I almost fell asleep twice today in the sun, first at lunch and later when we stopped at a trailside cafe for cappuccinos. It was so lovely in the sun. We enjoyed the views. There were very few people on the bike path today, several other couples bike touring and a few day trippers.

The CN stopped so suddenly to take this picture I almost rear ended him because I was looking at the stream as well.

There is a bike ferry here in case you want to switch sides of the river.

A big industrial complex beside the bike path. This is Omya, a leading global producer of calcium carbonate, other chemicals and many, many other things. Too many to list. They have more than 175 plants in over 50 countries. We had never heard of them. I looked them up.

It is always astonishing how big the autobahn is when you are underneath it.

The bike path spat us out right in the middle of Villach. We like everything about this town. A large pedestrian area, beautiful buildings and a great vibe. We checked into the Hotel Kasino (there is no casino) in the heart of the old town and took a second stab (hahaha) at removing my stitches. We were a total fail. We just don’t have the right tools, so off we went to the Krankenhaus, resolved to stay for as long as it took.

We arrived at the hospital and I was ushered into a private reception area for registration. The first woman, who spoke a little English was completely baffled about what to do. She had a Canadian, injured in Italy, wanting her stitches out in Austria. I had my passport, BC medical services plan card, my extended health care card, my travel insurance card and of course my Visa card at the ready. The second woman who had more English, checked my leg and simply disappeared. The first woman, who was so kind, just kept telling me to wait. Imagine how astonished I was when woman number two returned with a fluent English speaking doctor with all the necessary tools who proceeded to take out the stitches and explain that there would be no charge as it wasn’t worth the hassle of inputting all the information. He is very lucky I didn’t throw my arms around him I was so grateful. I emerged less than five minutes later from the registration room to tell a very surprised CN we were done.

We went out for a celebratory dinner and wine. Thank you Austria!

You can see we did all our climbing while on our deviation from the route.

https://www.relive.cc/view/1864805710

Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,326 km (823 miles)

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