To Salzburg - Krakow to Salzburg 1999 - CycleBlaze

September 16, 1999

To Salzburg

Amazingly, the weather finally began to turn only as we came to the end of our cycling and hiking.  The day was partly overcast, and a growing west wind warned of an approaching storm front.  We stayed dry though, and enjoyed another very pretty ride through the lake country before finally dropping into the Salz River basin.

Salzburg is a cyclist’s paradise and easily the most bike friendly major city I’ve ever visited.  There are fine well marked, quiet, safe bike routes everywhere.  Highlights of our three night stay:

  • We stayed at an attractive, recently renovated hotel about a mile from the old town.  We covered this distance three times by bike and about six times on foot during our stay here.
  • An interesting visit to the Salzburg fortress.
  • A visit to the aquarium and reptile zoo in the natural history museum.
  • A generally frustrating shopping experience.  I found a shirt and Rachael a pair of stretch jeans; but we failed to find a bike shirt after visiting three bike stores, or to find a suitable sweater for Rachael.  And we bafflingly failed to find again a closed store we passed earlier that had an attractive hair clip in the window, after an hour of methodical searching.
  • Two evening chamber music concerts in the Mirabell Palace - one with a reasonably good piano, clarinet and violin trio from Vienna; and the other a wonderful string quartet from Romania. 
  • A bike ride to Untersberg for a cable car ride to the mountaintop, which we then decided to not follow through with because the mountain was shrouded in clouds.
  • Huddled under a horse chestnut tree by the riverside, waiting out a severe lightning storm and downpour.
  • The beauty of the city’s skyline, especially when lit up at night.
  • Listening to street musicians in the square outside the cathedral - especially a distinctive Russian trio performing on two balalaikas and accordion.
  • The cathedral.
  • The war museum in the cathedral.
  • A good Balkan dinner at the Weisses Kreuz.
  • The best two dinners of the tour, both at the Wasserfall.
  • Politely holding back for someone else to go first entering the restaurant, and then nearly being turned away because most of the tables had been reserved already.
  • A fine lunch of bread and cheese from a street market, enjoyed sitting outside the cathedral listening to street musicians.
  • Rachael found in one of her panniers what is probably the key to our kryptonite lock which we lost in Spain. (!!  Amazing if true - the  explanation for the time we were stuck with our bikes locked together In Port Bou, one of our all time favorite stories from our travels together).
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Today's ride: 80 km (50 miles)
Total: 1,147 km (712 miles)

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