3rd August, 27km
We rode out to the West Bahnhof and caught the train to Salzburg as usual but get off at Attnang-Puchheim where we crossed the platform to catch the train to Bad Ischl. We find the very posh Konditorei Gerlinde had mentioned and had a couple of Affogatos, basically expressos poured on vanilla icecreams and a Zwetschkenfleck.
After quite a few attempts at finding the route along the river, we managed to ride into St Wolfgang, just 20km away. Our hotel at St Wolfgang had storage for the bikes and a small gated access area to the lake.
We swam a couple of times in the lake, the water slightly warmer than the pool at home before dinner at the resturant on top of the new railway station. The line is an ABT rack and pinion system that runs 8km to the top of Scharfberg and was commissioned in 1892. The Kaiser went up two years later.
Looking south east from St Wolfgang.
4th August, 1200m
The next day we get up, have breakfast with a coachload of Dutch tourists and then walk 1200 vertical metres up the mountain.
This is on the outskirts of St Wolfgang . . .
A view through the trees to Wolfgang lake . . . about an hour later. Photos by Susanna.
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The first 2/3s are in the forest, but we get to an alm where there is a stop for the train. The open landscape allows for views across to the opposite side of the lake. We can now see the train stop at the top and the hotel where we are staying the night. Photo by Susanna. |
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A few hundred metres later, and we get to cross over the railways lines, here are two passing each other. Note the middle third rail.
We arrive at the hotel about an hour later, I am definately feeling the 1200 vertical metres. The view from the balcony of the hotel, a view of Lake Wolfgang and the train station (1984), the zig zag pathway up to the hotel and the small line for luggage on the left. You can just see the church tower of St Wolfgang from the first image, in the middle of the picture, below.
The view of the western end of Wolfgang Lake and the township of St Gilgan.
A panoramic view. The lake has the town of St Gilgen at the western end and Strobl at the eastern end, with St Wolfgang in the middle on the northern side. It is where a river enters the lake, quietly filling it in with less than a sixth the normal width left. Schafberg is the highest mountain in the Salzkammergut region. Higher mountain ranges, such as the Dachstein can seen, barely, in the middle.
We go for a short walk before dinner and the sunset. Photo by Susanna.
Then it is dinner in the hotel resturant and we retire to watch a thunder storm roll in from the south.
5th August, 40 km
We get up early the next day to join a very small number of people to watch the sun come up in the south east. That is Lake Attersee.
And a little bit later, below, photo by Susanna.
A view of Lake Mondsee on the right, and St Gilgen under the clouds on the left in the west. Photo by Susanna.
This shot is taken a few hundred metres east of the hotel and shows how close to the edge it was built.
We catch the train down and are passed by at least 4 trains coming back up, packed unlike our mostly empty wagon. We go back to the hotel to pick up the bikes and put our cycling knicks on. It is still 40 kilometres to Salzburg. We take a very short ferry ride across the lake which saves us a good 15km.
The Schafberg cliff edge can be seen clearly from the highest point on the pass just past Lake Fuschl.
We eventually make it into Salzburg after what seems like a very long downhill. The next day we return to Vienna.