Day 31: Schliersee

 

We started the morning by taking the gondola up to hill. We noticed that there was a slide you could use to get down and asked if our 6 EUR ticket would let us use it. The answer was "Yes!" The place was a little touristy, so we looked around and took a short hike but after hiking in the Swiss alps, hiking anywhere feels really drab and boring, so we did not bag any summits, but did get to a view of the Tergensee, albeit a really abbreviated one that did not look right.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The slide itself was essentially a big plastic tub with wheels mounted so that you could deploy them by pulling on a lever. When you let go of the lever, the wheels retracted and so the plastic tub would create friction and slow you down. You could control the height of the wheels and thereby control your speed. The descent was fun, but definitely not exciting as it looked. Nevertheless, the construction of the slide took us through past a cow field, into a forest, under a bridge, and generally felt like an adventure.

We once again bought a supermarket lunch and ate it by the lake. At the supermarket, I found a 5 EUR SIM card package. We installed it into Lisa's phone, but it didn't appear to work. In Switzerland, it took the better part of a few hours for the SIM to register, so we didn't worry about it.

It started raining, so we went indoors to use the water slide once more. The rest of the day was spent reading, and getting our e-mail, where Chris gave us instructions for entering his apartment. Unlike the previous thunderstorms we had experienced, this rain looked like it was going to be persistent, forcing us to run back to the B&B from dinner.

Next
Previous

Day 30: Kufstein to Schliersee

 

We left Kufstein at 8:30am, ready to leave Austria and return to Germany. I've often wanted to explore more of Austria, and this trip definitely helped satisfy the urge. We took the road out of Kufstein towards Thiersee, which was a suburb of Kufstein up in the hills. The road climbed in the shae rapidly out of Kufstein, but it didn't take long before it began a descent into Theirsee, which was in the sun.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Thiersee in the morning light was beautiful, so we stopped to eat a snack at the water's edge and admire the view. Heading towards Ursprung pass, we saw mist and steam rising out from the river along the road, lending the morning a misty light that was very pretty. The road was signed on the map as a 12% grade all the way into Germany, but it must have been poor measurement, as we knew what a 12% grade was and there was definitely nothing that steep all the way to the top of Urpsrung pass (832m).

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The "descent" into Germany was hardly worth that name. Schliersee, for instance is 784m, so there wasn't much descending at all. We kept our cycling caps on since we were still pedaling. We stopped for a quick stop at Bayrischzell, where the German train system ended, but the town did not have much, so we kept going to Schliersee.
http://picasaweb.google.com/piaw.na/TourOfTheGermanSpeakingAlps2010#5497329304326777554
I had been to Schliersee often on rides, but had never stopped there. The lake is beautiful, and it's high enough to be relatively cool on what promised to be a hot weekend in Munich. There was a lot of construction in the town itself, and it took a while for us to find the tourist information, which was right at the lake. We did find a bed and breakfast, but once again discovered that the tourist information had given us incorrect prices. The price was still acceptable, however, so we chose not to keep searching.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

We bought a supermarket lunch and walked down to the lake side to dine in the shade. It being very hot, the spots near the lake were pretty much taken up, but we did find something. There was a group of what looked like high schoolers sunbathing, smoking, and otherwise playing the fool in the area. After lunch and a nap, Lisa wanted to go swim in the local water resort, which had heated pools, a Jacuzzi, and even an enclosed water slide that felt far faster than it should have been.

We spent 90 minutes there, then got out to send messages to Chris, who had offered the use of his apartment in Munich while he was away, and tried to find a place to buy a SIM card to no avail. Dinner was at the local Greek restaurant which I did not enjoy, but tomorrow was a rest day, and we felt like we had earned it.

Next
Previous

Day 29: Rattenberg to Kufstein

 

We were determined to have a lazy, easy day today, so we had a leisurely breakfast at 8:00am, packed our bags, and then left around 9:00am as the day was already warming up. If we were tired, the Edge 705 was exhausted. It would try to boot, and then not succeed. For the rest of our trip it was about as useful as a brick. I would later discover (with the help of Garmin tech support) that it had corrupted its own boot block, and would have to be sent back to Garmin for recovery. Fortunately, at this point we were so close to Munich and places I knew that I did not think that it would be a problem.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The Inn river bike path has to be the easiest bike path in Austria to follow. Unlike less major bike paths, the route does not disappear, and even detours are well signed. The path meanders from one side of the river to the other, changes from paved to unpaved, exposed to sheltered, and yet remains a distinctive character all of its own, with the Kufstein/Innsbruck symbols.

