July 4th: Reichenbach Falls, Aare Schlutz, and Rosenlaui Schlutz

 

Indeed, the day started with rain in the morning, which stopped after breakfast, but we didn't trust the weather, so changed our plans to see the Reichenbach Falls, Aareschlutz, and the Rosenlaui Schlutz. The Schlutz and the falls would be in full roaring glory in a rain storm, while getting caught out in the rain might not make anybody's mood better, and First is easily accessible by cable car from Grindelwald anyway.

The falls did not disappoint, and were huge. In fact, they were a bit too big, since when we got to the hiking path that would take us down to the valley it was closed, directing us to take the funicular down. Once we were down, we went to see Aare Schlutz, though Boen threw a temper tantrum at the extra walking involved, an indication that he was probably worn out from the day before. I would have been OK skipping the Aare Schlutz to humor him, but Savitha had never seen it, and Xiaoqin did not remember seeing it.

The schlutz was a walkway through a gorge with waterfalls, explanatory diagrams about how the river had carved out the geological features, and various signage. After we were done, we took the bus back to Meiringen where we took out the packed lunch Rosenlaui had provided for us while waiting for the bus back up. Bowen threw up on one of the cookies, and after checking the package we realized it had hazelnuts in it.

After lunch, we got onto the bus and went to one stop before Rosenlaui, for what's normally a gorgeous hike to the gorge, but of course it chose to rain there and then, with sounds of thunder coming at us though it was safe because we couldn't actually see any lightning, so it must have been quite far away. Boen again threw a temper tantrum and had to be coaxed into walking to the Rosenlaui Schlutz. The reason I didn't think the Aare Schlutz was worth doing was because the Rosenlaui Schlutz is far wilder and absolutely amazing in a storm. The waterfall inside was a cacophony of sound and fury, leaving us feeling quite deaf by the time we got to the exit.

After that we went to the hotel and got some ice cream. The weather looked like it might clear up, so Savitha and I took the bus to the top but it was foggy there. On the descent, however, the view from the bus was incredible. Wispy clouds floated over the mountains.

After that, dinner was even better. Bowen really liked the soup this time (a sweet potato soup) and he like the tomato bruschetta as well. We definitely ate well, and with rain pattering on the walls (Xiaoqin said she would see and hear thunder and lightning from her room), we slept a good sleep.

Review: Mountainsmith Upland 6 Tent

 I bought the Mountain Smith Upland 6 as a car camping tent, hoping to replace the Eureka 4 person tent I'd bought way back in 1993 to take my parents backpacking. That tent had several holes in it which had been patched, and had fiberglass poles which had seen better days, so I thought it was time for an upgrade. The Mountainsmith was discounted from its usual $300 price, and I applied an REI coupon and dividend to bring the price down below $200. Mountainsmith had a good reputation so I thought it would be fine.

Well, the day came for our camping trip and I couldn't go because I'd came down with something the week before and was still on antibiotics and was still feeling weak. I loaned it to a friend who went instead, and he experienced rain which seemed through the tent at the door seam and at the door zippers, which were not protected by a rain flap!

To REI's credit, they took it back with no questions asked immediately. Kudos to REI customer service, and wow, it's been a while since I had outdoor equipment that was DOA!

July 3rd: Rosenlaui - The Romantikweg

 We woke up at 5:00am, got all of our bags, and then walked out to the tram station, where we followed the schedule provided by the SBB app. The app radically changes how you travel by train in Switzerland --- you can even buy tickets after you've boarded the train, or even turn on a mode where it automatically buys train tickets for you (which I didn't dare try!) based on your location.

We met Savitha at the Zurich train going to Luzern, and once in Luzern got onto the scenic panaromic-window equipped train to Meiringen. I'd been to Rosenlaui multiple times, but this was only Xiaoqin's 3rd time, and the first time Bowen was returning since the last time he was there he was a baby. I was curious to see if Rosenlaui lived up to what I had told Bowen and Boen.

