Stage 1: Toblach - Lienz

So now it really started. The first stage of the Drava Cycle Path leads with a decent slope down the Puster Valley to Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria. Scenically a wonderful route, if it weren't for a few pitfalls...

The first section takes you across lush fields, sometimes along the edge of the forest, to the beautiful village of Innigen, which, as we had to our frustration, would have given much more than the somewhat jumbled Toblach. After that, you go down the left side of the Drava, which is still a modest mountain stream here, towards Austria. After crossing the green border somewhere, you pass a few villages and on a wonderfully well-developed, continuously paved cycle path, sometimes through dense bushes, then again through light forests or along the river in the shade, down the valley. Apart from some, partly still steep, but short ascents, it's mostly downhill and you often don't even need to pedal.

And where exactly are the aforementioned pitfalls? The stage is scenically beautiful, well-developed, and requires almost no fitness. The problem now lies exactly in the fact that the stage is scenically beautiful and well-developed and yes... almost requires no fitness. This circumstance, combined with the countless offers of one-way bike rental to Lienz, where you simply drop off the bike and take the train back to Toblach, makes stage 1 a border experience. Even the most unsuitable individuals are inspired by the idea of ​​cycling down this route, even if they have only ever seen a bike through a shop window. Starting with the multi-family outing, which inevitably stops exactly at the most unmanageable spot and, without question, right on the cycle path. Then the 15-member Italian group 'women in their mid-fifties', who wants to experience something really amazing with the motto 'out of the nail studio, into the pedals' and reliably prevents every overtaking at an uneven snail's pace for a distance of about 10 km. It is also important, as a last act in the ascent before it no longer continues, to bring the bike clean into a 45% angle to the road surface in the final position, so that any passing or even oncoming traffic is completely impossible. Another special treat was an Italian family as well: mother about 40 screaming hysterically at the about 5-year-old child, so that even in a distance of 50 meters you have to fear hearing damage, while the father - with a toddler in a child seat - can't even keep the bike in balance while standing and struggles wildly with balance (in the middle of the lane), whereby the toddler in the seat probably also suffered at least a whiplash without a fall.

After so many interesting encounters, the sudden thunderstorm that arrived - contrary to all weather forecasts - couldn't bother us anymore. With flying tires, we left large and small families in pouring rain behind and finally fled to Lienz, where the weather wasn't better but at least the movement was no longer associated with unpredictable risks. A piece of 'Lienz cake' (so they really exist) and a Viennese coffee partly soothed our souls again while we watched the 'perpetrators' of the Drava Cycle Path surrender their evidence at the train station. So we still have some room for improvement for Stage 2... :-)