Day 4 - Gmunden to Mondsee - A Wilde Ride In Salzkammergut - May 2022

May 11, 2022

Day 4 - Gmunden to Mondsee

I am not young enough to know everything.” ― O. W.

We woke up to another beautiful morning. The sky was bright blue with a few cotton ball clouds for contrast and the temperature was already 18°C.

Today’s ride (again courtesy of the Team Anderson breadcrumbs) was going to take us north out of the mountains/foothills and then swing west to reach the northern reaches of the Attersee. We would then head south along the western shores of the Attersee and back into the Alps before swinging west again to the Mondsee.

It promised to be another great day of riding and it was. Breakfast set the tone. Best breakfast of the trip so far at the Hotel Schwan. Last night’s superb dinner meant the blog did not get written until this morning after breakfast so our start time was our standard - 10 am. We were even given a send off by the 10 am glockenspiel in the Rathaus bell tower. K was happy!

We were faced with our first hill right from the start (yesterday was exceptionally flat!) as we climbed out of the Traun valley. As we were climbing K noticed there was a knocking sound coming from her left pedal. When we reached the top of the climb there was a bike shop there that had just opened. With the help of Google Translate we managed to get across that we needed a pedal wrench - very similar in English and German except for the accent/emphasis of the various syllables- and within a minute we were on our way again with no knocking. This was a good portent for the morning ride.

The countryside was now open farmland with gently rolling hills. It’s clearly late spring here based on the progress of the crops - and the temperature. It was soon past warm and well into hot.

We pulled into Seewalchen am Attersee just as the bells were ringing at noon. There were many nice looking cafe’s along the lake but neither of us were hungry yet so we pushed on to the south thinking that we’d get lunch at one of the several small towns along the west shore of the lake.

This turned out to be a bit of a mistake, as the only open restaurant we came across in Nussdorf am Attersee was a pretty high end place with only big main-course dishes on offer. We pressed on and the riding was beautiful … but part of the team was getting hungry!

When we reached Unterach at the southern end of the lake we found an open Konditorei and were satiated with tortes and kaffee!

This provided the necessary fuel for the final ~15 km’s north along the Mondsee into the eponymous town. We had amazing views of the north side of the Schafburgspitz as we made our way along the Mondsee … absolutely clear skies!

Checked into the very nice Schlosshotel and had an ok dinner at a pasta place along the main pedestrian street. Nothing like yesterday’s meals but it was a lovely warm evening and we strolled along the lake after dinner.

Tomorrow looks to be another hot day and we have a shorter day back to Salzburg. Every day of the ride so far has been in quite different terrain and topography, but they’ve all been great. Hoping for more of the same tomorrow.

Heart

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Marjory SwordI am not liking that middle part.
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