Day 51: Irdning to Admont

June 19, 2014

Today is the feast of Corpus Christi, which is an official holiday in a lot of Catholic countries, including Austria. We saw it coming though, and stocked up on food yesterday. It was easy to see it coming, because everyone in Austria is heading out for some fun on what is effectvely a four day weekend. This includes Christian and family, and that is why we scurried into Irdning so as to not miss them before they left.

On our way out of Irdning we ran in to Kurt, a cyclist from Belgium on a several weeks long jaunt around Germany and Austria. Kurt was not aware of the holiday, so we offered to share some of our food. He declined, though, but likely will find an open Gasthaus, as he heads to Radstadt and Salzburg. We talked with Kurt for longer than was wise for him and us, but of course the topics are so fascinating in this situation: Where are you coming from and going to, oh - here is a map that could help you, what is your email address, too bad your brakes broke in (country X), come visit when one day you pass through (home town), etc. etc.

We came away with a great, but heavy, guidebook to the cycle ways of Belgium, and in turn Kurt got a good map of the Salzkammergut.

The kids are ready to head off on the four day road trip

The radweg continued to be just a basic joy to cycle, with good surfaces and signage, and the river and mountains around. The really spectacular mountain scenery seemed to recede just a bit, but we know we are still heading into very mountainous territory.

Not exactly everbody in the country had zoomed off on vacation. So we did get to see a few people near the churches, decked out in dirndls for the women, and not lederhosen but rather dark suits with shiny buttons, for the men. Some others who stayed home were not at church, but rather had set up sort of street curling courts, in the cycle way. I asked the name of the game, but could not catch it. It did seem to have commercially manufactured "curling stones".

We found a great shady bench to have lunch at. It featured a running spring and also a little path to under the highway, perfect for restroom functions. We are our lunch in a dry interlude in the weather, which featured on and off showers. Weather like that always makes us wonder if we will get soaked when it is time to put up the tent. You can never tell until the moment is at hand. Also, if you decide not to risk it and pay for someplace indoors, the sun is guaranteed to come out almost immediately.

The radweg commandeered for "road curling"

The Enns River is still quite small and emerlad coloured here

Liezen is not really a pretty town - but you can get a Big Mac here.

Despite the day off bike, or maybe because of it, Dodie just felt totally tired as we approached Admont. The Bikeline book showed camping at Admont, so we decided to stop early and not push on to the camping where we had been in 2012 - 15 km further. The Bikeline camping turned out to be non-existent, so we did what we have now learned - dove into a gasthaus. In the past, we have had a good guffaw looking at all the wimpy cyclists sitting in the gardens of guest houses in mid to late afternoon, as we pushed on to some impossibly remote camping. This time, we had to step right smartly to compete with the other wimpy cyclists before the rooms were snapped up.

We are still not very experienced in this, though. We picked up a guesthouse list for this region, but took some time to figure out that prices, even for double rooms, are quoted on a per person basis. Further, the price for two people is awfully close to twice the price for a single. So the fact that you share a room does not bring much of a return. In the centre of Admont, we paid 2x31 euros. A single person would pay 36 euros in the same place.

Admont is the famous site of a very old Benedictine monastery and church. The monastery houses a large collection of religious texts. According to their web site "The Admont library is a historical monument to book culture with an importance far beyond the region. At the same time it offers equally valuable and exhaustive source material of the surrounding country. The total collection of books comprises some 200,000 volumes. The most valuable treasures are the more than 1,400 manuscripts (the earliest from the 8th century) and the 530 incunabula (early printed books before 1500)"

The Grampies of 2012 not only came to Admont, but paid the 8.50 x2 euros to go into the library, braved the no photos rules and got some good shots of the painted ceilings, and then beetled off to the distant camping. Grampies 2014 offer you a shot inside the free admission church, and a web site address: www.stiftadmont.at (In my defence, though, I will add that this web address was not just lying around, rather I photographed it by telephoto off the back of a tee shirt worn by a museum employee leaving for the day.)

We are entering the region of the Gesause National Park

Near Ardning, a church with mountain background

The church is fairly plain, but has some rather modern looking stained glass

The monastery, with mountains behind, looks just as monasteries should.

For detail freaks, Admont's position on a pilgrimage route to Gurk Catherdral in Carinthia. Carinthia is the souternmost state of Austria. The Gurk cathedral was built in the high Romanesque style from 1140 to 1200.

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 2,628 km (1,632 miles)

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