The castle, mondays closed and resting under the shade of a tree

Thursday 5th August

Well the day started off well enough, down hill run to Seigerdorf then across towards Bernau. We made good time for the first part of the day and got 50km into our journey by about lunchtime. Linked up with a bike path for a while which took us through farming land and skirting the edge of the mountain range. We saw lots and lots of bicycle tourists today. However all of them we riding in the opposite direction. I believe the usual route most people take is from Bodensee (on the border of Germany and Switzerland) towards Salzburg. It was heartening to see so many riders today, reassuring us that we were at least on the right path even if we were headed on the opposite direction. It was also good to see the different types of gear that they have. Some of the panniers that people have are pretty expensive looking. We feel that our bags are pretty good, they have certainly proved to be 100% wasserdicht (waterproof) and we are decked out in our distinguishing yellow jackets. By about 1.30pm it started to drizzle and the jackets had to stay on for good. By about 2pm it was raining and we were soaked through. What a lovely day for a ride on a touring bike with fully loaded panniers. Michelle had a tough day today, some of the climbs were long and steep and it was into the wind and the rain. I thought she might want to quit at any time, but Michelle just kept on going like an energizer bunny only much, much slower. Maybe an energizer bunny with no name batteries. Had to let Michelle lead up all the climbs so that I didn’t get carried away and ride off. We have found that when we come to a hill, it is easier for Michelle to set the pace and I just follow behind offering words of encouragement like “nearly there“ (not) or “the top is just around this next corner“ (not), or “we go down hill soon” (not).
The map I bought in Gmunden for 20c is good but I have a suggestion for the printers on the next edition. It should have things printed on it for cyclists like, “you’ll enjoy this bit” or “I know it looks flat on this map but the hill near here is very hard and you should have chosen a different route“, or maybe “are you crazy?” Made it into Meisbach by about 3.15. It was very, very cold. We were unable to find any accommodation at all. Reason why?? Who the hell knows? The town didn’t really appear to be a tourist sort of place, it had a totally different feel to any of the other places we have passed through or stayed at. Not sure how to describe it but it just didn’t have that usual European feel to it. It could have been any place back in Oz.

After riding around for about an hour finally located the tourist information building who confirmed that there was no accommodation available at all. They made a booking for us in Waakirken about 14km away. Great, back into the weather again. The ride here wasn’t quite as bad as I initially thought it would be, probably due to the fact that we were already as cold and as wet as we were gonna get anyway. No photos today, although the scenery was nice, by the standards set on previous days it wasn’t photo worthy. There was one sign I saw which would have been a great momento but the rain was to heavy at this point and we were headed downhill. The sign was for a small town, and the name of the town was “Ed”.

Found the place for the night. Now we can say we have stayed in all the various types of accommodation available. FeWo, Frei Zimmer, and Bauernhof. (a bauernhof is a converted barn). We stayed in our wet gear and rode about 1km up the road into town and had dinner at a nice restaurant that served typical Bayernish fare. Ie Schnitzel and roasts with kraut and knoedel. Yum! Distance covered for the day 110km and about 50km of that was in the rain. Yippee!!!

The plan will be changing yet again due to this weather (might get the train today and skip a day of rain riding) which is supposed to last until today and then we should (fingers crossed) get nice weather up until Tuesday at least. Hopefully in those 4 days we can cover the distance we need to and make it back to Georgensgmund nice and dry.

Well, it rained non stop all day. It was very windy, and the rain was about as hard as it has been. However we hardly even got wet. Total kilometres covered for the day about 5km. We rode from Waakirchen to the station then boarded a train which took us into Munich. We then caught another train which supposed to take us right back down to the boarder of Germany and Austria, and the enchanting old world town of Fussen. As we managed to get into Munich well before the train was due to leave we were able to buy our tickets and board the train straight away as it was already waiting on the platform. One, to get out of the cold, and two, to make sure we got a good seat. Nobody was even on the train when we boarded. Got the bikes a good position and snagged a good seat. This turned out to be a brilliant idea. It was a very popular train and by the time it was about to leave it was fully packed. We were both very glad we didn’t have to stand up holding onto our bikes and then have the trouble of shifting about every time somebody wanted to get off or on.

Like most of our adventures something had to happen along the way. The train broke down, “kaput“, not going any further. We had to wait for the next train, thankfully we were able to stay inside and keep warm until it came about 45 minutes later. On the journey to Hopferau about 8km from Fussen we were able to see the flooding which all the rain over the last few days has caused. Every river, stream and creek had broken it banks. At one point we were watching a bike path beside the tracks which disappeared under a torrent of water.

Up early the next morning, our host kindly rode with us to the start of the bike path which would takes up around the lake and into Fussen and Schwangau. This was the coldest start to a day so far, 10 degrees Celsius, and this is summer! Riding south the view is framed once again by the enormous peaks of the Alps. We could see the castle in the distance nestled right on top of one peak and surrounded by several others. At this time it appeared about the size of a postage stamp. It was quite exciting to be riding towards Germany’s number 1 tourist attraction. Gunter warned us that all we would see is Japanese tourists taking photo after photo. We made it the Schwangau by about 10am and followed the traffic towards Neuschwanstein castle. We followed the bike path through the forest and eventually came to the parking area at the bottom of the peak. Germany’s number 1 tourist attraction you’re not kidding. Already the car park was full, tour buses everywhere and people walking towards the “ticket office”. This is definitely the most people we have seen in one place since we arrived in Europe. After being in the line for about 15 minutes and making it about half way to the counter, I realized that you could only “tour” the castle on one of the guided tours and when you purchased your ticket you were allocated a time for the tour. The earliest English speaking tour with spots available was 2pm. What are we gonna do for 3 ½ hours? Bugger it, stuff the tour. We rode up to the castle and had a look around, I took some photos and watched the tour groups actually entering the inside of the castle. We spoke to some Aussies who were part of a tour and caught up with news at home. The election has been called and will be on just after we arrive home. I’m missing out on some overtime with work, ah well . . . . I’ll have to save some money for a new bike some other way. Viewed the castle from a few different areas, one of the best being on the marianbrucke (marian bridge) which spans the gorge behind the castle above the waterfall.

The castle was built in the 19th Century (about 1869) by King Ludwig II. It is famous for being instantly familiar to any one who has read a fairy tale, and is the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle and is also in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Michelle and I can’t recall the castle from the movie, which now means we are probably going to have to watch the movie again)

By the time we come down, the line up for the ticket office is now about 300m long. I thought to myself those people must be queuing up to get tickets for tomorrow otherwise they are crazy!!!! What a money making machine this place is. $9 Euro for the 35 min tour and add on a few bucks for everything else you might want to do. You can catch us bus to the entrance for about $4 Euro return (private bus company), you can take a horse and carriage ride to the entrance $4 Euro up and $2 Euro back down. ( I guess this is because the horse have to work really hard on the way up because it is really, really steep. There are signs everywhere advising the tour is very difficult for disabled people. The walk from the bottom, to the entrance would be about 30mins and very strenuous. I’m not sure how much money this place would be making but it would certainly be a lot. Not exactly sure why it is so popular as there are so many other nice places to visit, but I guess it just has that tourist quality to it. It was exciting to be here though, I’m not sad about not doing the tour, just being here amongst all the people was great fun. Actually getting to see the castle that you always see in the brochures was one thing we can now tick off the list, Yep we’ve been there!!!

Now we are mainly following the romantische strasse bike way. It is also one of the most popular bike path ways in Germany. Most tourists normally follow the bike path south and finish up at the castle. We are traveling north and because we are now back on track with our original intentions (only having missed out on riding to and from Innsbruck through the Alps) we are settled into a much more leisurely pace. Made it into Schongau by 3pm and there was a type of medieval festival thing happening in the main square so we had a bit of a captain cook (As Hux would call it) and then made our way north just a few k’s out of town to spend the night.

Sunday 8th August.

After a fantastic breakfast we departed Haus Gotz bound for Dachau. Excellent riding for the first part of the morning. Some of the best roads we have ridden on thus far. Sunday morning, no traffic and quiet roads. We aimed in the direction of Amsee. The plan was to follow the lake and then head north east towards Dachau. We must have been pretty high up still because we descended for a long time coming to the lake. Upon arrival at the lake we saw signs for a Flohmarkt (Sunday markets???) It was big, heaps and heaps of people and lots of stalls. Mostly junk, the kind of stuff you see people trying to flog off down at the jetty on every third Sunday. Michelle decided it was a good opportunity for her to see if she could find some old wooden ski poles to go with the wooden snow ski’s that we have at home. I am so glad she didn’t find any as it would have been very strange looking and cumbersome having ski poles on the back of our bikes! We finally navigated our way back onto the bike path and continued north.

With about 15km to go, it rained yet again. Michelle took this opportunity to escape the rain near the train station. She struck up a conversation with one of the locals, who immediately pulled out his map and showed us the way to go. So far everyone we have come across, when we are looking a little lost has been sooo helpful and always pointed us in the right direction again. The rain passed quickly enough and with our newly donated map we made it into Dachau after a brief detour to escape the rising flood waters where they covered the bike path. We were sure that we would be able to locate some reasonable accommodation once in Dachau, however this proved more difficult than has been on previous occasions. Finally located some accommodation about 5km out of Dachau and tried to make our way out of the city. Dachau is a lot different to what I thought it would be. I know we are only about 18km from Munich but I thought because the concentration camp was here and with the history surrounding the town it wouldn’t be nearly as modern and industrialized.

