We start the Mozart Radweg: Up into the high meadows

August 24, 2014

We rolled along the Inn in what was now sunny but cold weather. It really felt a bit like being on one of those very fancy cycle trainers where you pedal away and you look at a video of the wonderful country you are 'cycling' through - this was all picture postcard stuff. it was very easy cycling we were sure we would arrive at our guest house far too early.

Kufstein is dominated by its huge fortress and it seemed an interesting place to stop. I also knew that there was sewing machine museum there and as a sometimes keen sewer I was keen to visit it. The museum is in honour of the inventor Josef Madensperger. Unfortunately it is a big disappointment, it is tiny - has a few old machines and an audio visual in German only about Josef's life, so I learnt nothing. We spent an hour or so poking round this old town and could have bought lederhosen and dirndls to outfit all of Pukekohe if not all of Auckland.

After Kufstein the wonderful furious Inn becomes vey sedate as it is tamed by the large number of dams (I think 8) between here and where it joins the Danube. We stopped for lunch shortly after and saw something very interesting. Along came a woman with her two granddaughters, they stopped just by us and rang some chimes. Then across the river a man came out of a little hut and he got into his small open boat. It had no motor but was attached to a wire and he used the flow of the river to propel it across steering it with a large oar. For 2E each they were taken to the other side. This is a ferry crossing across an international border from Austria to Germany

Our turn off onto the Mozart Radweg which we were to follow to Salzburg came at the next dam. It is always difficult to get your eye in for signs following a new cycle route. This was compounded by the fact that I had foolishly booked our guest house somewhat off the route. It seemed as if we were going vertically up the mountain and we had little idea which way to go except up. We stopped to fire up the GPS but I must have left it on and it was out of batteries so instead looked at the iPad where I had the route saved. I was reacting badly to the hills and demanding rests and suggesting that tomorrow we should just go back down to the Inn, then came a seat and I was allowed to sit down. I thought it would be a good idea to change the batteries on the GPS and look at that too. But where was it? Ken said 'I put it on the seat of your bike when we stopped at the bottom of the hill' Oh dear - he was going to bike down and look for it. I went to my bike and it must have been our lucky day the GPS had fallen off the seat and lodged itself in my panniers.

Now we are up in the high meadows, it is beautiful, if I could sing I would be singing all the tunes from the Sound of Music and dancing across the fields. We wont go down the mountain tomorrow this is just to lovely to opt out of.

There were some tractors this is a middle aged Steyre tedding hay

All the painting in this little street in Kufstein was done in the 20th century before then the buildings were said to be very plain

Getting aboard to cross an international border

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,290 km (801 miles)

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