In the manner of speaking…

…another day on the road, another day in life, another day and another day…how many days does one have? All and everything has its number. We have this life and our health is still in tact. How many days, how many pedal strokes, how many times before we eat the last pizza? (Lucky we don’t know!)

Life on the road, days, weeks, years - I get tired of it, I get ecstatic about it….want to go home, want to stay cycling for ever. My gurly, the wind, the ever changing scenery, humans…same same but different. Can’t get enough….tired of it all. A mosaic of feelings of myself in constant motion.

We came down the mountains rolling south from Vienna and over the Semmering Pass…the easiest one to cross the Alps we’ve been told and so it was. As high as 990m and no more…

But the thrill was the Ciclovia -Alpe-Adria- Radweg: Rails to trails. 

The countless tunnels, 

https://youtu.be/2ocBrcF_K14

the peaceful enjoyment of a path without cars…the occasional old stations - either ghostly/mysteriously abandoned or converted into a location to feed and water the by-passers. 

https://youtu.be/DcEBMsGCfPI

Down, down with a 1-2% slope one feels a POWERFUL sensation of moving forward (hardly sense the downward) without pedaling…like it must be an-e-bike-feeling. While there is no need to use the brakes on that gentle descent there is ample time to enjoy the scenery that “knocks-one’s-socks-off”:

I have no clue why the sun was shining that day when the wheels kept turning underneath us…..the beauty almost kills me…I want to live forever and keep seeing, watching life around me and in me. 

Some stupid distractions sneak in to give balance to struggle not to fall into something of a black hole - only thoughts as dark as “Pech” - so very human are we all. Only human - conscious still, because alive - still.

Been learning about consciousness (more like the awareness of it - it’s always there.) and the attachment to the illusion of self importance (comes so very easy to us as in a default position)- also called ego. The liberation in a positive free falling of letting go of the e-go. I enjoy that ride too!

In the manner of speaking……wish I had the words.

Mark Twain in “The innocents abroad” has more words than I can grasp or understand. He had a gift to place them and a wealth of words at his disposal. James and I are listening to his description of his first journey to Europe. How entertaining!

Today we are sitting in another barn - concrete feeding barn attached to a beautiful little establishment called “Casa Pace”

Advertised as a B&B on the side of the road…along a little levee we cycled about 500m -the clouds above threatening to let loose on us. Charming, with little tables, chairs…inviting with its little red window shutters, wooden doors in an old stone building next to a huge barn. 

The friendly woman told us it’s closed for the winter - no heat! She called around to help us find an appropriate shelter, while we tried to explain our way of cycle touring. English bridged some of the language barriers, but “our style” was another…..

Yes, we’d love a heated room, shower, shelter, a bed….BUT, we really only need a roof against the rain -we are loaded with all we need and it is not the “stone soup” story…we tried to explain. Her conscience couldn’t let us go after trying in vain to find neighboring friends to help us out. She offered us the barn…

Here I sit and think of the time this too will be a memory. It is now and in memory it will be another. How is it to experience the moment already as a memory…I am trying a little and it makes me smile.