On the way we called into the memorial just to check it out. The plan was this would help us locate everything again tomorrow morning when we made the trip back into town to visit the memorial properly. Guess what “Montags Geshlossen!” Mondays Closed! What??? We rode over 100km today, detoured away from the Romantische Strasse to come here and its closed on Mondays. What a bugger!! We took this opportunity to quickly go into the memorial and have a look around. It wouldn’t be a proper look taking our time to go to the museum and check out all the exhibits but it would have to do. It would have been good to spend a few hours here, entrance to the memorial is free and you can walk around the camp grounds and read all of the information boards and get a feel for the place as it would have in 1945.”Arbeit macht frei”

As if our luck wasn’t bad enough, the weather decided to change, and a thunderstorm rolled over Dachau. We got caught in the rain yet again and got soaked. We were able to find some shelter under a tree for a while and then make our way under the rail bridge until it passed. By the time we reached Pellheim the town where we had accommodation the sun was back out, typical. Only two more days to go.

Monday 9th August

With the memorial closed there was no need to ride back down into Dachau. Through the rolling country side we went mainly following quiet roads. Detoured onto a bike path at one point which took us on a circuitous route and deposited us back out onto the same road I had been following anyway. What’s a few extra k’s??

Made it into Ingolstatdt on the Donau, where the really big decision for the day needed to be made, do we ride back over towards the bike path along the main canal and return home (Georgengmuend) the way we started out on the first day, and call it quits when we find a nice B&B, or do we choose a different route and do the same thing, or could we possibly finish up one day early and arrive back in Georgensgmund one day early??

After consulting the map from the tourist office and unsuccessfully trying to obtain directions out of the city we avoided the main Radweg and found a nice bike way which followed the road more directly to our destination. It was a brand new bike path, which was just getting the finally touches of completion. It was so new in fact that no riders were even supposed to be on it at this time. By following this road we probably saved over 2 hours at our pace. By 4pm I said to Michelle lets find a Gasthof and get something to eat, a proper meal, we’ll sit down and enjoy ourselves and eat and rest for a while before continuing on.

You can see by the photo’s what this meant. One whole cake devoured, and half a bottle of cola, energy restored and off we go. Thankfully we started off going downhill and this meant we covered some distance easily for a while. Made it to Grading which was the turn around point for the triathlon on a beautiful back road that doesn’t appear to be used much any more with fantastic scenery all around. It was very much like riding out past Glenreagh towards Grafton.

Coming back into Holpolstein we go down Solar coming from the other direction. I guess the roar of the crowd at this point during the race really does get you through this climb because I don’t remember it being so steep, the sign says 9%. Call in to have a look in the window at Buchstellar’s bike shop, I wonder if I can get any challenge gear cheaper now that the race is over?

Another 2 km down the road and we go past the swim start and then turn and go in to see Dani at the mini golf. Rode back into Georgensgmund exactly the same route we left on over 2 ½ weeks earlier, past the where the Kirsch frau was (lady selling cherries), through the forest and then down the hill into Georgetown.

I asked Gunter when we arrived “Haben sie ein zimmer frei for heute abend vor zwei erwachsene?
“Ya!”
“Mit fruhstuck oder abend essen?
“Naturlich!”
“Gute, kkan ich reserverien maken?”
“Ok.”

You see, we decided to try and make it back to Georgensgmund today and finish up one day earlier than originally planned. With no need to frantically search for accommodation for the evening we were able to ride leisurely along and enjoy the last moments of our bike tour. It ended up a very long day, Michelle has now officially done her longest ride, 157km. Maybe she could do an Ironman. It‘s a hell of a lot easier to ride without being a mobile aid station, and carrying your transition areas with you in the panniers.

We also ended up breaking another record today. Today was the FIRST day we rode the entire day without the need to put our jackets on. It was a nice sunny day, very little wind and a perfect day to be out riding. What a great way to end the tour, or is it?

Tuesday 10th August.

Michelle has this crazy idea that one more day on the bike would be good. We should ride to the lake at Brombachsee. Its about 15km away, followed the bike path all the way to Stahl and then up and over this huge hill and down to the lake. It is a really nice place. Heaps of people out enjoying the weather, swimming, playing volleyball, and having picnics around the lake.

3 hours resting (sleeping) under the shade of a tree doing nothing, now this was the perfect end to the tour!!

So after 19 days on the tour, 13 days of riding, 2 of those days without any rain, jackets and panniers tested for water proofness, many photos taken, far, far too much chocolate consumed, too many bread rolls and ham and cheese eaten for breakfast, 2 countries, old acquaintances and host families visited, we have covered 1071km. We are looking forward to coming home and………..


getting on our bikes and going riding!!!

See you soon!!

Chelle and Ed.

A slight change of plans

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.

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.