Getting off at the Rosenlaui bus stop (we didn't have to pay for the ticket since a Rosenlaui reservation entitles you to a free bus ride), I ran into Christine and she had me leave all the bags and hurriedly gave me a bus pass. We had plenty of time, so I elected to walk up to the Schwarzwaldalp bus stop where we'd agreed to meet Savitha in time for the next train. I'd told the kids the story of how when hiking near Rosenlaui with Bowen in the baby backpack, I had shown him a dandelion, blown it in front of him, and then handed him another one to see if he would do it, and he'd put it into his mouth and eaten it instead! Now, they wanted to see where Bowen had eaten his dandelion. Xiaoqin after walking a few steps decided she didn't want to wear herself out since there was another hike coming, and decided to wait for the bus.

The road signs said it would take 35 minutes to walk, but it ended up taking us closer to 45 minutes --- no matter, we had plenty of time before the bus would arrive, but when the bus arrived, Xiaoqin wasn't on board. One of the passengers told me she'd gotten off at the previous stop! We walked back to find her, and she said the sign on the bus didn't say there were any more stops. I needed to be explicit that she should have stayed on the bus until the end, because what happens is that the bus stops in Schwarzwaldalp but you have to take the next bus to go all the way to the top of Grosse Scheidegg. Thankfully, we were early enough in the day that the next bus was only an hour or so of wait. Any later, and the bus would take a lunch break, which would heavily disrupt our plan. The bus stop was next to a restaurant, but it was too early for lunch so everyone else had ice cream and I had a meringue instead.

The next bus came, and we took it to the top where we had lunch before starting on the Romantikweg (yes, that means the romantic path) down to Rosenlaui in the easy direction. While the uphill direction was easier than the knees, it would take a lot longer and if you missed the last bus at the top you were stuck walking all the way back down and risking missing dinner!

The last time I had hiked the Romantikweg was in 2008 with Phil, as part of a much more ambitious loop that included Hornseeli. I was happy to see that the trail had lost none of its beauty and ability to impress. The upper part of the trail from the Grosse Scheidegg bus stop had wide open vistas and gentle trails but was exposed. That wasn't a bad thing, since that high up, it was relatively cool and the views were worth it.

At the Hornseeli intersection, nobody wanted to go up what looked like a wall, though the sign said the additional delta (20 minutes) was not much time. I had no particular need to do it, since I'd done it before and was curious to see what the regular version of the Romantikweg looked like. After a short leadout, the trail started descending and now the trailside was covered with flowers. The change was dramatic.

At this point, Bowen's food poisoning caught up with him, and he started having to use the toilet paper I'd cleverly stuffed into his pockets last night. 2 goes at it and he used it all up but fortunately, that was all he needed. The trail descended down into the valley into a wide fire road, and at this point Xiaoqin's feet started acting up. Bowen had also slowed down a lot.

There was one last bus leaving the Schwarzwaldalp at 5:15pm, so they could make it. Savitha kindly agreed to stay with them to walk them to the bus stop despite her hostel being right there in front of her. I decided to walk ahead to prep the room and move the luggage. It didn't take long to walk down, but what I noticed was that I never passed the bus stop! Savitha would tell me the next day that I'd missed the uphill turn you had to take to get to the bus stop.

Arriving at Rosenlaui, Christine gave me the key, and gave me new bus passes since she noticed that we might take separate hikes. "There are new rules," she said to me, "No phones or cameras in the dining room, and no phones in the public areas of the hotel. We don't have too many children visiting the hotel so we can make it stick, but the adult guests find that it's really nice not to have people around them scrolling on Facebook or posting on social media." So unlike in the past, we do not have food photos from Rosenlaui.

The rest of the family got back on the last bus, and then it was the usual frenzy of showers, laundry, and getting everyone settled. Bowen looked at the tourist room and refused to stay in it, but I was happy to share the tourist room with Boen. Bowen was excited to test the Rosenlaui dinner, and he didn't enjoy the fennel soup but the salad dish blew him away. He also enjoyed the ice cream but not the main course.

After dinner, we took our usual walk outside the hotel, and noticed that one of the buildings looked new. Peeking inside, it was a notice that Rosenlaui had its 250 year anniversary the year before, in 2021. Christine would tell me that because of COVID, the hotel was closed and they had no way to celebrate it, but at least the building (which apparently wasn't new) was now a museum and a notice of the UNESCO certification of the park.

The forecast called for rain the next day, but we made plans since the morning was supposed to be better to go up to Grosse Scheidegg and hike over to First. We'd all had a long day and sleep came easily.

