Home away from Home

Mon 26th July

I have always felt and hopefully will always feel that Austria/Gmunden is like a second home to me.
On the train from Passau I was picturing what Traunstein looks like, it is a grand mountain that sits proudly looking over lake Traunsee and the towns Gmunden and Altmuenster. We were still approx 20km away when I first spotted the mountain. The weather was still overcast and as they write in the German weather reports, “unfriendly”. Eddie wasn’t too sure but from one year seeing the mountain I was sure! I felt as though I was 17 again and going to Gmunden for the first time but seeing familiar things this time.

At Gmunden train station we were greeted by a very friendly smile belonging to Florian. He had been waiting for us and it was great to see him again. Florian’s father, Walter also made a special trip to the train station to greet us and said I hadn’t changed in the 12yrs that I was last here. Hopefully if we come back in another 12yrs he might say the same thing J As Flo only lives 2km from the train station we rode our bikes to his place with him escorting in the car. His house is on top of mountain and I was quickly reminded of how steep the hill was by my heavy breathing and needing to ride out of the saddle. Once inside it was as though I was only here yesterday everything was still familiar with Gmunder Ceramic still in its special display cabinet. Ed was amazed at the amount of Gmunder Ceramic the Pollack’s have. Gmunder Ceremic is known all around Europe for it’s distinctive design. It is that precious to the locals that they threw it into the Lake during the world wars so it was not taken from them or destroyed.
Chef Flo cooked us a very yummy spaghetti bolognaise that we appreciated from our long day of riding. We spent the night catching up on Flo’s past adventures, like the time he decided to ride to Vienna which is 300km away and did it in 1 day…. or the time he decided to run to Salzburg which is 70km away….. Or the time he decided to swim from one side of the lake to the other side which is wait for it…..12km!!!! We said to him he should do Challenge Roth next year no problem. Bryan, we have found you a new soul mate.

Tues 27th July
For our first day in Gmunden the weather decided to stay rainy and cold and at times we could not see the mountain Traunstein. However the highlight of the morning for me was that we got to try Florian’s mum’s homemade/grown strawberry and apricot jams, absolutely delicious. We went to see Florian’s sister Eva, and her new house. Well the making of the new house. Eva and her husband are building onto the back of a barn on her husband’s parents property. We met all the workers on the worksite which are the couples friends. As a wedding present their friends gave them their time and hard work in the making of their new house. There are about 15-20 people on the worksite each day and even someone cooks the daily meals for the workers which may I add is a hot meal followed by some sort of dessert.
Ed and I were very interested to see how they build houses over here and what we saw was they build them with massive building blocks and glue them together for the foundation and structure of the house. No wooden/steel framework that we see the builders construct in Australia. We have lots of questions for Craig Shone about the construction process and are looking forward to see the progress of the Shone’s house as well.

It was only fitting the next thing we did was a look at a house for sale…Florian and his girlfriend, Sylvia have been looking for a house to buy and there just so happened to be a house inspection today. We were allowed (from the real estate agent) to view the house as well. In Austria the house viewings are during the week and the owner and Real Estate agent are both present at the house inspection. It was good having the owner there as any questions or concerns could be answered on the spot. The house was a fairly new house with 105msq of living space in the main part of the house and another 105msq down stairs in the Cellar which opened up to the backyard. The main living was finished but the Cellar was not been finished and needs all the trimmings to be completed like paint and floor coverings. It was however the first backyard pool that I was seen in Austria. It was a little weird looking being above ground and a perfect circle but never the less it was a back yard pool in Austria. (note; no pool fence around it or the next door neighbours inground pool)

Weds 28 July.
Our second day here in Gmunden and the weather is reasonable enough for us to go down to the lake. Florian’s family are lucky enough to have a boat house on the lake which has been in the family for a very long time. There are only a handfull of boathouses on the lake and they are no longer allowed to be built.
Eddie and I rowed Florian and Sylvia around the lake. My left arm sometimes got a little wayward at times and the oar wouldn’t enter the water on the right angle splashing Florian and Eddie a little. It got to the point that Florian had to put a rain jacket on…. - opps.

Looking at Gmunden from the boat it doesn’t look any different to when I was here in my exchange year. The Rathaus (town hall) is still the town’s signature green colour with the Glockenspiel (bell tower) made out of ceramic. I use to go into town just to sit and listen to it, it is definitely a piece of art. We rowed directly under the mountain Traunstein, it was impressive looking at the sheer cliff face from a closer perspective.

The water temperature was a chilly 17 degrees so we opted out of swimming however when we were walking down to the boat house a lady was swimming in the lake naked. Florian’s aunt told me that afternoon the lake’s temperature has been 22-24 degrees for the 2 weeks prior to us coming. It had only dropped so much since the weather changed to cold and raining. I can’t believe that Russia is experiencing the hottest summer it has ever had and we are what it feels like back in an Australian winter. I hope Muddy, Rose, Pete and Ann are ok on their bike travels up north.

For those people that were lucky enough to try Florian’s banana knodels when he visited Ed and I in Australia would be very jealous to hear that he made us Apricot Knodels for lunch today. In Oz we had problems finding all the required ingredients so Florian was a little unsure if they would turn out ok but I think it was a success. Knodel’s (dumplings) is an Austrian signature dish either sweet or savory. We would have the sweet varieties as a dessert at home but here they are served as a main dish. Florian’s Knodels were light and fluffy with the apricot spilling out it’s bright orange puree once sliced into. Absolutely perfect and we appreciate all the time and effort Florian put into planning and making them for us. I think he did too as he polished off around 20 to our 4.

An afternoon stroll was required after lunch to help with the digestion. No better place other than around the lake. It was still cold and overcast but okay for walking. Once down at the esplanade plenty of memories came flooding back of the times spent down there in summer of 97. A camping area with tennis courts, beach volley ball, grass area to sunbake (that was referring back to 97 memories) and an outdoor opera house.

Thurs 29th July.
Florian and his dad went to the house worksite on Thursday to help with the installation of the roof of Eva’s house. They said everything was still working out well with the extra helpers (15) which made it a very fast installation with the professional roof installers.

We took the opportunity while the sun was making it’s first appearance for a while to ride down to the end of the lake (20km) to a town called Ebensee. Once in Ebensee we turned left into the mountains and rode 7km mostly uphill (I was glad we didn’t have the panniers on the back of the bikes) to a little lake called Langbathsee which we were able to ride around in about 10mins. Yesterday while in Gmunden we were informed the temperature of this lake is much warmer in comparison to Traunsee so we thought it would be a good idea to go for a swim. The lake is in a valley surrounded by many tall mountains. At this stage the sun was gone and there was a cloud just over the mountains covering their peaks but being typical tourists we thought nothing of it and proceeded in the lake. When I was in the water I saw a couple of men on the side of the bank. At first I thought they were waving to me but then I realized they were pointing to the mountain behind me. I turned around to see the cloud that was just hovering over the mountain before getting into the water was traveling extremely fast in our direction and the water on the other side of the lake had white horses from the strength of the wind pushing the cloud and water straight towards us. I quickly got out of the water and as soon as Ed got out the wind and the very low cloud were right over us. It was the fastest change in the open I have every accomplished and we jumped back on our bikes and made the descent into Ebensee at a decent pace. We didn’t want to be caught in the middle of a storm so we rode back into Gmunden with the wind behind us.

Once in Gmunden the rain started and didn’t stop for the rest of the day. We took refuge by going into the shops and checking out Gmunder Ceramic workshop. The ceramic is still the same, very nice and very expensive. We watched a film showing how they hand paint the different patterns on the plates and the unique technique is the same as it was 300 years ago.

This brings the blog up to date to today Friday the 30th of July, Timon Schmidt’s 12th Birthday- Alles gutes zum geburtstag Timon J the plan for today was to go for a trek up Sonnstein and take in the panoramic view of Gmunden and the surrounding mountains but from the minute we woke up until now (4.30pm) it hasn’t stopped raining and the mountains are covered in very low covered clouds. I hope that tomorrows forecast for sunshine is a reality so we can get outside again and on Monday carry on with our bike travels.

4 days and 300 km later

Arriving in Passau.

So we have arrived in Passau. The first part of our cycle journey completed, 300km in 4 days. We followed the winding path of the Donau from Pillhausen south past Regensburg (IM town) to Donaustauf and then onto to Mariaposching. From there through the farm land to Passau.

It rained again on and off on Saturday as we set of from Pillhausen late around 2pm. We tried to leave as late as possible to avoid the rain for as long as possible. The Radweg (bike path) through this part of the country was quite spectacular. We both agree that this part would have been the better part of the journey had we not had to keep our heads down to avoid getting rain in our eyes. The canal winds its way through the mountains in this region and then eventually out onto flatter farming land towards Regensburg. We stopped in Regensburg for a short time to look around. Couldn’t find a map of the city anywhere but eventually made our way into the centre of the Altstadt (old city) and saw the old church and the town square. The place was quite busy and lots of people were out and about enjoying the festival which was taking place this weekend. On Sunday there is a bicycle tour and also a classic car rally. The cars were being shown in the main part of town. My favourite was the combi van.

