God is looking after me

Route: short journey from Ybbs to Melk

Either the monastery stays , or subsidising the church by drinking beer has paid off today. ( The church gets rent from many beer gardens and pubs, as well as in some cases the profits on beer from its own breweries).

Had what happened today happened on either of the previous two days, I would have been as they say in the finest English, in deep shit or worse.

I had a tyre rip which allowed the inner tube to misshape the tyre and make the bike uncyclable. It happened at about 5km per hour and in the town of Ybbs which has muliple bike shops. So my little mishap took a grand total of only 7 minutes to buy a new tyre and have a profi put it on.

Its not pleasant to think of it happening downhill at 40km/h or on a remoter part of the ride. I am pretty sure it would have been bad and/or taken hours to replace. I carry a spare inner tube, but of course not a tyre.

Other than the non drama, its been a quiet day, with only 32km of cycling. I went to the impressive old town of Melk with its pretty streets and its humongously large Abbey set on a rocky hilltop. It made me think about what impression this would have made on ordinary people back in 1700 when it was built. It felt to me at least that this was a massive projection of power.

I think that this evening I'll make my usual contribution to the churches finances after being so blessed today.Read more