September 22, 2021
To Altmünster
Fifty Shades of Grey
Breakfast is served at the pension where we are staying between 8-10 in the morning. We thought an early time would be best but were were certainly not alone in the breakfast room. It was an interesting crowd that you can enjoy more easily in smaller establishments. We met another couple from Seattle that were also touring on Bike Fridays. They were at the end of their trip and now heading back toward Munich for their flight home. They spoke highly of the town of Hallstatt where we will be in a couple of days.
The optimistic weather "picture" forecast showed the sun peaking through the clouds for part of today - but that did not happen until we reached our destination of Altmunster around 4 pm. Most of the beautiful lakes and surrounding mountain peaks that we rode by today were views with a grey overcast.....and quite cool...temperature that is! We started the day around 12 degrees and the high temperature only added another single degree more. With a bit of a wind, fortunately usually to our backs, we were bundled in three layers all day......but dry! No rain today again.
Our ride today followed the west shore of lake Mondsee. The road was often shared with light vehicle traffic but there was some dedicated bike path. After a quick 15kms down the road we were past the end of lake Mondsee and were at the town of Utterach at the south end of lake Attersee. This is a very pretty area and we would have loved to stop for coffee but at 10 am it was still too cool to sit outside. We hit the local Spar for a picnic lunch and began our cycle north up the Attersee.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 4 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Not too far beyond Uttersee, the cycle route split off from the shoulderless B151 road and tracked a bit further east off the lake. We decided to stay on the B151 road that runs right beside the lake almost its entire length as well as through several small towns. Traffic was very light so sharing the road was never an issue. Our only complaint was that we never felt really warm enough to sit outside for a coffee. We did stop at a nice park by the lake's shore for a short time to have a bit of a break.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 6 | Comment | 0 | Link |
We reached the top of Attersee near Seewalchen with the need for washrooms and cafes are a great place for this. So, we found a place on route and sat inside for our daily espresso and cappuccino. If we remembered correctly there would be some hill riding from this point on route to our destination. In fact, our host mentioned that between Attersee and Traunsee it was steep! We were back on the R2 at this point riding east to west and really did not find it overly taxing. We kept wondering when we would encounter the climbs Scott had been warning Pat about!
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 0 | Link |
The sun finally appeared today just as we arrived in Altmunster. These summer lake towns are getting very quiet now as this is now the first day of fall. Funny. looking at last years temperatures on this day it was 25 degrees here!
When booking hotels it seems like few options are available and some still with still fairly high prices. Today we picked a respectable economic hotel in Altmunster. The room was warm when we arrived and it had amazingly fast internet. We think that's maybe because there is no one else here as we have not seen another guest in this fair size hotel. Great for an overnight stay.
We headed out for dinner before the sun dipped behind the mountains and walked down to the lake where we were treated to some view nice views in the setting sunlight. It was feeling much warmer now. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant where we enjoyed pasta, salad and tiramisu.
| Heart | 8 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 7 | Comment | 0 | Link |
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Today's ride: 62 km (39 miles)
Total: 240 km (149 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 10 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |