Austria and the Donau river - Windisch-Minihof, Austria
Windisch-Minihof, Austria
After one last morning swim in Switzerland it was over the border and into Austria, the land of Mozart and Arnie. We decided to stay in the mountains and ride to salzberg via the Alberg pass. And the inn vallel. Again the weather was good and we very quickly fell into the groove in our new surroundings. The people were brilliant and not a day would go by without a friendly local helping us with directions and advice. The summer was starting to move toward autumn and to the disappointment of the local kids the school holidays finished. The roads and campsites were a bit quieter and company in most spots were now hardy late season tourers, travellers and retires. After 3 days of hard yakker reached Innsbruck and intended to spend a couple of days sightseeing in the area famous for hosting the Winter Olympics twice. However rain conspired against our riding and we instead traded it for a train and very nice days wandering the old pastel coloured towns of Innsbruck and Salzberg taking in museums and indulging in much local beer, apple strudel and Wiener schnitzel. The cities were nice , but the touring must continue so we saddled up the bikes again and visited the mountains for one last time east of salzberg in the lakes region known as the backdrop to the sound of music. I don't remember a thing about the movie but it certainly lives on as tourists rolled through in big bus loads. Rach and I trucked on through some rain and some gorgeous lake side villages such as Hallstatt and finally left the alps in for the last time in brilliant weather. In was now north and onto the Donau river which we followed for 4 days down into the lovely capital of Vienna. The Donau is an impressive river that stretches from south west Germany and cuts a line across Austria and 5 other eastern block countries before coming out in the Black Sea. The section we rode really is made for riding with paths and apparently 300,000 visitors per summer. It was a perfect easy end to the Austrian foray with good company including the incredibly generous Sepp and Andrea from Linz who had a kiwi connection in titahi bay. Many beers and a couple of night caps later they enjoyed my below par white boy Haka!