We wanted to see if we could try and organise some accom for Sunday evening, so we broke one of our cardinal rules and went to Mcdonalds. In Europe you usually have to purchase something and use the code on the receipt to access the WiFi. But not here! No code, but you have to put your German handy number (mobile number) and then you have to sign up to a plan and then you receive a code by SMS and then you can access the internet. Don’t have a German mobile number, so we can’t use and the staff weren’t so helpful either. So in the end all we got out of this experience was a meal (yuk) and respite from the rain for about half an hour.

We decide to leave when the rain eased and make our way back onto the bike path and head out of town for about 10km to Donaustauf where our FeWo awaited us. A few wrong turns and a lap around the city and we were back onto the path. By this time we were soaked again due to another intense downpour.

Found our accommodation quite easily. Now let me explain what a FeWo is. FeWo stands for Ferien Wohnung. (holiday house or holiday flat). This means it is self contained. It was a brilliant place, small kitchen and living area, bedroom and bath room. Muddy, I highly recommend this place if you do IM Regensburg next year. Only $40E for the night including Fruhstuck (breakfast). Its only $30E if you don’t get breakfast. There is a small supermarket just at the bottom of the hill which is also right on the bike route for the IM.

Watched TV for the first time for quite while and even got to watch some English speaking programs as the cable TV had CNN. Learned that there was a awful tragedy at the Love Parade in Duisburg and 19 people have died and many injured, some info on the oil spill in the gulf and watched the review of the time trial from the tour.

In the morning our breakfast was brought to us at 8am (we may get away earlier today) more yummy bread rolls and hams and cheeses. After brekky walked up the hill and walked around the ruined castle that stands atop the peak that looks across the river, the flat land back towards Regensburg and further south where the fertile farming land is. The views are amazing. It was interesting walking around the grounds and wondering what the castle must have looked like 500 years ago.

We were able to get away by 11am today and the weather is perfect!!!!! No need for a jacket, sunscreen applied and we were off, only to stop about 5 mins down the road because Donaustauf is also the location of a monument known as Valhalla. It was a building built on the order of King Ludwig. Read more about it here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donaustauf). Very interesting.

We had no set agenda for today other than to enjoy the fine weather (finally!!) and get as far south as possible. The participants in the rad-marathon were all coming towards us on the bike path. There were 6 different rides one could choose from varying from about 20km up to 240km. Most people chose to do the 56km route. There was about 7000 people in the event all together. A lot of the ride today was on asphalt which made the going a little easier. We eventually came to Straubing, which is a very pretty village, with different coloured buildings. We stopped here for a little while and had lunch at a café. So many cakes to choose from and so little room to fit them in. Mmmmmmmm. We were worried about finding anywhere to eat so this café was a good find, nothing is open on Sundays, so there is only the natural scenery to enjoy.

Every little village we passed through seemed to be deserted. I’m not sure what all the people do on Sundays, but they certainly aren’t out and about doing stuff in their yards. Because today was such a nice day weather wise, we were able to see many other people also bike touring. It is good to see what gear they have and how many bags they have and so on, to reassure us they we have approximately the right amount of stuff.

We decided we should push on and go a bit harder for a while as with no accommodation for this evening we need to find a village and start looking. No sooner than this decision had been made, bang, another flat tyre. Same rear tyre as on Friday. What a bugger, at this rate with all of our stops and leisurely riding pace we won’t get anywhere. The problem was a huge hole on the actual tyre. I didn’t see this on Friday, and I am sort of unsure of how to fix this problem and get going again. After a few possibilities, we decided to use some of the cardboard we had to patch the hole temporarily and try and make it to somewhere and then deal with the problem in the morning. We had to ride slowly as I wasn’t sure how long the patch job would last due to the size of the hole. No going quickly, going carefully over bumps, trying to avoid any sharp looking rocks!!!! This is going to take forever.

The next major village was Bogen (can you believe it??) and they had a number of different accommodation options, but as it was only 3.30pm we decided to try and ride till at least 5pm and cover some more ground to make Mondays journey a bit less. About 4.30pm we saw a sign for a Gasthof which looked nice. 1.7km links (left) it said on the sign. So we followed the trail, which was rocky and dusty and hoped that we had interpreted the sign correctly and it didn’t mean 1.7km up the road and then left. We found the Gasthof and they had rooms available. Perfect!!! We were both very tired after todays ride, not sure why we didn’t cover as much ground as the previous days.

We had a great dinner, it turns out that this place is the locals hang out for this town, and we got talking to a few people when they asked about us and Michelle told them about me having done Roth Challenge last week. A few of the guys have done ultra marathons before and one of them was a bike rider. It was a very funny conversation!!!!!!

