EnglishThe Madman’s Return
So, this is it… I am back in Austria for good (or for the time being, at least). After driving to Vienna on Sunday with pretty much all of my belongings in the car, I returned to Konstanz on the same day (taking the night train) to arrange the admistriative odds and ends (such as returning the license plates, etc.) on Monday. Yesterday I finally left Konstanz for the last time, on the road bike I had left behind.
The original plan was to visit a few colleagues in the Swiss Engadin district, and I originally departed in that general direction, but I finally decided to take a more direct route and headed towards Bregenz and the Arlberg pass instead.
After several hours of riding I arrived in Bludenz. Although my knees weren’t really hurting, they did complain in a way that I knew it wouldn’t be such a great idea to ride all the way to Vienna (about 750km). I tried to figure out a train connection instead that would allow me to bring my bike, but the next train would only depart in the early morning… there was no way I was going to sit on my hands for 12 hours, so I decided that I’d at least ride the Arlberg pass (another ~1200m of climbing) and get on the train on one of the next stops, in Sankt Anton am Arlberg.
Coming from Bludenz, the pass was surprisingly easy to ride – the most tedious part was the long approach, where I made the mistake of sticking to the ‘official’ bike route instead of just staying on public roads and ended up riding several kilometers on gravel roads. Damn. But then it was just a few switchbacks and a longish ‘false flat’ kind of climb to the actual pass.
The descent to St. Anton was also very short, but rewarding – fine weather and very little traffic amounted to a lot of high-speed fun on the way down…
Back at the train station, I ended up having tons of luck. There was a good connection to Innsbruck, and I figured I’d have to spend the night there to wait for a connecting train to Vienna.. but the train attendant was extremely friendly and worked some miracles that ultimately allowed me to take the last EuroNight train to Vienna, despite the fact that bicycles generally aren’t permitted on those trains.. so I arrived in Vienna at 7:45 today.
Of course the fact that I’m back in Austria doesn’t mean that my moving is all done, not by a long shot! I’ll still have to move into my apartment in Klosterneuburg, arrange for an Austrian license for my car, and about a million other things that I’m probably forgetting right now.
But it feels good to be back.
