We got up, ate our Weisswurst, and got the bikes packed and ready to roll at 8:00am. The sun was shining and the bike path was easy rolling but Bowen was lagging. It took nearly two and a half hours to ride to Jenbach even though it was downhill though with a light headwind. By the time we got to the Jenbach train station, Stephan and Otto had already been cooling their heels for an hour while we bought train tickets and organized ourselves for when the train came. Otto rode along with us on the train so he wouldn't miss the experience of riding the Austrian trains.
The train to Landeck goes through Innsbruck, where we had to do a train transfer. Fortunately, that train transfer was relatively easy, and there were no other cyclists competing with us for bike parking space. On the way to Landeck, however, we could see the weather steadily getting worse and worse, with clouds first appearing and then becoming gradually darker as we approached Landeck. Stephan and Otto Sr, driving the RV on the freeway, got held up behind traffic, but that didn't matter as when the train arrived at Landeck the skies opened up and a thunderstorm blew through, necessitating that we stay at the train station for lunch to wait it out.
Arturo had a weather radar app on his phone, so he pulled it out while we had lunch. "It looks like there's a clear window of a few hours." Sure enough, by the time we finished lunch the rain had stopped, and Stephan and Otto Sr arrived. We mounted our bikes and loaded up our luggage so that we wouldn't have to depend on rendezvousing with the RV if it started raining. That way, we could just find lodging and figure it out.
The tandem led the way, with Xiaoqin and Bowen following behind but the others mysteriously fell back. I was determined to make as much headway as possible before the inevitable thunderstorm came back. Following the signs along the road I found the bike path leading out of town towards Pfunds, and it turned out to be quite pleasant and uncontested by cars. I would later discover that the others ended up on the car road and had to ride through the tunnel.
The bike path follows the Inn river, crossing it and following alongside it on the opposite side of the river from the main road. It grants you views of the power dams before dumping you out onto Prutz. Boen and Bowen had both played at the zipline playground behind Prutz but this time when we arrived it started raining. We hid under some shelters (one kindly resident even opened up his garage for Mark Brody), and soon when the rain stopped we kept going again.
I had my eyes on the Vaya hotel in Pfunds, which looked really good. It being a Thursday I didn't bother making a reservation. Past Prutz, the bike path follows a pattern where it would hit a climb, then descend into the next town before rolling on flat terrain for a bit before repeating all the way up the river to Pfunds. We made it to St Christina before it started raining again, but coincidentally we found a tunnel on the bike path just as the rain started so we had shelter right there!
Once again, the rain stopped but we could feel our luck running out. By the time we hit Mariastein it had started raining again in earnest, but we were already committed --- it was Pfunds or bust! We kept riding even though the sky was really opening up at this point and our socks were wet. But the scenery was still gorgeous. Arturo posted on Strava later that he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Arriving in Pfunds we discovered that the Vaya was full in between when I saw it had availability and our arrival someone else must have booked up the remaining rooms! Looking on booking.com we found Pension Grein, but when we got there there was no staff there. Fortunately, we had our phones and Arturo called the owner and settled us in for the evening. We parked our bikes in the garage, waxed all our chains, and then took showers. After that, the sky cleared a bit and we could walk to dinner in a light drizzle. It was an adventure and our clothing likely wouldn't dry, but that's why you always bring a set of spare cycling clothes.
At dinner, I looked for lodging for Friday. My favorite hotel, the hotel Frenzenshohe was full, but I noticed that Trafoi had an opening at the hotel Madatsch, a great location with a half pension. Arturo checked and the place was cheaper on the website directly for a half pension, so we booked it! That would place us at 1400m high, granting us a 1500m climb on Saturday, which was reasonable.
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