Enjoying Life in Small Town Austria

Savouring the Sunshine and Soaking up the Atmosphere

We've been lucky so far with the weather in Lienz. Today is our third full day here after arriving about 4 pm on Thursday. It's been sunny with temperatures rising to the mid 20's each day and not a lot of wind. Perfect cycling conditions, especially given that we've been finished by lunch or shortly after for each of the three rides we've done.

Here are a few images from the last two days that show what we've been enjoying ...

Wandering around town

Only about 13 000 people love in Lienz so it's a pretty laid back place - but there are a lot of very active people here: hiking, climbing and riding bikes. There's a bunch of outdoor stores and at least two high end bike shops and another that is a specialist repair shop. I reckon they probably break a lot of bikes around here, what with the steep mountainous terrain surrounding the town. There is a nice vibe about the place and it's quite pretty with a high concentration of well preserved medieval buildings. Here are a few glimpses ...

The only thing that worried me was what appeared to be a dungeon just off the central plaza ...

Yesterday, after we'd finished our ride we wandered out to get some groceries and were stoked to see some cycling action with a mini criterium course set up right in the middle of the central plaza. What was particularly delightful was that they were having races for little kids. First it was some quite small boys ...

... and then some slightly older girls ...

Di was enjoying the action so much she took a couple of short videos which I stuck together for her ...

The main event of this cycling festival was a Gran Fondo that was on today. There were two rides: the original event which has been running for 32 years and covers 112 kilometres and includes 1870 metres of climbing; recently added is the SuperGiroDolomiti, covering 207 kilometres and 4,597 metres of climbing(!).

Is there something else besides cycling?

Just outside the town one can find the Roman settlement of Aguntum ... 

... which dates back to the first century B.C. We rode past it yesterday, but if we can find a bit of drive we might walk out there tomorrow to have a gander. The site also contains a museum with a bunch of stuff from the time and 

Another attraction that would help us get a deeper understanding of the history of the area is Bruck Castle ...

,,, a medieval fortress. It also houses a museum and  looks like it's worth a visit.

It looks like we could be in for some thunderstorms starting from late tomorrow. Hopefully they will pass before we get on the road to the Grossglockner in three days time. It's the highest and longest pass that we are scheduled to ride over on this tour so we'll want some reasonable weather if we're going to be able to ride over it.