Day 6 - Golling to Berchtesgaden - The Great Bavarian Velomobile Adventure

June 1, 2023

Day 6 - Golling to Berchtesgaden

First, let’s start with a word about the choice of route. It’s not one best suited for Velomobiles. I’ve ridden here before, but the section between Bad Reichenhall and Lofer was many years ago. During that time I’ve forgotten just how rough the gravel was. Aside from that area, the rest of the gravel has been reasonable. The challenge here in the narrow mountain valleys is that there’s not a lot of room. The B road gets priority. Anything else tends to be either up on the mountainside, or unpaved, assuming you even get an alternative option. Sometimes even the paved bits on the mountainside feel unpaved. It is rare to find a route through narrow mountain valleys that has a good bike path. The best one is definitely in Südtirol where I rode two years ago. That would be the perfect place for a velomobile. It’s a pity that such beautiful scenery is accompanied by such horrid riding conditions. I get wanting to maintain the natural qualities of things by going without pavement, but at least make the gravel smooth or something. I hate having to limit my riding because of surface conditions.

The day began with a very quick walk to the Gollinger waterfall. I’ve been here before on my first ever trip to Germany/Austria. I’ve wanted to come back with a better camera. In interest of time, there was no walking to the very top, but rather to about halfway up. That’s as sufficient for excellent views.

The reason for the right timeframe was the usual delayed morning departure, and a meeting with a local velonaut. Fritz offered to act as a guide into Salzburg from Golling. We started out going up and down on mediocre pavement an annoying amount on the official Tauern Radweg as far as Hallein. From there Fritz took over the lead and opted for the much faster, though somewhat less scenic, Landesstrasse. That brought us to Salzburg in far less time and at a much more pleasant speed than the Tauern Radweg, so much so, that there was time for a proper midday meal and some visiting. Thanks, Fritz!

After the hoards of fascinated mankind in Bad Reichenhall, the prospect of heading into the touristy part of Salzburg was unappealing. Not that I don’t want to promote Velomobiles, but I’m getting tired of arriving at 7 or 8pm at the intended destination. Instead I opted for a shortcut of sorts somewhat retracing our footsteps into Salzburg and then heading for the main road back to Berchtesgaden. Most of the time was spent riding on the shoulder of the main road. It was a bit noisy and that felt like it was detecting from the scenery. When the official bike route cut off, I took it. It was certainly less noisy, but it went up into the hills on mediocre pavement with a lot of tight blind turns. So basic not a great place to ride. And then the pavement ended and a mile or so of nasty gravel popped up. At this point there wasn’t a way across the little river to get back on the main road. I did at least get one nice photo out of it.

Finally the bike route met with the main road. At that point I was so fed up with official bike routes that I just opted for the shoulder all the way in to Berchtesgaden. When I get home I’ll go back through the video footage, then the sound down, and actually enjoy the experience.

Berchtesgaden was basically just one big traffic jam. Arriving around 5pm I’m sure contributed to that. Rather than take the riverside gravel path back to the hotel near the Königsee, I instead used the main road which had bike path along it. I debated between bike path and the road, but given the uphill nature of it, felt the bike path was best. Upon leaving, the road will be the better option since a velomobile is pretty fast going downhill.

The lady at reception at the hotel must have been almost as grumpy as me when I checked in, or perhaps her nose was offended by the lowly terrible smell emanating from my soaking wet with sweat self. I found her to be a bit curt compared to other accommodations so far. When talking to her later, after having showered, she did seem more accommodating. I’ll just chalk it up to smelling terrible and looking like a drowned rat. The hotel is otherwise nice with a seating area.

The two planned activities here are a hike on the Jennerberg and a boat ride on the Königsee. I’ve done both before, and both were detracted from by the presence of rain. Here’s hoping for better luck this time.

And now an update on the condition do the bikes: these poor bikes have been put through the wringer. As best I can tell, neither has sustained structural damage, which is pretty amazing. At home I would never even think of riding where these bikes have gone. I usually baby my bikes. I just simply had forgotten how rough the gravel really was here. Anyway, thanks to Richard T, a solution was found for the busted cable in the Bülk. Simply cut off the bad section. Duh. Fritz brought a cutter with and within a few minutes, the surgery was successfully completed. It was tricky feeding the old cable through the housing, but even that was accomplished. Now both front chainrings are back in business. With that fixed, there were no issues with the chain falling off the rear idler either. As for my bike, I have an annoying squeak in the front left shock. I’ve been advised to add some oil to it. Likely the dust from all the gravel riding has gummed things up. This evening a very nice package arrived from Velomobile World with new cables and housings, a spare rear inner tube for my bike, and most critically, the part that disappeared to control my brake lights up at the tiller. With a bit of further surgery, thinks should be ready to go upon leaving Berchtesgaden.

The very critical care package. Excellently packed as always.

Today's ride: 34 miles (55 km)
Total: 228 miles (367 km)

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