Review: Bookends

 Zibby Owens' Bookends is a memoir of her life, excluding her marriage to her first husband. The intro to the book mentioned that she was a book podcaster, but it didn't mention that she's the daughter of Stephen Schwarzman, the co-founder of Blackstone. This explains the life of privilege she has had, living in style in New York City even though she never really had a high paying job.

The book therefore describes the life of a privileged woman whose losses included losing her best friend in 9/11, working at one of the early startup incubators, and then having 4 children (which reads kinda weird because she completely left out her husband). Jonathan Blow once said in a lecture that when your life has been stripped of practically all danger, your sense of anxiety ironically goes into over-drive, so a woman in her state becomes paranoid and overly careful and precious about her kids. She eventually solves this problem in a way cliched to people in her class --- by falling in love with her tennis coach. This was such a cliche that even her dad put his head in his hands when she told him. But hey, it all worked out in the end.

The book does refer to all the books she read while parts of her life was going on. Her tastes are pretty pedestrian, basically New York Times bestsellers, no science fiction, etc.

For a book about books, you can't beat Jo Walton's Among Others. Bookends is a pale shadow of that novel, but does offer insights to how picking your parents carefully is very important to becoming an influencer.

July 2nd: Train transfer Feldkirch to Zurich

 In the morning, we woke up and packed, walked down to the bikes and had the receptionist release us into the train station parking underground. I had pre-scouted the train station thoroughly the day before, and knew that there was a triplet friendly entrance directly from the next level up in the parking lot, which we proceeded to use. The elevator to the platform was too small to fit the triplet, but the staircase had built in ramps on the side so you could roll luggage or the triplet up the stairs, provided you removed the panniers first.

After that, I took apart the bike, putting all the loose pieces into ziplock bags and wrapping the cables around the water bottle cages. I also removed the GoPro mount from the e-bike, the water bottle cage from the ebike, and Xiaoqin's phone mount, packing them away so that they wouldn't get lost.

Savitha had agreed to meet us at the train station in Zurich. It felt so strange to ride the train, taking 2 hours to do what it took us a day and a half to ride on the bike. But soon we were in Zurich. I asked the kids if they wanted to ride back to the hotel, but once they realized they could visit Sprungli again for desert they declined.

We returned Xiaoqin's e-bike at the train station, since Savitha could help carry the panniers. I then proceeded to reassemble the triplet and mount the panniers onto the triplet and ride back to the hotel. I took me 2 hours to disassemble the bike and place it back into 3 cases under the United Airlines weight limit, but even after all that it was still an hour before I was allowed to checkin, so I hopped onto the tram to downtown and met up with the rest. I did find the wallet sent back to me from Lukas, and Bowen's hiking pants, so all the packages made it. I'd tried in vain to confirm with the hotel, but apparently their policy is to never reply to messages! I would discover later that during the diassembly process I somehow managed to lose my VAR tire lever, my arm warmers, and gloves. I guess the heat and the stress of the prceeding days had taken their toll!

We all had day tickets so for the first time I tried the boat transport under the bridges of Zurich and it was a lot of fun but by then we were done. Xiaoqin was worn out from buying new shoes, and Boen showed me proudly the new socks he had persuaded mommy to buy since his old socks were worn out. We made it back to Novotel only to discover a long line to checkin --- one of the staff members had called in sick from COVID and their colleagues were swamped.

When we finally checked in, we walked to dinner. We had an early morning train to catch, so I prepaid our lodging, and repacked our luggage so that all our hiking gear and everything we needed for Rosenlaui would be with us. Bowen's conditioned seemed to have improved --- he didn't need to use the toilet more than once that evening. Small mercies are a big deal, but I prepared for the next day by stuffing Bowen's hiking pants with toilet paper.

July 1st: Feldkirch

 It poured down rain in the morning, and Xiaoqin said Bowen had had a tough night, and protested against riding to Sargans. Bowen didn't want to ride either, despite my positing to him that today, we could have breakfast in Austria, lunch in Liechtenstein, and dinner in Switzerland. Xiaoqin further insisted that I take Bowen to a doctor.

