Saturday 31st July
Alles Gutes zum Geburtstag Dani Schmidt!!
Finally the weather was great, Traunstein looked wonderful with a blue sky behind it. Ed and I rode into town briefly as we didn’t want to be late for Florian’s brother Georg, wife Denise and 1yr old daughter Melissa to arrive from Salzburg. In town we bought Gmundner Keramik to compliment the tea pot, butter plate, bowl, sugar container and cake plate that I bought it 1998. I hope that I can get it back home without breaking anything as my Dad did a nice job of gluing the serving plate back together for me in 98, We arrived back at Florian’s just in time to greet Florian’s brother and family. I wasn’t able to take to him straight away as I needed a couple of minutes to get my breath back from the steep hill needed to ride up to get the Pollack’s house. We had a very nice lunch on the balcony overlooking the lake and mountains and was great to catch up with Georg. The afternoon was spent at the animal park which overlooks the lake as well. On the way up to the park Ed kept saying he wished he had his road bike as we kept seeing cyclist making the climb up the mountain. All I kept thinking about was we will have enough hills to ride up once we are back on our bikes in Monday….
Melissa reminded me of my niece Chelsea at the park, big blue eyes looking at everything and wanting to see everything. From all the animals in the park the common Guinea pig was her favorite and she made quite a scene when we left them to go to the Reindeer Park. We were able to pat the Reindeers and feed them as they weren’t behind a fence. It was as though we were out in the forest as there wasn’t any barriers between us.
Ed and I walked home the “Abenteur” adventure way as we decided we needed more time outside in the good weather. We didn’t get back to Florian’s until 8.30pm. I think they were was a little worried about us but as I said we had an “abenteur” which is code for getting a little lost!!
Sunday, 1st August.
Diana, you would be jealous of what we did this morning or so Eddie thinks so…. We went to a Heidelbeere Garten which is a Blueberry farm and picked our own blueberries. For all those who know the engagement story Ed and I frequently go to a pick your own blueberries at a farm in Coffs. This blueberry farm was about 10 times bigger and the plants about half the height making it very easy to pick them. They were a little bigger than the ones we have picked at home and see in the shops but the taste is exactly the same. While picking them Ed was dreaming about having them in a milkshake as he frequently does at home. I think Florian’s mum sees blueberry picking as a sport as she loves going to the farm and out picked the combined amount Flo, Ed and I picked! In the hour that we were there we picked over 11kg. €5.90 per kilo. How does that sound Di, any good?
We spent the middle of the day down at the lake in the boat house. Ed and I decided we would brave the 17 degree water and swim over to the swimming pool that backs onto the lake for old times sake. It was only about 300m away. At the swimming pool we went down the slide a couple of times to warm up and did a race in the fully steel lined 50m pool. That was also for old time sake as when Ed came to visit me at the end of my exchange year I had a swimming carnival that he came to watch. So when we were on the blocks ready to dive in I could see the carnival from 12 yrs ago and the lake and mountains that were actually around us. It took us a while to summon up the nerve to dive back into the lake to swim back to the boat house but once we were in it wasn’t too bad. We then spent the next half hour on blown up tyre paddling around the boat house. Everyone couldn’t believe we could spend that much time in the water as a swim for them really meant a dip of a couple of minutes or so.
We were able to catch up with my host family in the late afternoon. Their house is just the way I remember it. The garden is still full of beautiful flowers and lots of edible fruits that we were able to sample thru a fruit strudel. Everyone still looks the same except for Eva. Eva was 8yrs old when I was there, so now in her 20’s she stands over me and was very excited to see me. Gregor who was 14 when I was there came home from a day of climbing. He is very strong looking. Maria and Pepi my host parents are now both retired but keeping very active in the local community. The only person I didn’t catch up with was my host sister Julia. She is currently living in Manila with her husband and 2 children.
It was hard to say goodbyes not knowing the next time I would see them again. Maybe one day they will take me up on my offer and come visit me in the Australia.
The night was spent getting our things ready for the next chapter in our bike journey.
Monday 2nd August.
Our bike touring starts again. First stop Salzburg. Famous for being the home of Mozart and the setting for the Sound of Music. It was hard riding away from Gmunden but I am glad we caught up with everyone and able to take in the beauty once again.
Salzburg was a little over 100km’s away. We stopped once for lunch at St Gilgen on Lake Wolfgang. It is the birthplace of Mozart’s mother. On the way out of St Gilgen the shortest route to Salzburg was over the mountain. So it was into the granny gear and slow going all the way up the climb. Took about an hour or so. Once at the top of the climb though it was relatively easy going all the way towards Salzburg. Hard to imagine that only 5 km out of Salzburg you are still in rich farmland and no hint of there being a major city only 10 mins away.
Tuesday 3rd August.
