Take a hat

Austria - where bicycles dare - 21st September 2013 The going is green on the Tauernradweg Furstenbrunn to Bad Hofgastein Today, I loaded up Rosinante for the last time on this trip. The Gasthaus Esterer had served me well. A nice lazy breakfast with strong coffee. I was only a short distance from Salzburg but it seemed very rural. Time to head South towards Hallein on the Tauernradweg. I thought I would be cruising up the River Salzach towpath for most of the day, wrong! My room at the Inn Loading up Rosinante for the last time on this trip Underneath the Arch Austria - in the shadow of the mountains Hallein Altstadt - in the old town There are a few lumps on the route and it was not as straightforward as I had imagined. It looks very easy from the train. I should have downloaded the track because I got lost a couple of times before reaching the river and heading upriver to Hallein. Hallein itself has quite a nice old part of town, did not know that b...

Leaving the Bodensee to Konigsee and heading for Austria - 20th September 2013 Grassau - nice place for a coffee stop Neubeuern to Furstenbrunn Valley cycling My Neubeuern Hotel was a bit upside down with a breakfast room up on the top floor. Good views of the mountains from up there though. A decent Breakfast Buffet but the bears had been at the honey pot and it was empty. It was to be the last day on the Bo-Ko and a course that took me through Rohrdorf, Frasdorf, Grassau, Bergen and Traunstein to Piding. It was not that it was a bad route, it just did not quite match up to what had gone before. It was a far busier area and often on the 'road to somewhere'. Chiemsee was today's Lake, and was just to the North of my route. It's a familiar stop for the train from Munich to Salzburg and Bad Hofgastein. One of my Plan B's before I left home was to hop on the train here if I was running late or perhaps fed up with pedalling. In practice, I was still enjoyin...

Down from on High - 19th September 2013 My smart Breakfast Room in the B &B Two straight sections are where I forgot to turn the timer on! Happy to report that my very pleasant hostess was smartly attired and served me an excellent breakfast in a nice large, traditional room. The sort of room  that was probably only used for best when visitors came to the Farm. I slept pretty well in my little room, the Church bells were not too loud, and I did not have to make too many visits to the 'outside' loo. A bridge to cross Full Stream Ahead Bad Tolz Kur and Spa Bad Tolz - the elegant old town Bad Tolz - now where is my Bakerei Full flow - Isar River at Bad Tolz Heading East on the gravel from Bad Tolz Lots of off-road today's route particularly just after Bad Tolz where there are also some steepish sections. Bad Tolz itself is a particularly smart town. There is a modern Spa town on the West side of the River Isar and the old, very prett...

Climb every mountain, F ord every stream - 18th September 2013 Lunchtime -  it would be rude not to stop at this lovely spot Nesselwang to Kochel am See Very excited at the prospect of another day in the saddle, pedalling through Bavaria.. Had not heard of any of the towns and villages I would pass through, Eisenberg, Fussen, Halblech, Bad Kohlgrub, Eschenlohe to name but a few. A lot of places on this route are still connected by rail from Munich so it is definitely a possibility to dip in and out of the Bodensee-Konigsee Radweg. There are also flights from the UK into Friedrichshafen and Memmingen as well as Munich and Salzburg so there are plenty of options to get to and from the Bo-Ko. Haus Weidach Breakfast was very nice. Chatted to the Lady running my lovely Gastezimmer, Haus Weidach in Nesselwang. She was finding running the B&B and doing Breakfast a bit hard and would, next year, run the place as an Apartment House. She has four rooms with kitchens so wou...