Wow what a wonderful short stay at Hartberg. I had a fantastic host and a very quaint little village. I really wish I had some more time to stay longer to enjoy Hartberg. I had to push on just because the weather for the next few days seems fantastic and during this season, you need to take advantage of that. I believe in transition months the weather can be fairly unpredictable as we have seen already.
So with a bit of sadness I decided to leave and had a nice cup of coffee with Ulrich before he left for work and I went on to pack to leave a little bit later.
It was bright and sunny when I started my ride but temperature is still cool at around 9C. I am anticipating lots of climbing as the Route shows that I need to climb to 1000m before decending and Hartberg is at around 320m only. For the first 30KM or so it was climbing gentle and before I knew it I was already at 600m. Then the climb was visibly more steep but nothing that you need to dismount and push but very manageable. And the I was at 800m and that’s when the cross wind hit. Thankfully it was not too much a problem but it did make it more chilly. Finally I arrive at the peak at around 960m and had a wonderful decend for at least 6KM down to 400m ! Wohooooo! After that it’s gently downhill all the way to Sollenau.
My host only come home from work at around 4 pm but 1 arrived at his place at around 3 pm. I was asked to chill out at his verandah till he comes home.
At around 4 pm my host came home and showed me around his huge home. I was first shown his newly acquire chickens. He has one cock and 4 hens. The hens after 20 days already laying eggs. Usually 4 eggs a day.
Marco just ordered a big ass Smeg gas cooker and he needs help to move it into his apartment from his garage. So together with neighbour we managed to move it. After that Marco made a wondeful dinner for us and we had a nice evening with some wine.
After that we decided to call it the night. Tomorrow I will head to Vienna.
Reflective Saddle 