I cancelled the reservation at Sargans and went to the receptionist to see if we could extend our stay. I did a Google search and found 2 pediatricians within walking distance. The receptionist called the first one when it opened at 8am, but they weren't taking any appointments. She called the second and this time, got us an appointment at 9:30am. I bought a light breakfast at the supermarket in the train station, and we ate breakfast while Bowen used the toilet.

I then bought a direct train ticket to Zurich for the next day from Feldkirch. It was a bit more expensive than a Sargans train ticket would have been, but the real penalty was that it wasn't going to be a roll-on/roll-off experience. The hotel extended our stay for a good price, thanks to the sympathetic receptionist, and at 9:00am we walked to the pediatrician.

She diagnosed Bowen's problem as a virus of some sort, and gave us a prescription for some anti-nausea medication so he could keep the diarrhea medication down. Despite that medication, after lunch (taken at the Asian booth downstairs at the train station), Bowen threw up again. Clearly the diarrhea medication was just as bad as the virus (if it was a virus).

With Bowen on and off the toilet all day, there was naught to do but stay in the room and hide from the rain. I got my kids listening to Spitz and various other Japanese music. When the rain stopped, we walked around town for ice cream but returned to the train station for dinner. It was a bummer of day, but if you're going to get sick, get sick at the end of the tour. That way you won't have lost too many days and wouldn't have to do cascades of reservation cancellations!

Review: Valerian & Laureline Book 1 & 2

 Valerian & Laureline Vol 1 and 2 are part of Kindle Unlimited, so I checked them out to see whether the amount of hype attribute to them is justified.  First of all, compared to other comics from the same era like Tintin or Flash Gordon, the art is fantastic: detailed and pretty, full of imagination and color.

The story and universe unfortunately, are rather blah. There's a galactic empire, and Valerian is a pretty awful character, making no plans and frequently falling into one trap after another as a way to move the plot along. That's not so very different from Tintin, but I guess when you encountered Tintin as a kid you're much more forgiving than when you encounter similar material as an adult.

It's easy reading and fun entertainment, but I'm not sure it deserves to be ranked up there with the classics. And of course, modern writers like Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore have long surpassed the best of these old works.

June 30th: Galtur to Feldkirch

 The morning came, and Bowen had been to the toilet twice last night. "I'm still too weak to ride over the pass," he declared. There was nothing to do but to put him, Boen, and Xiaoqin onto the bus, load up the panniers on the triplet, and ride that darn thing over the Silvretta by myself, since there was no way I was going to take the triplet again after painstakingly putting it back together.

The ride over the pass was glorious, starting in the fog with low clouds but then with the clouds lifting and dissipating over the mountains granting beautiful views. I was so sorry Bowen felt bad, but I wasn't strong enough to lift Boen by myself over the bike, and Boen was of course still in the mode of "Whatever Bowen has, I have to have," so if Bowen had a bus ride, he had to have one as well!

With that much load it would take well over an hour to get to the top of the pass, though because the bus took a detour to the Kopsee, at one point I caught up to the bus because it had to stop at the toll gate where a bicycle would just happily roll through! At the pass, I saw Boen and Xiaoqin waiting for me, but Bowen was on the toilet again, vindicating his judgement that he shouldn't have been riding over the pass. I proctor'd Bowen on the toilet, and after I was done Boen wanted to show me the telescope he'd found as well as the picture frame, where we got a picture.

After that, we piled everyone on the bike and rolled down the mountain. Well, Silvretta was far steeper than any of the other descents we'd had. I'd originally thought we'd stop every 4 hairpins, but it was so steep that we stopped every 2 hairpins instead!

The climb up Silvretta from the Montafon side looked challenging, and it was already warm enough that after 6 hairpins we were shedding our jackets.

Somehow, on one of those hairpins, Xiaoqin passed us without noticing, and she kept going all the way down the mountain without realizing that we were behind her. We couldn't descend any faster, so we only caught up to her when she had already traversed the scary tunnel past the toll station in Partenen. I'd always crossed the tunnel myself, not noticing the bike path signs on prior trips. We finally saw her past the tunnel, and waved her over onto the bike path, which took us into Gaschurn, where we stopped by the bike path as always for lunch, ice cream, and soft drinks. The forecast still called for rain tomorrow, so I wanted us to get as far down the valley as possible. Unfortunately, it was still hot, so I had to find a hotel with AC. My first choice was booked up while we were debating, but Night Inn Feldkirch was right next to the train station and had AC, so I booked it. I looked for lodging in Sargans as well, and booked it since it had free cancellation.