Since I no longer had the 705 as a crutch, I was forced to pay attention to where we were. When we finally saw a huge fortress, Lisa wanted to explore. I assented and upon arriving in the city realized that this was already Kufstein. We had gotten there far earlier than expected. A visit to the tourist information office yielded a huge booklet of places to stay, but our first few choices were filled up, and we ended up finding a spot at the Exerzitienhaus Maria Hilfs. We got there after having to load the tandem onto an elevator to get across the train station to discover that it was a missionary.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

We were their only guests that night, so at least it was going to be a quiet stay. The woman in charge wanted to charge us 28EUR/person, but we showed them the tourist information posting about the price being 24EUR/person, and she relented. Coincidentally, we were put into room number 24. After taking a shower and dropping off everything, we walked back downtown and had some Kebab for lunch.

After lunch, we wanted to visit the Riedel glass factory, where there was a short presentation and a demonstration of glass making:

Visiting a glass factory on one of the hottest days of the year is not a good idea, and after that we were so warm that we took a bus back downtown and spent some time at the local bookstore, where I bought a detailed map covering the area between Schliersee and Munich.

We walked into the fortress, but it looked a bit like a tourist trap so I demurred from visiting. Lisa wanted to visit the downtown shops, but by the time we got there they were closing. I did, however, get a close look at the cannonballs embedded in the walls and their history.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Lisa wanted to hear the Organ concert, so we bought tickets for it and heard the 15 minute presentation of the world's biggest organ. We then went to dinner at a terrible Indonesian place, and got back to our lodging just before a big thunderstorm. It was a bit eerie being the only guests at an almost empty mission, but the alternative was that it would be full, so I guess I was OK with that.

Next
Previous

Day 28: Wald to Rattenberg

 

We awoke once again to sunny weather, with dry roads and no trace of the rain from the night before. The climb from Grubl immediately begins a 17% grade to the next plateau, but after that the road poses no real challenge for cyclists. After all, the climb was only to 1531m, and Grubl was already at almost 900m. The sights were beautiful, and there was relatively little traffic. In fact, we hardly knew that wee were near the summit when we suddenly came across a giant ski resort (Almdorf) and then hit the intersection with the main road where the new pass intersected with the old pass.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

After all the previous descent, the Gerlos pass descent was definitely relaxed. We first got to a flat section with beautiful views over the Speicher Durlassboden. After that, there's a short descent that had no braking to Gerlos (1471m). From there on, the descent was so gentle that we had to pedal until the series of switch backs just above Zell Am Ziller where the road finally lost all of its elevation down to 600m in just 5km. With that kind of grade, the tandem easily kept up with auto traffic and we only exited the main road to Zell am Ziller in order to find a super market for lunch.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

At the supermarket, I heard some campers ask the checkout clerk for insect repellent, and the checkout clerk said, no, they were all sold out. That clearly meant that we were not staying at Zell Am Ziller, and after a quick lunch we moved on down towards the Inn Valley.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

As we got lower and lower the weather got warmer and warmer. The bike path did not follow the Ziller at all, which meant that we got as warm as the surrounding towns, which were unshaded. Near Schitters, the bike path intersected with a lake with ice cream, and we stopped for some ice cream but it did not cool us down at all! We found the Inn river bike path just 10 minutes later, but somehow got turned around and headed up the river instead. When I realized my mistake and turned around, I found out the reason why. The intersection was so complicated that the city of Strass had put up a signpost explain how to navigate it:

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

It was clearly not a sign to be read at cycling speed.

The Inn River bike path, unlike the Ziller bike path was shaded, and it was very pleasant to be riding in the cool shade next to the river. We stopped at Brixlegg and contemplated searching for lodging, but two cyclists came by from the other direction and said, "We just came from Rattenberg. You definitely should check it out. It's the smallest city in Austria." That sounded too cute to pass up, so we headed down river and came into Rattenberg, which was indeed a very small and cute city of about 400 people.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

It took far too long to find the tourist information center, but when we did find it, the lady there was extremely helpful. She pointed us at a bicycle friendly B&B called Haus Sonnblick, which was run by the most pleasant person imaginable. She was friendly and very helpful, giving us pointer after pointer as to where to go.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The town proper was very touristy, but it had a grocery store where we could buy fruits, a bike club that met at 6:00pm for a ride, many restaurants, and a castle from wwhich we could see in both directions, towards Innsbruck and towards Kufstein.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

It was still so warm that when we finished dinner and came back to the house, we each had to take another shower to cool down, so it was just as well that we had had a short day.

