Good Times on the Worthersee

Klagenfurt is a lovely little town in Austria that I can guarantee we would have never, ever visited (or heard of) if Todd had not signed up for Ironman Austria.

The Ironmen love their gear, so we were travelling the opposite of light:  a bike in a giant plastic case, four big bags, etc.   Happily, our bags travelled perfectly during all seven flights through all four countries.  And they were great flights: by Frankfurt, I was convinced we could just get back on the plane and go home, and still have had a great vacation.

We arrived in a rainy Klagenfurt in the afternoon.  Trying our best to stay awake until at least sunset, we set out to explore the city.  Unfortunately, everything seemed to have shut down for siesta, and the rain was pouring non stop.   There may have been some temper tantrums at that point.  Maybe.

After a good night's sleep, a three-croissant breakfast (which remained a pattern for pretty much the rest of the trip), and registration down at "Iron City," we got a chance to explore Klagenfurt in the sun.  Quite a difference!  The town has several pedestrian-only streets covered with shops and restaurants.  You can easily spend a day going from meal to meal under canopies on cobblestone plazas.  Pretty rough.

The next two days are a mix of touring the town of Klagenfurt and assorted Ironman prep.  The highlight, hands down, is Minimundus.  I read about Minimundus in Lonely Planet, and it seemed like a joke.  Mini-replicas of assorted famous buildings and landmarks from around the world?  Yes, Please!

What they failed to mention is that you can easily spend several hours and twice that many rolls of film in the wonder that is Minimundus.  Um, space shuttle lanch, complete with fake-smoke and moving parts?  Can I buy a season pass?

Ironman is a phenomenal production.  It is long day-- we were at breakfast at 4 AM, and back at the hotel around 11 PM.  Throughout the race, there were several helicopters with cameras that followed the progress, camera men on motorcycles, medics on bicycles, over 2,000 athletes, and about a gillion spectators.