Cycling in Austria's lake district in the Salzkammergut

For the better part of three weeks I have now been in Europe, enjoying a glorious early summer that has none of the insane eat and weather extremes that West Texas has to offer during this time of year. Imagine "hot" temps of 78 degrees Fahrenheit and wind gusts of 8 mph! Almost every day has been sunny, with occasional afternoon thunderstorms that bring moisture to the fields and allow the world around me to appear in more than just fifty shades of green.

It is Sunday morning, I'm sitting on the balcony, the birds are singing their songs, and the sun is shining from the blue sky. Later in the day we'll go for a long ride to Erding to scope out the course for next weekend's Stadttriathlon, but now I'll take some time to think back of the one-week trip to Austria that Sabine and I took recently.

When I arrived in Europe, we had not made any plans yet in regard to what kind of summer vacation we wanted to take. Sabine had been using up some vacation time for this and some for that, so a longer stay in Italy or France was out of the question as that would have required a fairly long drive. We wanted to take the bikes along, and a few recommendations from some of her colleagues prompted Sabine to check on places to stay in the Salzkammergut--and one day later we were on the way to the tiny community of Mattsee just about 30 kilometers north of Salzburg.

Downtown Mattsee

The lake

Marina 

Quite frankly, I would have never thought that we'd find such a cycling friendly area with diverse cycling opportunities in spectacular countryside just about 120 kilometers from Freising. Here we read about Tuscany and Provence, but then a gem like this lies almost at your doorstep. When I grew up, I had always heard that the Salzkammergut, with its focal point of Salzburg, is always wet and always cloud-shrouded, thanks to the way the mountains funnel into a perfect cul-de-sac, but at least during our week we were shown that not preconceived notions about a place are necessarily right all the time.

Towering late-afternoon thunderstorm somewhere in the distance

Riding along one of the many lakes in the Salzkammergut

The weather pattern was very similar to what we've been experiencing here in Freising: cool nights (with temperatures as low as the high 50s), lots of sun at somewhat higher day-time temps than Freising around 82 to 85, occasional localized afternoon and night-time thunderstorms, and mild to non-existing winds outside of those micro-bursts. It doesn't get better.

The two-lake panoramic view from our west-facing balcony

The Salzkammergut encompasses a region north and north-east of Salzburg that one could broadly classify as the pre-Alps. While south of Salzburg the really big mountains are located (by New World standards these mountains, thanks to their age, are really not all that tall on paper but they are, well, the Alps!), and the Salzkammergut sees more of medium-sized ridges and occasional solitary peaks as well as rolling hills that are used mainly for hay-making, thus making the landscape appear even more soft and undulating.

Tiny roads amidst mountains--what more could one ask for?

We arrived in Mattsee on the Friday after Pentecost--gosh, they have lots of religious holidays in this part of the world! Our apartment was situated just outside of Mattsee, in Ochsenharing, an even smaller community where all street addresses are simply "Ochsenharing" plus a house number--who needs street names? We had rented the top half of a beautifully situated house with a spectacular view of two lakes, a large open-concept  living/dining/kitchen area, two spacious and comfortable bedrooms (one of which we never used), and two balconies--one to the east for breakfast, and the other to the west, for afternoon chichis and dinner. For six nights we paid 600 euros, and compared to other vacation domiciles that we've had this one ranked at the top.

Our vacation home with the west-facing balcony

Every day we would either start at the house or drive the car a few kilometers to make it possible to explore as many routes as possible. Mattsse itself is adjacent to three different lakes--the Mattsee, the Obertrumer See, and the tiny Grabensee. All of them are leftovers of the last ice age when glaciers scraped out these huge indentions, leaving tell-tale mounds of rock and earth that now are hills. On our first reconnaissance ride we touched all three of these lankes, plus the Wallersse, which is only one good set of rollers to the southeast.

Our captain for our free afternoon boat ride around the Mattsee

The Mattsee from almost water level

If water levels are just right, this little e-boat can cross over into the next lake

If you were to see one of the cycling-specific maps that the local tourist authorities give out, you'd go nuts, at least if you are a cyclist. The detail of the maps is astounding, and the number of different mapped (and signed) routes is immense. There are mountain bike trails, and there are road rides that can take days--for example the Mozart Radwanderweg covers several hundred kilometers and is lined with cycling-friendly hotels and pensions. Route descriptions use a ranking system that allows you to tailor your ride to your abilities, and the sheer number of routes makes it easy to combine or abbreviate various loops. Most of the established and named routes (think Grosse Seenland Runde or 4-Regionen Tour) can be downloaded as a GPX file so you can use your smartphone to navigate. And let me tell you, lots of people do just that!

