The generosity of strangers

Austrian's are some of the nicest, most generous people, small town mentality type of people. We were heading south after Linz (thanks again Christine and Matt for having us!) toward Slovenia. Riding for a solid 80k we stopped in this tiny village of 500 people for food and to ask about camping within biking range before dark. The woman behind the meat counter couldn't speak English well but she could understand. She said, "There is camping about 20k from here, but I think you could stay at the airport right down the street if you stay for just one night. I'll call." (well that's what sign language and few English words amounted to) Wow! Thank you meat lady! We rode two blocks to the glider airport to find 4 or 5 men sitting on the back deck drinking beers and watching the sunset through the amazing mountains. The older man was obviously the one in charge and told us where we could set up our tent and to come back for a beer. Of course we were in for that. Cold beer on tap, yep. Well, one beer turned into about 8, and before we knew it it was midnight. We had such a great time! And these men changed our route toward Slovenia. They told us to head more southeast toward Graz for an easier and more beautiful route, following the Mur river into wineland. It rained like cats and dogs that night, but they cooked us breakfast in the morning before we were on our way. All of this for 14 euro's. Great company. Great beer from the next town over. And a delicious breakfast. I love Austria!
Although we didn't make it far after so many beers, we did eventually get to Graz 2 days later:-) Graz is an absolutely gorgoues city that even has a floating island in the middle of the river with a cafe. The buildings are a fabulous mix of old and new architecture and pretty much every person on the street has an ice cream cone. I often wonder which European country eats the most ice cream. Anyway, after a typical stop in the tourist office, we found a covered spot to check email and wait for the rain to pass. A guy rides up on his bike with his little boy in toy and starts asking us about our trip. After a few minutes of conversation, he asks if we have already set up camp somewhere and if not we are welcome to camp in his backyard that overlooks the city, he lives only 10 minutes from here. Sure! After a few more minutes of talking, he says, "Well, we have a tree house, you can stay there. Actually, with this rain, why don't you just stay in the house." We ride uphill to an absolutely beautiful gated home that has a view of the city. We could see the Schlossberg which is the castle ontop of the hill when the town took refuge when the Turk's invaded. So cool!

Michael offers us a shower with 4 towels, ah the luxuries of life, and says he and his son Nicholaus will be right back, they were heading to the store. How trusting! This guy that we just met left us in his beautiful home to freshen up. I'm still in awe! Michael is a very experienced mountaineer, a modest one, but those are always the best, so swapping stories was easy and of course entertaining. We cooked a late dinner before we slept on Nicholaus' mattresses that were pulled out into the living room. Just to have a chair on a back deck with a book that overlooks a city felt fantastic. The littlest things in life are truly the ones missed most. I apologize that this story is scattered, but there is just so much to tell. Michael speaks perfect English. We had such a difficult time placing his accent. He spent a year and a half in Australia and a year in America, so his accent is not typical German. He barely has an accent at all actually. And one of the coolest things is that he only speaks English to his 5 year old son. I don't believe his girlfriend speaks Englsih, but Michael has not spoken a lick of English to Nicholaus in his 5 years. Now that is dedication. How neat is that? They are just a fascinating father/son duo, one I feel so lucky to have met. Nicholaus is so smart and can understand everything in English. His sentences come out a little in German and a little in Englsih. He finally warmed up the next morning when I got down and built a train track with him. It was a blast! Life is interesting how it works out. Who knows, maybe now this family will come and visit us in the states someday? You never know what will lead you where.

Their generosity went above and beyond anything I expected. He made us breakfast and even offered for us to stay another night. But with the sun shining and blue skies, it's tough to pass a day of riding under these conditions. We did ride on that day, but first headed to Michael's parents house for lunch of homemade pizza's. We walk in to see his mom and 2 sisters rolling out dough and preparing lunch. It's neat to see family interactions everywhere. He is the oldest of 9 children and his dad is a deacon. His parents house sits right next to the church and is well placed for such a big city. In the middle of nowhere really. We had a fantastic lunch, although we kick ourselves that we don't speak German as we couldn't talk to his family. I always feel bad and wish I could converse as I know we are missing out on learning so much about the culture without the language knowledge. Something to know for our next journey in the future I guess.

Because of this encounter, we have now changed direction of our trip again. Taking Michael's advice, especially his being such an outdoorsman, we are now heading west, dipped into Slovenia but right back into Austria and are heading to Italy for some time in the Dolomites. Yes! We are riding along the Drau river, up the valley amongst such beautiful landscape. I swear our trip just keeps getting prettier if that's possible. We are book super excited to take some time for long hikes. Thank you Michael!