After this it was time to take the longest descending bike path that I'd ever encountered all the way down to just before Feldkirch. I'd done this descent many times, and it never fails to draw a giggle from me. Bowen and Boen both expressed joy and wonder as we rolled along at 15kph, sometimes hitting 30kph whenever we felt like pedaling. I shot a few pictures going backwards, and you can see from his expression that Bowen was in agony. Not for nothing did he win the approbation, "The toughest 7 year old I'd ever met" from Mike Sojka.

At Vandans I felt a jerk from the back of the bike, and Boen complained that he was sleepy. We pulled over to a shaded bench and he took a nap while I took Bowen to the nearby tennis club to use the bathfroom. After that it was a short ride to Bludenz where we smelled the chocolate smells in the air, since Bludenz had a big chocolate factory.

Past Bludenz, a headwind blew through, making it slow going, but we were still mostly able to maintain 15kph. At the outskirts of Feldkirch we had to climb up and then we were in Feldkirch. It took much more time than expected to find the hotel, as the train station was outside the pedestrian zone, and it had zero signage or pointers to it! But we eventually found it, and the receptionist had me descend into the train station's parking lot to access the bike parking!

Once settled in, Bowen used the toilet once again, and then we walked down to the pharmacy to see if there was anything they could do for him. They sold us some diahrear medication, and I bought some kids Tylenol for good measure. We went to the local Indian restaurant, but Bowen threw up on the way home after eating several somosas. He was not having a good day! Boen managed to get some ice cream, however.

The hotel AC was put to good use, we took showers, and I did laundry anyway just in case, and we went to sleep. I hoped Bowen would do better.

Review: Ring Doorbell, Camera and Security Lights

 For our new home, I decided on the Ring ecosystem, since we already had Amazon Echos as well as my inherent distrust in long term support for any Google product. (Not to mention, my opinion of Google product managers is that they don't seem to use any of their own products the way I would)

For the door bell, I went with the wired Ring Video Doorbell. Usually, Amazon product managers are very good about user install experience, but this one was exceptionally bad, especially if you didn't install it yourself. The pairing requires a PIN that can only be found after you take apart the doorbell. Taking it apart requires a special tool. Good thing I found that tool and was able to install it.

For security cameras, I went with the luxury model with two way talk, sirens, etc.  These are wired so they kinda wouldn't work well if any robbers had a ladder and could climb up to unplug the device. On the other hand, the most important security item is the Ring Security Yard sign.  The installation of those are much better than for the doorbell. The pin is right on the camera and the pairing works really well. Note that all these devices require that you have wifi signal throughout the entire coverage zone.

Unlike modern appliances, the ring devices come with both a website and an app. This is huge. The motion detection also works well, detecting pedestrians walking past your house. There are also alerts you can set. If you want full time coverage you can pay $100/year  for recording all devices, or $30/year for each camera. To get full time monitoring you also need to buy a ring alarm system.

All in all, the plans are way cheaper than Google's and unlike Google products don't run the risk of cancellation. I'm happy with it.

June 29th: Train/Bus transfer from Innsbruck to Galtur, Hiking on the Kopsee

 Bowen had a mild fever, and woke up feeling weak. "I can't possibly ride today," he said. Mike Sojka, the first time after he met Bowen, called him "The toughest 7 year old I'd ever met." At 10, Bowen wasn't any less tough than he was at 7, so when he says he can't ride I had to take him seriously. Gone was any plan to ride from Landeck to Galtur. I looked up the details and it looked like there was a bus that could take you to Galtur from the Landeck train station and it would take bikes "at the driver's discretion." Since we wouldn't ride, we'd just take the bus to the highest place before the Silvretta, so I booked Hotel Vaya at Galtur, which I picked mostly because it was visible from the bus stop without having any need to navigate.

We got to the train station in plenty of time after breakfast, and this time it still wasn't a roll on roll off, but instead there was a baggage car, with the conductor willing and ready to help! Unfortunately in the confusion, while lifting the ebike, Xiaoqin tried to help and got my elbow in her face instead! Fortunately there was no lasting damage but she would need to rest the rest of the day. I fortunately could keep the bike in mostly tandem configuration.