Pondering the fork in the road

E-bikes, gravel paths, and good signage are all part of the experience

Negotiating yet another town

And pondering again ...

It's exciting to see so many people on bikes, enjoying the outdoors. Of course, there are those of us in Lycra and on svelte machines (even if we're not always that svelte ourselves!), but the number of mountain and especially trekking bikes is so much larger. Come into any small town where people congregate around the ice cream shop or the Konditorei, and you will see tons of normal folks stopped for a coffee and some cake. The advent of the e-bike has definitely had a positive impact on cyclo-tourism as it now enables anyone to ride roads and unpaved trails that formerly were accessible to only the really fit. There will be whole families out for a ride, with the kids on non-assisted bikes while the parents (and often the grandparents) will easily keep up on their e-bikes.

Never underestimate the power of the strawberry ice cream bomb!

Our daily rides varied in length from about 35 miles to 60 miles, often topped off at the end with a swim in a lake. Probably the most spectacular of all those days was the one when we hit the Mondsee, Wolfgangsee, and Attersee. This was definitely the most Alpine of our rides, less so because of the elevation gain (no ride had more than 4,500 feet of climbing, and all of that gentle with very, very few really steep sections) but rather because of the spectacular mountain backdrop in this area due east of Salzburg. The color of those lakes was like that of the Caribbean, ranging from turquoise to light and deep blues, depending on the angle of the sun. That final dip into the Mondsee at the end of the day was delicious!

The towns that we passed through are as picturesque as what you'd expect when in the land of The Sound of Music. St. Gilgen at the west end of the Wolfgangsee was probably the most "Austrian" of all of those places. Bad Ischl, Mondsee, and Fuschl am See took close seconds. One day we rode another spectacular road through the Strubklamm where a tiny road clings to one of the two steep sides of deep ravine. We had to cross through a few short tunnels, and there were a few steep pitches, but overall it was amazing how easy this ride proved to be in steep terrain like this.

We are beyond training for something (even if we are going to participate as cyclists in the team portion of next week's Stadttriathlon), so it didn't take much to convince ourselves to stop here and there to take photos and always have a beer-and-something lunch. And, to stay true to my true desires, we also made time for a visit of the Obertrumer brewery, the Trumer Privatbrauerei. We enjoyed the best brewery tour I have ever been part of. For more than 1 1/2 hours, the two of us and one other beer aficionado enjoyed the explanations and tales of Johanna Panholzer, the rotund beer sommelier. This is one of the few commercial breweries in the world that uses an open fermentation process. You should see the huge stainless steel tanks that are open and allow you to watch the yeast do its slowly bubbling work. Our tour ended with the pouring of four different beers in the attractive, modern tasting room. Johanna gives only one tour a week, and she obviously enjoys what she's doing.

Frau Panholzer's likeness at the Trumer Privatbrauerei

And the real Johanna Panholzer in action

Ultra-modern open-fermentation tank

Old-fashioned brew-pan that's no longer being used

So, all in all, this was a very, very nice short vacation that required minimal driving to an immensely attractive destination. And even on the way home we took in another attraction, the world's longest castle in Burghausen, just right after crossing back into Germany. Burghausen, which is well-known to those interested in jazz thanks to its annual music festival, is a medieval town on the banks of the Salzach, superbly preserved (and obviously not touched by the bombings of WWII) and scenic as hell. The castle with its six separate courts is built on a ridge overlooking the city, and it's exactly 1,051 meters long, making it the world's longest. Very cool stuff! (I should also mention that a few days later I went on a long ride to Landshut, which also has a beautiful castle and an equally well-preserved old town--and both cities were ruled by the same duke, prince, or whatever he was.)

Panoramic view of the longest castle in the world, Burghausen, at 1,051 meters

Old Burghausen

A model of the castle in Burghausen

One of the six castle courts

So, the takeaway from all this is: We unexpectedly found a cycling destination with fabulous infrastructure, variety, and a slow way of life, just the right thing to unwind and cover a few quality miles.

And what would a blog entry be without a snapshot of beauty, now and then?

Jürgen