Next
Previous

Day 27: Fusch to Wald

 

Fusch was at nearly 1000m, so it was with a false coolness that we had a late start to our journey down towards Zell Am See. The road was smooth and there was a bike path. Rolling along on the bike path, however, we suddenly heard a "Hello!" It turned out to be the couple we had seen on Grossglockner highway the day before! They said they were on a 6 week trip, and that they got caught in the thunderstorm yesterday on the way down the mountain, and had to pitch their tent at the campground in Fusch in the rain. They seemed to be in good spirits, all things considered though.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

We parted ways at Zell Am See, where we looked for the Tauern Radweg which took quite a bit to find. Unlike in Switzerland, bike paths aren't always clearly signed in Austria, and there's no real rhyme or reason to them: we frequently ran into bike path signs long after the intersection where a sign should have been, with the path saying nothing other than "you're on the right path."

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Nevertheless, the bike path was pretty, meandering through fields and meadows, and only really occasionally following the Salzach, which was now a much smaller river than when we first encountered it in Salzburg. In fact, we would go past the origin of the Salzach tomorrow.

Our goal today was to make it to Wald, where we would stay at Gasthof Grubl, another "Jobst hotel", where the food was likely to be great and the prices affordable. Riding along the Salzach, we saw lots of people, many of whom looked like they were out on day rides, but were actually touring, having employed some sort of luggage service to ensure that they did not have to carry much. One particularly obvious couple were riding electric bikes with an assist. This limited their range to somewhere around 30 miles a day, but it also meant that they were zipping up hills at a speed that one could not believe from people who were clearly not avid cyclists... until one saw the giant battery pack mounted on the seat tube.

In Uttendorf we stopped for a supermarket lunch, and by the time we left the temperature was well into the 80s. We followed the bike path, and then in Stuhfelden it suddenly went unmarked. I tried to get back to the river by following a hiking trail, but the Austrians clearly meant business about hiking trails. Gates were placed every 100 meters to ensure that a cyclist would get annoyed by constantly having to lift his bike over the gate, and of course, the tandem could not do this more than a couple of times before turning back.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

We stayed on the main road for a while until we found the bike path again. The path was pretty, but also as exposed as the main road, and the climbs started to get pretty warm. Once in a while the path would make an excursion into the woods and everything would cool down again, but these were not happening soon enough. Eventually, the road made one final excursion, crossed a river, and then went right across the street from the tourist information center in Wald.

We asked at the information center if they could call Grubl and make a reservation for us, but they merely laughed and said, just show up. She's got room and we know she's open. In a rare case of GPS navigation failure, the Edge 705 thought that the hotel was actually in the valley. We backtracked after that failure on the instruction of a local, and went past the church and started climbing up the Old Gerlos Road, which at a 14% grade for 2km in the sun was not a lot of fun. At least there was a confirmation sign telling us that the B&B was just 2km ahead. As we ground up the 14% grade in the afternoon heat, Lisa said, "I've decided that I don't like Jobst hotels." "Why not? Rosenlaui was a Jobst hotel!" "They're always halfway up steep grades!" "But the food is fantastic!" "I don't care. I don't like Jobst hotels." Finally, I saw a sign that said "Hotel Grubl, 400m ahead." 200m later, however, I saw a giant vehicle towing a tractor come down the road. Well, I wasn't going to get in his way, so I pulled into a driveway while it went past. I could see Grubl 100m up ahead, and did not feel like getting started again on the 14% grade, so got off the bike and pushed it up there, the only time we would do so for the entire trip.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Mrs Kaiser greeted us, and showed us our room on the top floor, with beautiful views of the valley below. Lisa complained that we should have stayed down in Wald so she could visit the mineral baths, but neither she nor I were going to ride down there to take a bath and then ride back up here, especially in the heat. The dinner here was great: Mrs Kaiser made a wonderful Lamm Schnitzerl, but Lisa was not happy with her vegetarian meal, which was essentially a salad, so we ordered a Kaiserschmarm afterwards for an additional meal. As we ate, a thunderstorm rolled in and out, granting us beautiful rainbows outside our window.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Fatigue set in at this point, as we contemplated the rest of the trip. Neither of us had any heart to do any more hard climbing after this, and fortunately it looked like we could mosey along the Inn River and then climb back into Germany over Ursprung pass (836m). We decided that we could use an extra day in Munich to visit my old friends at the Google office, as well as spend some time in Schliersee, since it was supposed to have good hiking.