Unfortunately, when we got to the bus it was clear there was no way to load the bike without taking it fully apart, so I took it apart and we loaded it into the wheelchair section of the bus. The bus driver did help, and then he told me that I'd have to hang on to the ebike the entire ride to Galtur!

I held that awkward position for the entire 70 minute ride, which left me quite saw in my warms the rest of the day. The bus ride gave me views of various towns along the way, one of which I'd never visited before because the town proper was high up along a side road, which explains why I was never tempted to stay at any of those places.

Upon arrival, I sent the wife and kids on to checkin to the hotel while I with the help of a curious hiker, managed to put the triplet back together and to my surprise two day of train plus bus travel hadn't damaged it any. After that, I parked the bikes in the hotel's garage, and went to the room to wash off my extremely dirty and marked up hands. The hotel had a full size kitchen in our suite, so I put on the backpack and walked down to the supermarket where I discovered that they had Weisswurst! I bought lunch with salad, weisswurst, and instant noodles, which the kids developed a taste for after Bolzano.

After lunch, Xiaoqin wanted to rest, but I wanted to take the bus somewhere for a hike, since the hotel granted free bus passes, and Bowen said he now felt better. The hotel suggested Kopsee, which I had never been to before, and which both Google  and Komoot suggested as a possible alternative to the Silvretta. I'd never been to Kopsee before, despite 3 previous visits to the area, because it simply was a gratituous climb if you were headed over the Silvretta, so it sounded like a great idea.

The bus ride to Kopsee was beautiful, and I steadily got more and more excited as we approached the trailhead. Once off the bus, we had two choices: walk back to the hotel (90 minutes), or walk around the lake (also 90 minutes)  I finally tricked the kids into doing the Kopsee loop by pointing at the sign that said: "Kopsee - 20 minutes."

Even though it was overcast you could see that the weather was clearing up. The forecast had called for rain, but we had completely lucked out with the weather. Even the hotel staff had commented on it. "It was raining the entire day yesterday," they said to me.

We walked down to the lake and the kids played a bit before we headed over to examine the dam. I got a clear look at trail descending down into Montafon, and it was definitely a gravel trail that wasn't a good alternative to Silvretta for a triplet, though I'd have been game on it with my single bike and 32mm tires,

We crossed over the dam onto the other side, at which point it was too late for the kids to protest --- it was now as easy to complete the loop as it was to go back. But they day was getting nicer to the point where we were removing our jackets.

I noticed a strange flower with an awful smell. The kids each took a sniff and then Bowen suggested using Google lens to identify it.

It turned out to be a veratrum album, a flower so toxic that even its scene was toxic! We didn't take any more sniffs, needless to say!

The hike got prettier and prettier with wild flowers and even a meadow near a ski lift, indicating that the area was a ski resort in winter. I tried once again to convince the kids that a 90 minute walk wasn't that far, but this time they were wise to my tricks and would have none of it, opting to play in the playground while waiting for the bus. Boen finally mastered the art of swinging without assist, and got me to take a photo.

That evening, we were given our own dining room for dinner. I was nonplused about this until I realized that the staff had heard for themselves how loud Bowen and Boen was, and wished to isolate us from the other guests so we wouldn't disturb their dining! After dinner we took a walk in the neighborhood and even that walk was pretty! "I could come back here for a few days just for the hiking," I told Xiaoqin when we were done.

We went to be hoping that Bowen would feel better the next day, and that he wouldn't have to go to the toilet too many times during the night. He certainly looked better!

June 28th: Train transfer to Innsbruck

 We rode the 2 miles to the train station, and then took apart the triplet in order to get it onto the correct platform. When the train arrived, it was a mad scrambled to get everything in, since unlike the newer trains this wasn't a roll on roll off train, but was instead a double step up with a narrow turn to get the bikes on. While getting all the bikes on and off I got chain and grease marks all over myself and Xiaoqin. I would joke to Xiaoqin that these were the lover's kisses from my mistress, and she would punch me.

