ꯐꯣꯉꯈ꯭ꯔꯦ꯫: 27.08.2022
Unfortunately, we could not extend our stay at Pension Jörgner and sadly packed our things. We went to Maria's Biotreff, where we bought a delicious breakfast. At Mondsee, we found a nice spot and had a hearty breakfast. Then we drove to the end of Mondsee where we saw that rain was coming towards us. After a short break in a restaurant, I managed to convince everyone to continue riding. That was obviously nonsense, but I wanted to keep going. After about 15 minutes, we found ourselves sitting in a bus shelter waiting for a heavy thunderstorm to pass. Suddenly, a couple on racing bikes joined us, who had no rain gear with them. So the four of us sat in the bus shelter with our legs under a rain poncho, while the wind blew the rain inside, and we exchanged information about accommodations at Attersee ☺️⛈️. After this involuntary break, Annika and I continued towards Attersee. A sign saying ‘rooms available’ marked the end of our tour for the day. We stayed with an old lady who runs her own pension with many rooms all by herself. In the evening, we took a short walk (Annika discovered that she could feed the fish in the stream from the bridge with Mirabelle plum pieces and probably had the most fun of the trip ☺️), then we went to a good (highly recommended) restaurant at the end of Mondsee and shared a main meal and dessert. We had Käsespätzle and extremely delicious Kaiserschmarrn. The mountains shone pink again in the light of the setting sun.
In the morning, we had a simple breakfast at the pension, with eggs but unfortunately no fruits or vegetables. Then we continued towards Attersee. Annika was already feeling better, so we aimed to ride around Attersee. It was about 40 km with a few climbs. Overall, it was a very beautiful tour. Along the way, we had a delicious Kaiserschmarrn break at a sailor's inn full of snobbish sailors. Here, we selected potential good matches for each other who obviously had a lot of money. On the male side, there was a large selection - some characters could have been in a movie. Then I discovered a public scale, which, fed with 20 cents, mercilessly revealed the truth to unsuspecting tourists. I checked the maximum (indirectly measurable) body mass (150 kg) and weighed my bike with Annika's help. By now, it weighed 60 kg. But I already know a few things that Annika can take home, about... 1 kg.
Overall, Attersee offered many more small swimming spots or public access to the lake, which we found very appealing. We discovered a very beautiful bathing area with a large sunbathing lawn and many trees, perfect for hammocks, as well as a stylish beach café/bar. After spending the afternoon there, we found a camping site in the next town and squeezed ourselves onto the tent meadow. Although it was very crowded and our immediate tent neighbors were quite loud and enthusiastic during the night... we stayed for two more nights. Although the couple toned it down for the following nights, the new campers on the neighboring pitch behaved as if they were alone. They placed their electric coolers right next to our heads (they turned them off when I asked someone from the tent at night), but they also walked freely right in front of our tent entrance, even though I had already positioned the bicycles in a way that should have made that impossible... and to top it off, one night someone vomited very close to our tent... We preferred to spend our days out and about. One day we went hiking (very challenging but with beautiful views of Attersee) and spent the afternoon at the bathing area we discovered the day before. The other day, we chilled there all day - very relaxing, probably for about 10 hours. Attersee, like Mondsee, is perfect for swimming. The water is pleasantly warm and clear, with a sandy bottom.
One evening at our campsite, we suddenly heard brass music and wondered where it was coming from. Annika discovered the cause. On the lake directly in front of our campsite, there was a small boat packed with brass musicians playing music devoutly. Wonderful!
On the way to the Danube:
I also caught a cold, just as Annika was slowly getting better... I did go for a swim in Attersee in the morning, but it didn't feel good. In the following days, I had a sore throat, a runny nose, and exhaustion, but no fever or anything like that. Overall, it passed faster than Annika's. Still annoying though.
We continued by bike, first through the beautiful Weißenbachtal, with its beautiful white gravel bays. The climb was pleasant, and we soon reached the Traun. It was very noisy there, right next to a busy road, but later we continued on secondary roads. Traunsee was disappointingly dark, the road was heavily trafficked, everything seemed shabby (except for a very fancy restaurant in Traunkirchen, where we had a delicious lunch), and the first campsite in Viechtau right by the water was small, shadeless, and very close to the noisy road. But Google showed us another place away from the lake. We accepted the additional route and the extra altitude meters and found ourselves on a farm owned by Kurt Brakelmann (from ‘Neues aus Büddenwarder’) - at least the guy looked like him. There was no sign for the campsite, everything was very basic (a sink with a toilet and a shower for everyone in a self-made shed), and we decided to stay for one night. The tent meadow was beautifully located, although the stream did not babble. There were kittens, rabbits, and a few geese running around, and there were some horses. In the evening, we had delicious Italian food.
The next day, Annika paid for the place (yeah, um, one tent, two people? Let's say... 30 euros... That was the most expensive place of all, and another proof that we were dealing with the Austrian Brakelmann and one of his harmonious business ideas). We cycled on to Wels. During a break at the Traun, we met a Turkish group of women who were having a party with a huge Bluetooth speaker. The mothers danced, the children played in the water, and everything was constantly filmed with smartphones. I wonder who watches that... When we arrived in Wels, we decided to stay in a fancy hotel 🤑🧐 since there was no camping site and I lacked the motivation to wild camp, had a good dinner at a nice restaurant, and slept well in a very comfortable bed in a stylishly furnished room.
The next day, we have a short ride to Linz and then continue on the Danube bike path.
You can find all the tours on komoot.
https://www.komoot.de/collection/1622992/-draussenerfahren