Next
Previous

Day 26: Winklern to Fusch

 

We woke up to a beautiful clear day, which was a good thing, because climbing Grossglockner in the storm we had last night would be unthinkable!

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The rolling climbs up to within 2km of Heiligenblut (1288m) were easy, but at about 800 meters the road suddenly took on a much more hostile character, climbing steeply and with spectacular views in just a couple of kilometers before dumping you into a traffic circle where there was a grocery store/souvenir store. We stopped for some pears, the bananas available not being very ripe. After that there was no excuse but to climb that Grossglockner highway, which started ominously with a giant signboard full of warnings. We did get to ride through the toll booths without paying, since bicycles get to do the highway for free!

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Grossglockner has 2 summits: one at Hochtor at 2504 meters, and the second one at Fuschertorl at 2428m. We had 12km at 12% grade, which on a single bike would be challenging, but on the tandem was nothing short of exhausting. Fortunately, the views were good and plentiful. Since I couldn't say too many words during the climb for sheer exhaustion, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves here too.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

For whatever reason, by the time we made it to Hochtor, I had it in my head that the second summit was Edelweissspitz (2571m), which made me start wondering if we were going to make it. Starting at 2000m, we started having to stop to take a break every 100m. At about 2300m, we passed a couple on fully loaded camping single bikes, but it did not make us feel any better to see the woman get off and push her bike. Each rest would make me feel good for about 100m, and then we would have to repeat. I ate the last of my Clif block packs on this segment, knowing that there was likely to be a restaurant at Hochtor.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

I was right, but the work had left us too exhausted to eat much except soup, so we each had a bowl of soup, took some pictures, and went through the tunnel to begin a steep descent down to Fuscher Lake (2262m). It wasn't even a fun descent, as cars, pedestrians, and other obstacles made it difficult to build up a head of steam. The climb up to Fuschertorl was also at a 12% grade, but this time we had interesting scenery. Someone had parked his car at the summit parking lot but forgot to activate his parking brake. While he was out admiring the scenery, his car rolled down the hill and flipped. Apparently no one was injured, but there was a line of rescue vehicles and tow trucks lined up at the summit parking lot and a ton of spectators looking at it.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

At this point, I still thought that the Edelweissspitz was the second summit, so we stopped at the parking lot to gander at the flipped car, so imagine my surprise when someone told us that when we went around the corner that would have been it! I almost didn't believe him, but then he told us that Edelweissspitz was out and back.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Fuschertorl was touristy in ways that Hochtor was not. It had a gift shop, a bus parking lot, and signboards pointing to all the various mountains you could see, including the Grossglockner (3798m)itself. I couldn't complain about the views, though!

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The descent was fast, 14% grade in spots, but because this was a tourist roads, car drivers drove extremely slowly, so we had to stop a couple of times to let traffic go so we wouldn't be stuck tail-gating a car, an extremely dangerous situation. There was a place with construction halfway down the mountain as well, so we had to wait there along with other car drivers and motorists. But after that, traffic was clear, and we got the impression that car traffic was stuck behind us when all that ever passed us were motorcycles, who weren't going slow enough to reduce our speed.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The temperature rose dramatically as we descended the highway, and soon it was 80 degree weather again. Yet we saw cyclists climbing the road even in the later afternoon, towards what looked to me like a building thunderstorm. Since the southern approach is steeper, I could not imagine that it could be much fun, climbing a 14% grade in 80 degree weather into a thunderstorm. We passed the motorcycles again at the toll booth, and then ran into the ultimate obstacle, a head-on collision between two cars that had blocked the road for all but bicyclists and motorcycles.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

We rode down the mountain and soon had to start pedaling again. I originally intended to pedal all the way to Zell Am See today, but I was tired, and it looked like another thunderstorm was brewing. Fusch looked like a nice quiet town with nothing but hotels, so we stopped, shopped around, and found that the Hotel Post had decent prices and good enough rooms. They moved their own personal bicycles out of their shelter so we could get our tandem in.

