Salzkammergut-Enns Cycle Tour Journal
3rd to 8th July, 2019

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Note: This is David's private journal, which you are welcome to read. It was not written with literary merit in mind, but simply as an aide memoire for the future.


Wednesday, 3rd July     Riniken - Salzburg - Eugendorf

I left home at 7:30 to meet Georg at Hasel Zoo and cycle to Waldshut for the 9:14 train to Salzburg, changing in Friedrichshavn, Lindau and Munich. We had a "Quer durch's Land" ticket for Eur 31.50 each, including bicycles.

The train was late arriving in Munich, so we missed our connection to Salzburg and had to wait an hour for the next train. We arrived in Salzburg at about 17:50.

Finding the way out of town and onto the Salzkammergut Bike Trail was quite easy, except for navigating a complicated junction not far from the station. The trail was an old railway track climbing steadily to Eugendorf, where we found a very nice hotel, the Gasthaus Holznerwirt. The evening meal outside was also very good, though the food was a bit on the cool side by the time it reached the table.

We cycled some 20 km from home to Waldshut and a further 10 km from Salzburg to Eugendorf. The total biking time was 1 hr 50 min.

Thursday, 4th July     Eugendorf - Scharfling - St Gilgen - Bad Ischl

We had good weather all day. We got away before 9:00 and straight onto the Salzkammergut Bike Trail. But we had to stop in the first village that we passed through, Thalgau. Georg needed to buy sun cream, having had none at home. He never thinks about what he is going to need on a tour in advance. He also didn't fill his water bottle in the hotel room before setting off. He doesn't like warmish water, and doesn't realise that warmish water is better than no water. Drinking fountains are few and far between in Austria, so we also had to find a cemetery. There's usually a tap there.

We followed easy trails to St Lorenz on the Mondsee. There's a very impressive mountain there, Drachenwand, with a very tempting Via Ferrata up its ridge. We followed the lakeside as far as Scharfling, where we had to get over a pass to reach St Gilgen on the Wolfgangsee. The climb wasn't too bad, only taking 20 minutes or so up to 600 m, but the traffic was a bit heavy. We stopped for a well earned coffee and cake in St Gilgen.

From there it was easy going all the way to Bad Ischl, along the south shore of the Wolfgangsee at first to its end at Strobl, then following the River Ischl into the town. The main problem was lots of bikes and pedestrians on the track getting in the way. We were in Bad Ischl by about 13:15 after some 57 km. By the time that we reached the Pension Waldesruh on the edge of the town, where Georg had reserved us a room, we had covered 63 km. Unfortunately it didn't open until 17:00 so, after spending a long time over a shandy in a nearby guesthouse, we went looking for a bathing possibility in the river near the hotel.

We were unsuccessful, the river being too fast flowing, but we found an open-air swimming pool in Bad Goisern, some 7 km south of Bad Ischl, which was very welcome, and allowed me a quiet spell to write this journal. We come through this place at the start of tomorrow's route, so it was a useful reconnaissance as well. By the time that we had returned to the hotel, the odometer was reading 80 km for the day.

We went to the pizzeria attached to the pension to eat. I hadn't intended to have a pizza on this trip, but it's getting difficult to avoid these days. At least it was a good pizza.

Friday, 5th July     Bad Ischl - Bad Aussee - Bad Mitterndorf - Wörschach in Ennstal

We had a good breakfast and got away for about 8:20. We knew the way as far as Bad Goisern, gradually uphill. After that it was new ground, at least for me. The signposting (R2/R19) was impeccable. We followed the east bank of the Hallstättersee to the lake's end at Obertraun. All very, very idyllic.

There was a very steep uphill half way along the lake, but it was otherwise easy going. We had a coffee break at about 10:00 in a big restaurant at Obertraun. They were just ending the serving of breakfast!

There followed a long stretch of gravel road in beautiful forest up to Bad Aussee over the Koppenpass (690 m). It involved a horrendously long steep climb requiring quite a bit of pushing. It was about 12:00 by the time that we reached the town after about 37 km. It was time for a shandy and portion of roast potatoes for me, and a bouillon soup with dumplings for Georg.

We were now getting to the end of the Salzkammergut Bikeline book with a big gap in our maps before getting onto the Ennstal guidebook. We had to guess which of 2 possible routes might be better for bridging the gap. We chose the route via Reith, Anger, Radling and Kainish to Bad Mitterndorf, mainly because it appeared to follow a more minor road. Unfortunately it involved another horrendously steep and long push out of the town. But scenic and traffic-wise it was delightful after that. The push rather knocked the stuffing out of us, and in hindsight the other route would probably have involved less climbing.

From Mitterndorf onwards the going was mainly downhill with occasional hills to get over. The kilometres did tend to drag on, though, it being somewhat on the warm side. But eventually we got to our reserved B&B in Haus Moser in Wörschach at 16:30. We had covered 75 km in some 8 hours elapsed time and 5 hours of cycling.

The evening meal at the nearby guesthouse was cheap (EUR 28 incl. half a litre of wine) but was very disappointing otherwise. I had a piece of tasteless roast pork in a tasteless mushroom sauce.

Saturday, 6th July     Wörschach - Admont - Johnsbach

This was a gentle day in beautiful weather and spectacular scenery, except for the last 2 km.

We followed the Emmstal Radweg (R17), bypassing Liezen, until we reached Ardning, where we stopped for coffee and ice cream. We continued to Admont, getting there for about 11:00. We visited the Benedictine library and gallery, despite its somewhat exorbitant entrance fee. It was worth seeing, though with an entrance fee of Eur 10.50 for seniors that could be debatable. The attached natural history museum was impressive. The modern art gallery was pathetic.

