Well, now that the hard climb over the Alps is history we can just sit back and enjoy the coast down the valley along the River Inn.
After our breakfast and settling up with Frau Donnemiller we set
out on a gray, cloudy day with a few light sprinks of rain. We were
looking forward to an easier day.
Gasthof Seewald
Right off the bat the radwander route aimed us up the side of the cliff that borders the beautiful green valley. Don declared he was on hill climbing strike, so we devised our own alternate route along the farmer’s roads into Imst. We stopped at the information center and got no information and I checked out a cute little dirndl dress for Isabella, but it turned out to be $100, so I passed.
Leaving Imst, we got into an argument about which route to take. I was proposing the radroute, and Don decided
that no, we were going along the train tracks in the flat valley.
Well, that didn’t work because he was using that darn rad map, which shows
the radroutes, but you can’t really tell anything about the real roads.
It turns out the road he wanted to take was the freeway. So we proceeded
over the river to the radroute. Along the river we watched the rafts go in
and down the first rapid. Cold, wet and thrilling.Unfortunately, following the radroute up from the river, we now had to go up the side of the cliff in 1 kilometer instead of 6 kilometers. The route got steep and then it got steeper. Don was grousing all the way. We went up and up and up and up. When we went so high we passed Heidi’s house we gave out a yodel-oh-de-ooo
Then we went down the other side of the cliff, and came
to the cat house. No—not that kind of 
house, it really was a cat house, with an “Achtung! Cats in the
road!” sign and everything. And sure enough! We went around the
corner and there were two big cats sleeping in the road.We followed the radroute along the river. Sometimes it was paved and sometimes it was gravel and it kept going up and down and up and down instead of a nice flat glide alongside the river. So after lunch we switched to the secondary highway which was a better route for us.
As the afternoon passed we stopped in the little town of Unterperfuss and arranged a room at the Gasthaus Inntal. We had a good dinner there and a great sleep away from the busy freeway. In the morning our hosts were nice to let us get online on their computer and send a quick email off to our family to let them know we are OK.
We headed out for Innsbruck, 12 kilometers away, and the Laundromat to wash our cycling clothes after 6 days
. Don has been doing very well with is GPS on this trip
and he navigated us right into Innsbruck and rolled us right up to the front
door of the Laundromat with no problems. It took us a couple of hours
to do our one load of laundry, so while we waited Don set up his computer
and added photos to my last report. As long as he has an electrical
outlet he is happy. We must give our recommendation to this Laundromat
chain, Bubble Point Waschsalons.
They are very helpful and well organized. They have free soap, accept
just about any size of euros—E5, E10, E20, and they even have computers so
you can email home. Great service for travelers. Check out there
web cam you can see who's
sitting in the very spot I typed this.
After we finished the laundry we rode our bikes through Innsbruck.
We stopped for a minute to check out the busy old section and then rode along
the riverside through the very nice city park. We stopped and ate our
picnic lunch along the river and then headed along the route.We had a nice, easy ride the rest of the afternoon on good radroutes and flat terrain. The valley is widening out as we continue east, but we are still surrounded by massive cliffs on both sides.
Today is Sunday, and even now, closer to the modern city, we still see older men dressed in green knickers with alpine hats strolling along home from church.
Stopping for the day at the junction town of Zillertal, where the river Zill joins the River Inn, we got a nice room at the
home of Frau Rinnerberger. We have a fabulous view up the
Zill Valley and can sit on our deck and have a glass of wine and enjoy the
green mountainsides and valley. We decided we like it here so much we
will take tomorrow for a day off from cycling and stay over to do some hiking
and sightseeing. Life is so good!