Indeed it rained, and after dinner we walked around town but did not find much of interest. We went to bed hoping for an easier day tomorrow.

Next
Previous

Fusch am der Grossglockner

We did it. It took us till 2pm to reach the second summit, but the weather held up, being sunny until we started the descent, which was frequently interrupted by having to wait for slow cars... until we saw the ultimate show stopper: a head on collision between two cars which blocked the roads behind us from auto traffic and let us descend in peace.

We intended to go all the way to Sell Am See but the wind picked up and we heard thunder so opted to stop in Fusch, a town composed entirely of accommodation businesses as far as I could tell.

Winklern

We spent several days getting to winklern so we could approach grossgloclmer from the south. The approach passes were not very tall, about 1600m each, but they were very steep. Sustained grades of 18% or more were not uncommon. The heat has really been oppressive as well. Hopefully we get good weather today for the tallest pass of the trip.

Day 25: Sankt Michael im Lingau to Winklern

 

We woke up as early as we could to tackle Katschberg pass. Departing the hotel at 7:40am, we left town and immediately hit the 15% grade. The roadside market labeled 15% grade for the next 2.8km. What it doesn't tell you is that the reason for that marking is that it gets steeper after that!

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

We ground along the road, and mercifully there was very little traffic. After the 2.8km was over, there was a flat section of about 200m long, where we stopped to take a break. But we saw to our dismay that the road kept going even more steeply past there, where another roadside market told us to expect a 17% grade for another 1.5km. Well, looking at my GPS unit it looked more like 18% grade, with an occasional foray into the over 20% category. We were wasted by the time we got to the top, which once again had no pass sign or elevation marker.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

With that kind of work, you would expect to be rewarded by a beautiful descent, right? As a matter of fact, no. The descent was a 21% grade, and twisty enough that I could not keep from riding the brakes. The first time I stopped the bike, I sprinkled some water from my water bottle and I saw steam come out. Checking the temperature dots that Pardo had installed, I saw that we had gone past the 101C dot, but not the 110 dot. We had to wait almost 15 minutes to cool the rim down. It took another stop before the road straightened out to the point where we could just let the bike roll.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Rolling down towards Seeboden alongside the river, we saw the autobahn high above us on a ridge, frequently flying out on buttressed segments. It was very impressive engineering. Fooled by a sign for the artistic town of Gmund, which was basically a single street of painted houses. Very nice, but hardly remarkable compared to what we had already seen. It did, however, have a supermarket that was open on Sunday, which was unique.

Near the bottom of the river valley before the road led towards Seeboden, we turned off towards Lieserhofen. This was very pleasant, as it was a smaller road than the highway (which admittedly did not have much traffic as the Autobahn carried most of the traffic), and granted us nice views of what we would have to face towards Winklern.

At Reisseck we turned off the main highway hoping to see an open supermarket, now that we knew the occasional Spar would be opened on Sundays, but had no such luck. We found a playground with a turned off water fountain, turned it on, and ate lunch and had a nap. By the time we got going again it was 1:00pm, and the weather was very warm.

Riding up the valley after that towards Winklern was an exercise in torture. Not only was it warmer than 34C, there was a gentle tailwind that was too weak to provide us with any assistance, but on the climbs forced us to make do without even the 1mph wind that we were capable of generating just by moving. The road was completely exposed and we felt like we were in an oven, slowly being baked.

At Pusstratten we spotted a restaurant and a bus-stop, and pulled off, looking for ice cream and an excuse to stop. The proprietress took pity on us and gave us big glasses of cold water as well, and refilled our bottles with iced water. She told us also that the bike path was shaded, even though it was longer. We contemplated waiting for the bus to pick us up, but it was an hour and a half to wait, given that it was a Sunday, so we got onto the bike and rode off onto the bike path.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The bike path was indeed shaded, twisty, windy, and had more climbing, but it was a relief. After just 15 minutes on the bike path, we saw signs of an impending thunderstorm. Never was impending rain greeted with so much delight from us, but now we had fresh impetus to roll into Winklern, which was lit up by sunlight coming through a hole in the clouds like the promised land.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

Arriving in Winklern, we were directed to a very cheap bed and breakfast by the tourist information center, but a bed inspection revealed some bugs, leading us to ride back to the center of town where we took an expensive room but very well appointed room at the Hotel Tauern just before a massive thunderstorm rolled in.


Next
Previous