We stayed until about 14:00, visited the church, and continued en route for the Gesäuseeingang, i.e. the gorge through which the River Emms forces its way. At the Johnsbach turnoff, about half way through the gorge, we stopped for a shandy and snack before turning off the cycle track and tackling the 7 km and 290 m climb up to the Gasthaus Ödsteinblick in Johnsbach, where we had spent a fantastic week of climbing with the SAC in 2010. The price for this bit of nostalgia was an extremely steep climb for the last 2 km.

We covered 53 km today in 3.5 hours of cycling. In the evening, the weather got very thundery, but didn't come to anything. Again, I have to report that I chose badly for my evening meal - a large but very dry kebab.

Sunday, 7th July     Johnsbach - St Gallen - Losenstein

It was raining when we got up, but had just about stopped by the time that we were ready to set off at about 8:20. It was cool (Johnsbach is up at 880 m) but not quite cool enough to need a jacket. We averaged 27 kph for the 7 km down to the Emms valley road.

I wanted to get within easy reach of Enns, the place where the River Enns joins the Danube, by the end of the day, so forced the pace a little. Georg needs to be home on Tuesday for a doctor's appointment, and I am keen not to cut the tour short by taking the train prematurely. The trail was all along the main road as far as Kirchenlandl, but the traffic was light, presumably because it was early on a Sunday morning with a bad weather forecast. We illegally rode through a couple of tunnels. Georg had travelled this stretch last year, with much help from the railway, and knew that the official cycle route, by-passing the tunnels, involved some climbing.

It stayed dry until we had a coffee and cake just before Kirchlandl, but started raining soon after. We had quite a long, wet climb up to a pass before St Gallen, and were wet through before we got to the town.

There was a brass band festival going on there, so we sheltered in their tent for 1.5 hours or so, having a snack for lunch. With our wet clothes we never really got properly warm, though. By the time that we set off again, it had more or less stopped raining, and cleared up properly soon afterwards. We soon warmed up at the first climb.

Finally in Kleinreifling we could get off the main road and onto a cycle track. It was delightful, both scenically and smooth-tarmac-wise. The gradient was generally downhill, but with tough uphills every now and again. The kilometres slowly clocked up until, in Grossraming, we decided to phone the Gasthaus Blasl in Losenstein, some 15 km further on, to book a room. They had room for us.

We finally reached the hotel at about 17:45 after covering 89 km. Cycling time was 5 hr 45 min. The hotel turned out to be delightful, and my choice of evening meal, salad with grilled giant prawns, was by far the best choice so far this trip. It started raining again in the evening.

Monday, 8th July     Losenstein - Enns - Salzburg - Riniken

This was a very simple day's cycle ride of 52 km via Stehr to Enns, where the River Enns flows into the Danube. We had a late start waiting for quite heavy rain to stop. There was some minor stress caused by black clouds behind us, but they never dropped any rain on us.

We stopped in the cobbled main square of Stehr for a miserable coffee and an even more miserable piece of cake, the whole being made even more miserable by noisy, smoking, table neighbours. I was glad to set off again.

On arriving in Enns, the cycle route bypassed the centre of the town along the river. So we decided to go out to the point where the Enns and Danube meet, where there is a passenger ferry across the Danube. We were intending to return to the centre of the town afterwards. Unfortunately, the way back to the town centre passed the railway station, and on checking the timetable, it turned out that there was a train due shortly for Linz, just 20 km away. Linz is the main station near Enns for getting a long-distance train to Salzburg and home. So I missed seeing the centre of Enns. Perhaps there'll be another chance sometime.

The plan for the day was to get a train to Salzburg, spend the night there or just over the border in Freilassing, and trundle back to Waldshut tomorrow. But we didn't know how trains in Austria are organised, or what any of this might cost. This was partly the reason for taking a quick short hop to Linz, where we expected to find a manned ticket office. The Austrian railway's web site was not working very well.

Anyway, on getting to the ticket office in Linz, we found that we only had 30 minutes to wait for a fast train to Salzburg and, at Eur 33 each, including reserved bicycle places, the saving by going by regional trains didn't seem to be worth it. We were in Salzburg by about 16:00.

And lo, on the adjacent platform in Salzburg, a train to Zurich was due in, but with a 40 minute delay. That gave us time to find the ticket office and to enquire its cost. At Eur 193 for two it seemed a bit expensive. But on reckoning Eur 150 at least, for a hotel and evening meal in Salzburg, and another Eur 63 for tomorrow's stopping train to Waldshut, we decided to take it. Now we're sitting in the train with another 4 hours to go until we get to Zurich.

Note added later: The train to Zurich never managed to catch up its lost time, and once it reached Switzerland, it lost even more time. As a result it was turned 23:00 before we reached Zurich. Fortunately, Kari had agreed to meet us in Schlieren, just 10 km outside Zurich, with car and cycle rack, so we were able to get home just before 01:00.


Hotel/Guesthouse List

Town Hotel Name Breakfast
included?
Price per Night
(incl. Tax)
Eugendorf Gasthaus Holznerwirt y EUR ??
Bad Ischl Pension Waldesruh y EUR ??
Wörschach Haus Moser y EUR ??
Johnsbach Gasthaus Ödenblick y EUR ??
Losenstein Gasthaus Blasl y EUR ??