Day 43: Gstadt to Laufen (Germany)

June 11, 2014

Our 24 hour lease for our patch of grass

Since we were sleeping in a parking lot last night, it seemed logical to buy a parking ticket from the machine. This actually did wonders for our peace of mind, since we now had a legal claim to a 24 hour stay. We found a water tap and even an electric outlet, so this turned out to be quite super. As the only tenants we had the place to ourselves, and therefore no loud talkers or smokers!

The only downer was that the temperature continued high, and it was 2 a.m. before it was really cool enough to sleep well.

Our stomping ground for the week - from Rosenheim in the west to Salzburg in the east, skirting north of the variious mountain ranges.

Where we are and what we are up to...

Just to review, we came down the Inn River from Innsbruck and hung a right at Rosenheim. This heads us into a lake district that for us is a bridge to the Salzach River and Salzburg. The biggest lake here is the Chiemsee, and we camped on it at Gstadt - about in the middle of the map. Cyclingdown the Inn to the extent we did took us out of the mountains of Tirol. Now we are skirting to the north of some large Austrian ranges - notably the Berchtesgaden and far to the east of that, the Dachstein. Once we reach Salzburg we will of course have a look around, and then head first to the salt mine of Halein. Then its over to the Enns river, which we will follow back to the Donau.

The Chiemsee has two islands - one with a nunnery and one with Ludwig II's favourite castle.

If you zoom on this panarama you may see all the mountains to the south of us.

The house style remains basically mountain chalet here, though really nice ones are scarcer. I thought I might give up on photographing them, but then Dodie spotted a good one, and then another . A really good cuckoo clock style house has a third floor spot for the cuckoo.

Cuckoo clock house nominee number one today.

We spent more time that usual today puzzling out the route. This is because though we have the route map and the GPS, we do not have a GPS track for the route. To make matters more challenging, the route signs are small and indistict, and south facing ones are all but bleached out by the sun. As usual there are scads of radwegs criss crossing ours. Sometimes a new one pops up on the signs, soon to disappear. One fleeting one, with its own sign, was the (presumably) Way of the Frog. While we like grogs, we did not follow that one.

Our typical radweg sign today. Even though the (Bikeline) Book we consider we are following here is the Inn Radweg (being an extension, or ausflug in that book) really on the ground this is the Mozart Radweg (and actually some of our maps were indeed drawn from that Book).

The number of routes seems to multiply without warning. This photo is a bit of a cheat, though, because there are two identical signs in it.

The Way of the Frog was a late comer that we ignored.

All day long the path went up and down, short but reasonably sharp hills. With the full sun out there, cycling this was fairly tiring. There is no doubt that the scenery here is really pleasant, but the towns are fairly ordinary and anyway the cycle path often seems to skirt around the towns rather than taking you through any interesting bits.

Here is Dodie grinding gamely up a hill in 40 degree heat. She is wearing long sleeves because that what is needed to protect her arms from sun allergy. It's extra hot in there, though.

In Waging - there are bakeries and ice cafes here, but it is not really a special town.

At reasonable intervals the path went through small forests. These were great as a source of shade. There is nothing better for us at lunch time than a table in deep shade!

As we cranked or pushed up the various hills, we were often passed by other cyclists. These included lycra clad speedsters, and even reasonably little kids. One big category, though, was though on electric bikes. Electric is so common here, that people assume that ours (so heavily packed) are electric - and they mistake our giant water bottles (necessary if you are pedalling unassisted) for batteries.

Though not common, there are special electric bike services here, like in the photo below. We did not take the time to findout how it works, though, and how much it costs.how long it takes. "Tanken" means to refuel, so the name of this installation is technically right - it's a refuelling place. But tanken seems so based in liquid fuel, that it seems amusing when used for electric bikes.

E-Bike support. So many e-bikes whooshed past us today!

There actually is a fair number of camping spots available on the route, and it was not hard to aim for one not far from Laufen. However when we got there, Dodie took exception to the price (18.50) in relation to the quality (or not) of the facilities. So though we had slept in a parking lot the night before, and though the weather was fine, we went to a guest house in Laufen. The issue was not the absolute quality of the facilities at the camping, but the ratio of price to quality. Dodieis happier being here at the guest house right now, and I will never argue with the chance to type the blog at a real desk!

The guest house is somewhat unusual, being a former (or may even present) Capuchin (Kapuziner) monastery. It's layout is therefore more long and low than short and high, as is common in a guest house. We are way at the end of a 1/1 block long corridor, and seemto have the end to ourselves. For some reason the place also has displays of natural history things, like shell fossils and stuffed animals. We (being Canadian) always like the Biber!

Tomorrow we will cross the Salzach andgo straight to the Silent Night chapel. Two years ago we were here and got a real kick out of it. Also my commemorative sticker hung on to my handlebar bag for quite a long time,but has now weathered off. So clearly a new one is needed.

We took a short walk through the old town gate of Laufen and to the bridge to Austria (and the chapel). Tomorrow we will cross that bridge and start the major Austrian part of our tour!

The bridge to Austria, at Laufen. Oberndorf on the other side - site of the famed Silent Night chapel.

Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 2,306 km (1,432 miles)

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