Rained all night and most of the morning. The forecast wasn’t very promising for the rest of the day either. Didn’t leave the Gasthaus until 11am. Perfect timing, no rain and hopefully it would stay that way for the remainder of the day, even though the dark clouds were ever present peaking around the mountains that surround Salzburg. Once again, most of the pictures contain Chelle and I in our yellow jackets. Sightseeing this morning was going to be a rush job, as we weren’t sure of the weather and we had to make our way out of the city and in the direction of Innsbruck. We were able to get in most of the sights in quick time as the bicycle is ideal for getting around the city. Had we have been able to spend more time here with cooperative weather I’m sure we could easily entertain ourselves with all the sights. The Sound of Music tour would definitely be on the list!!!! I reckon it would be a blast going to all of the sights from the movie and I have heard that they play the songs on the bus to get everyone in the mood.
By 12.30 we were on our way again towards Inzell and to try and link up with the Mozart Radweg (bike path/bike way). I saw the map on a board outside our accommodations last night. Really slow going today, we are headed into the alpine region of Austria and Germany. (Note I say slow going but the bike computer had a slight hiccup this morning and in the first 30 minutes we covered about 35km due to our average speed for this portion being a little over 95km per hour) Out of the city and awe head straight towards those big mountains. A couple of big climbs on roads with steep cliffs on either side. The mountains feel quite big and you feel quite insignificant as you ride along. Conquered the first big climb and came into the town of Bad ReichenHall and we are back into Germany again. Its about time for some lunch and this town is really very picturesque nestled amongst the mountains. The weather also looks like it might change. Walking through the centre of the Altstadt (old city) we come across a restaurant selling Mozart Kugeln (chocolates!!!) On Michelles last trip to Austria, a box of Mozart Kugeln’s went missing from her luggage when it was lost on the return journey home. So this was a bonus coming across this place. It is the home of these particular chocolates. Took some photos in the Mozart square and of course bought some chocolates. Had to hang around town for a while to wait for the passing shower to subside. Once the weather looked ok we set off again, and settled straight into a nice rhythm for the next big climb. Passed a few nice villages along the way and seriously thought about stopping and staying in a frei zimmer (room) but it was only about 4pm and a bit early to call it quits for the day.
At Inzell we came across a massive construction project. It will be a brand new ice skating hall. Inzell is hosting the world championships for long track speed skating next year in March. This area of Germany appears to be the home of speed skating, cross country skiing and also biathlon. 4.30 pm should we continue on towards Ruhpolding or not??? It’s 10km away and over yet another climb, not nearly as long as the others but still another climb. 5km up and 5km down, I figure we can probably make it there by about 5pm and then finish up for the day. Arrive in Ruhpolding at 5.10pm and then we have to try and find accommodation which turns out to not be as easy as we thought. This is a fairly popular sort of place, it’s holiday season right now for Germany (kind of reminds us of Jindabyne, the scenery as well as the crisp temperature of the air, it feels like a cool autumn evening). Finally find a nice frei zimmer and as luck would have it the lady asks us if we would like to go for a swim. Of course we would “we are water babies” as Michelle told her. We are now the lucky holders of the city pass, a card which should gets us into a lot of the main attractions around town “gratis”!!! We go to the Thermal pool. What a place, water slide, thermal pools, and a wave pool. Who would have thought I could go body surfing in the German alps in 22 degree water.
I think one of the other attractions on the card is a toboggan ride, one of Michelle’s favourite things to beat me at. Hopefully we can do it in the morning and check out a few of the other attractions around town. This really is a nice place to have stopped for the evening and you know what makes it even better, it is unexpected because it wasn’t one of the places we had planned to stop over for the night. I’m sure we will sleep well tonight, a quiet little mountain village, far away from the city, it WILL be nice and quiet!!
Wednesday 4th August.
Well this place was so nice we decided to stay another evening after checking out most of the attractions. We went for another swim of course. Check out the swim centre on www.vita-alpina.de, and the area of Ruhpolding on www.ruhpolding.de Then we went to the Freizeit park and the Holtzknechtmuseum. It’s kinda like Timbertown in Wauchope. Heaps of things for the kids to do. Sharon, I reckon Tom and Josh would love this place.
We caught the gondola up to the top of the Rauschberg. www.ruhpolding.de/rauschbergbahn. The main peak that overlooks this area (1626m). The view was great due to the good weather today. When you look north all you see is the flat land of Germany and then when you look in any other direction the massive peaks of the Alps. This area of Ruhpolding is basically the beginning of the Alps. Its hard to imagine that from the flat land just a few km’s away the peaks rise suddenly and continue all the way across France, Germany, Austria and into Italy. Lots of trekking and mountain biking to be done in this area. Makes me think I should be booking a holiday down at Jindy this summer to get in some altitude training. Any takers on that offer???
Change of plans we wont be heading into the Alps towards Innsbruck, the weather is a bit against us and we need to start making our way north again so we will be heading in a westerly direction towards Fussen, and we might be able to see the castle that Walt Disney modeled his theme park on.