In the morning we had to get away early as we wanted to make Passau by 3pm to get a train. Our first stop was Deggendorf and find a bike shop. Due to the rain over the last few days the river is swollen and it has burst its banks and has covered the bike path in places. We had one interesting moment later in the day when we saw a guy walking back the other way telling us the path was covered with water more than waist deep. We had to take a detour on the road and this was pleasant as we passed right through a few nice villages.

We found a bike shop with the help of a friendly local who escorted us right to the door. 2 new tyres and some new tubes and few other things and we were ready to go again.

We didn’t really stop for lunch today, just ate whilst we rode. It was a nice sunny day of riding and we covered a fair bit of ground and eventually made Passau by 3pm. Found the hauptbahnhof and bought tickets to Gmunden $35E, bargain! Only a short trip about 2 hours and we have ventured into our 3rd European country, Austria. Gunter and Danni, your bikes are now also international travellers.

The Road from Roth!!!

Let me start by painting you a picture of where we are at the moment. We are accommodated in a small gasthof adjacent to the donau canal in a small village called Pillhausen approximately 90 km south of Georgensgmund and Roth. There are steep hills on either side of the village covered in conifers and the canal winds it way around these contours making its way south. Just up the road there is a schloss (castle/fort) built on the pinnacle of a rocky outcrop. Sounds nice doesn’t it?

Yesterday (Friday 23rd July) marked the beginning of our next adventure. Our pannier bags arrived in the post on Thursday and after receiving a call from Florian (a friend of Michelle from her exchange year in Austria) we decided to head south towards Passau following the canal. This would be flat and the scenery should be nice. Gunter and Danni have kindly lent us their bicycles for the next 2 ½ weeks, so now we are on our very own, make it up as you go, bicycle tour. The racks and associated bits and pieces you need for a tour we obtained from a huge bike shop in Nurnberg on Wednesday, Stadlers. No it doesn’t have anything to do with Normann Stadler I already asked that question. I have never seen such a huge bike shop. Everything you could ever need and more.

After purchasing all our gear Gunter took us to the museum in Nurnberg. It is a great museum, highly recommended and only $5 euro. If you come to Nurnberg I think you should visit this museum. It is built as part of the huge coliseum that Hitler had visions for the Nazi party main building. The area where the museum is situated is all part of Hitlers grand plans for Nurnberg as he believed it was the “most german” city in Germany. It has a lot of stuff about Hitler and the history surrounding the Nazi party as Nurnberg was the gathering city for the Nazi party rallies in the 30’s and 40’s.

We also walked around Nurnberg on Tuesday (well Michelle, Gunter Danni, Timon and Kimi walked, I kind of waddled) and had a look in the old part of the city where the castle and town were originally built. Narrow cobbled streets and tall buildings. Huge open market squares and the church and Rathaus (city hall, this means council building in modern terms) are all in the Altstadt.

So back to the present. How we got here and why we holed up in this gasthof. We set off on Friday from Georgensgmund about 2pm with a full bicycle escort from Timon and Mika who showed us the way to the canal. It took a bit of getting used to, riding the bikes fully laden with gear but once you are going it isn’t to bad. Danni and Kimi took some photos of us on our way (it is a bit sad leaving the Schmidts as they have been fantastic hosts and we have established a great friendship already, however we will be back in a few weeks to give back their bicycles and pick up our gear for our trip back home). As soon as we reached the next village I was roped into helping this old lady set up her roadside stall for selling her cherries. It was so funny and Danni and I couldn’t stop laughing as we set up the umbrella and tied it off to the tree. With some fresh cherries for dessert this evening and pointed in a southerly direction we said our goodbyes and pedalled off down the road. No sooner had we lost our escort it started to rain and by the time we were in Hipoltstein (near the swim start) we were soaked. A quick call into penny markt and we had some supplies for lunch and dinner. I have found a new love, Muller Milk. It is so yummy I think I have drunk at least one each day since being here in Roth. (After Challenge I think I drank 4). So we followed the canal all the way to here. Past the locks, and a few interesting little villages which would have been nice to have a look in had it not been pouring. I got a flat tyre and it was at this point I realized I didn’t have any tyre levers in the repair kit. Managed to fix this with a minimum of swearing. Finally arrived here last night just after 8.30pm. A nice start to the adventure.

If you want to imagine what yesterday was like. Just think of the worst day you have had riding when the weather has turned nasty, and then add that you are riding with 3 full pannier pannier bags, in normal shoes, on a muddy path, and you have to keep riding for another 85km in that weather to get back home and have a warm shower and lie down. But hey we are still smiling!!!

We are trying to leave here as late as possible so we don’t have to ride in the rain for quite as long today. Next stop a small village just after Regensburg (IM town 01/08/2010) Donaustauf. Wish us luck, our jackets only keep us dry for so long.