From Muta to Völkermarkt (Aug. 17)

Today's hard facts:
Distance: 61 km
Avg speed: 14.1 km/h
Trip time: 4:21 hr (total 7 hr)
Altitude: 460 m (Völkermarkt)
Route: Muta - Trbonje - Dravograd - Lavamünd - Neuhaus - St. Luzia - Untermitteldorf - Ruden - Kleindiex - Lippendorf - Völkermarkt

We had an incredible breakfast at Pri Izodorju (the owner and his wife were very friendly, which is worth noting because they have closed on Mondays). Today we followed the Drau bike path, which turned out to be not the best idea. The scenery is great sometimes, but the price are lots of extra ascents and kilometers.

After some beautiful hop fields and a few kilometers, I realized that I was stuck in my left pedal binding. The reason was a lost screw. We were able to fix the problem temporarily, and bought a new screw in Lavamünd, in a bike store with a clerk that did not really want to sell Andrea new pedals and shoes with a binding because he was on lunch break. I hope Andrea will have more luck tomorrow.

But there also was a cool thing about Lavamünd: The Lavant river meets the Drau river there, and the brown water of the Lavant and the green water of the Drau do not mix for a long distance - like the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes in Brasil (but more impressive, as Andrea says).

The day was hot and humid, but the Drau bike path had a highlight for us to make up for that: the suspension bridge across the Feistritz near St. Luzia, followed by the Jauntal railroad bridge. Both extremely high and narrow!

Unfortunately, the rest of today's trip brought us not much more than corn fields. From Ruden to Völkermarkt, the road distance is 12 km. On the bike path, we had to go 16.5 km. So we decided to take more roads and less bike trails for the rest of our trip - we want to get somewhere and not waste our energy on detours through corn fields.

In Völkermarkt, we were lucky to find an affordable place to stay (Gasthof Isaak) - and the dinner at the Gasthof zum Goldenen Ochsen was exactly what we needed to make us happy.