We arrived in Innsbruck and walked the 10 minutes to the hotel after traversing the maze of elevators (at least there were elevators!) to get out of the main train station. We parked our bikes at the hotel, and left our luggage with them while deciding what to do. The kids wanted to go the the archaeology museum, and after taknig the bus there we discovered it wasn't a museum, but just a display at the local university. I remembered that in 2010 we visited Castle Amblas, which had a lot of armor and other impressive stuff, so I suggested we go there. It would turn out to be a major mistake.

The actual museum was fine, and the kids enjoyed looking at all the armor. Xiaoqin enjoyed the display and took her time using the audio guide which discussed all the details. What went wrong was that despite my warning to eat well at breakfast, Bowen and Boen didn't do so, and we ended up having lunch at the museum cafetaria. Boen was lucky but Bowen ordered the Spaghetti Bolognese. I did too, but while all I did was feel slightly nauseated and had one instance of diarrhea, Bowen got a full dose of either food poisoning or food-borne virus and that would haunt him for the rest of his time in Europe. He even threw up some of that spaghetti then and there!

On reflection, the reason why of all my trips to Europe, I'd never once gotten food poisoning before, was because when you're traveling by bicycle, you don't usually frequent the places tourists go to, like museum cafetarias. If you eat at a restaurant or even a hotel that locals would eat at, any instance of food poisoning would result in the restaurant or hotel being shut down. (In many villages, the hotel also doubles as the place to dine out) But for a place like Castle Ambras, any food poisoning might have consequences only a day or two later, when the tourist is in another town, and in any case a tourist wouldn't even know who to call or complain about bad food!

After Amblas, we went back to our hotel and checked in for real, and then I booked train tickets to Landeck for the next day. I held off booking a hotel because I didn't know how far we might get up the mountain. It started raining, so I went out and bought fruit for snacks, and we ended up walking around in the rain after we got bored with staying indoors. Dinner was at a highly rated Korean place, but I learned from then on that the highly rated Asian places are highly rated because they're unusual for Austria, not because they're actually any good compared to what we got in California.

We went to bed with all the curtains drawn, reasonably confident that the next day's weather would be nice. I was hopeful we could do some cycling.

Review: Spenco Men's Fusion 2 Sandal

 I had a really bad case of athlete's foot, with bleeding and all the really nasty stuff. I finally saw a doctor and he immediately prescribed a athlete's foot creme to get rid of the fungus infection. He also recommended Spenco Men's Fusion 2 Sandals to reduce strain on my feet after I told him that I went barefoot all the time.

I usually hate wearing shoes in the house. The fact is, shoes take away tactile feeling on my feet, and of course if you're cleaning the house bare feet immediately let you know where the kids have spilled sugary stuff on the floor. But doctor's orders and all that. After several weeks of wearing this, my feet got much better, and to my surprise, I liked them so much that I don't want to go barefoot in the house anymore, so I guess the hard floor really was tough on my feet.

You can pay for these with FSA money if you get your doctor to write a prescription. I recommend them!

June 27th: Brunico to Sterzing

 The night before, I looked up hotels in Sterzing, and one particular one caught my eye, called Steindl's Boutique Hotel. The website said that if you called them they'd give you a discount, so I called them. The receptionist said, "I'll see if we have room." "Booking.com says you have room." Without skipping a beat, he immediately quoted me a price that was 20 Euros lower than the booking.com price and we were set. No credit cards, no obligation to show.

Xiaoqin didn't like the fact that the train from Brunico to Sterzing required a train change, even though I told her it was no big deal. She tried to convince the kids to take the train as well, but they were having none of it! I'd never ridden to Sterzing before, though I'd taken the train there from Toblach in 2007, so I was curious to see the route. We rode for all of 10 minutes before we found a zipline playground, which demanded a stop of course!

After that, the bike path, which was mostly paved, would descend all the way down to Mulbach, after which it would split --- one would lead to Brixen and then Bolzano, while the other would head up towards Sterzing. All the descending had me nervous, because it meant that the climb to Sterzing would come in the afternoon heat.

In Aicha after the split, I caught a flat in the rear tire. Upon checking the flat, it turned out to be a thorn. I pulled out the thorn from the tire, and then got out one of the two spare tubes and inserted it into the tire and pumped it up while simultaneously patching the punctured tube. We were all getting hungry, but Google Maps said Aicha had no grocery stores or restaurant. The next store was in Fortezza, so we kept riding to Fortezza, where we ended up eating lunch on what looked like a public school, kids and all, after which we kept riding.

It didn't take long, however, before there was a loud hissing sound and we had another flat! Fortunately, there was a freeway underpass in front of us so at least we could get out of direct sunlight. I inspected this flat, and it turned out that a patch had failed. I guess that something that would hold up just fine on a single just cannot possibly stand up to high pressure on the triplet. I put in my last spare, pumped it up but not to the tire pressure I had pumped up the other one before, proceeded to patch the patched tube, and we kept riding.

Now the heat was on, with the sun bearing down hard on us, such that any shade was a relief. The climbing also increased in intensity, though the bike path made it more palatable by grant us relatively traffic free roads, and frequently hugged the shade rather than being beside the freeway.  Finally, in Futures we hit a 10+% grade in the full sun and in our cooked state just couldn't do anything except get off and walk. It was the steepest grade of the day and fresh we could have just made it but in our condition and reduced morale after 2 flat tires we just gave up. Fortunately, there was a shaded bench right after that section and we took a long break, drinking nearly all of our water.

From our oasis of shade we could feel that whenever the breeze blew it actually wasn't too bad, but the cyclists coming down at speed made us feel worse, since to gain that much speed meant more climbing. We finally saw a tandem couple zooming by at speed, and decided that we simply had to keep going. Well, after that we finally found a water fountain, and a small rise later descended down into the Isarco river for the nearly flat, final run into Sterzing which we did at an easy pace, having burned all our matches earlier in the day.

Steindl's Boutique Hotel was at the far end of Sterzing, so that gave us the opportunity to ride through the picturesque town, drawing attention much as we always did. The town wasn't too crowded, and the grade was gentle, and as we got to the hotel there was much relief. It felt like the day had gotten cooler as well!

We checked in, dumped the bags, and Xiaoqin wanted to take the kids swimming. That was a good idea, but I also needed to replace our tubes with better ones. Fortunately, there was an e-bike rental shop right next door, so I had them walk on ahead to buy ice cream while I asked if they had tubes. Indeed, they had Continental Touring tubes of the correct specification, so I bought two at absurd European prices. I caught up to the others for some much needed ice cream and we proceeded to walk to the other side of town to the swimming pool.

The pool was crowded so we avoided the indoor section in favor of the outdoor section. It felt really good to swim. The kids enjoyed the Jacuzzi as well, and after we were all ready for dinner we walked back in town and ate at a restaurant before going back to the hotel and doing the shower and laundry thing.

Xiaoqin insisted on taking the train to Innsbruck, and I  opened up my OBB app and bought train tickets for Innsbruck. With bikes, you have to make bike reservations, so you can't just take any train going in that direction. I noted the time and we also made a reservation in Innsbruck. I decided that while I was going to take the part anyway, we'd also take the train to Landeck the day after, to save a day of flat riding along the Inn river. The plan was to ride up the Silvretta and then make Feldkirch the next day before weather turned bad. Ideally we'd want to make Sargans to access the Swiss train system.

We went to bed early, setting an alarm so we wouldn't miss the train the next day.

 

Review: Sea of Tranquility

 Sea of Tranquility is Emily St John Mandel's pandemic novel. Mixing a time travel story, a pandemic, lunar colonies, and the themes of being a writer and a parent, the story kinda meanders all over the place but never actually does anything provocative or particularly imaginative with the subject material. For instance, the lunar colonies don't seem any different from a New York City neighborhood, which seems kinda strange, since everything from breathable air to potable water must be a constant struggle. It's very clear that St. John Mandel is non technical and not very interested in the actual nuts and bolts of a moon colony.

The time travel story is at least somewhat competently handled, with the time traveler going back and forth and looping back upon his own story eventually. But even then, the character isn't very good at his job.

The book is short, so at least if you don't like it you're not going to waste days on it. But to be honest the book seems like a non science fiction writer's failed attempt to write science fiction. The pandemic parts also seem particularly insular, again, very focused on a relatively privileged view of a city bound person. As you and I both know at this point, such privileged people abscond from the city at the earliest opportunity. Again, the transplantation of the author's experience into a novel might make for ome relevance, but I didn't find it particularly insightful.

The book's short enough that I didn't bounce off it, but I think I will avoid the author's work in the future.