Austria - Late Summer day trips to Grossarl and Dienten

Grossarl - visiting the neighbours

The mountain village of Grossarl is over the mountain to the East in the next valley.  We often ski over there from Dorfgastein in Winter. This was Summer and it takes about an hour to drive over there in the car. We first have to go to St Johann and then double-back on a winding road via Alpendorf.

A lot of big new hotels have been built near the ski slopes in recent years but away from them is a pleasant village centre. Our walk today took us up the Elmau valley to a nice modern Hotel for lunch, the Lammwirt. We should really have put the bikes on the car and headed up to an Alm but this was a bit of a last minute decision. That is, we took the wrong turning! We were actually heading for Dienten.

The Ellmau valley looking West. Straight ahead over the hills to Gastein

 It really was pleasantly rural with distant cowbells jangling on the surrounding hills. We had a good lunch at the Lammwirt alongside local extended families. As it was end of season we were a bit concerned it might be closed but our luck was in.

Good spot for Lunch - a nice Hotel in the Ellmau Valley

Old farm with a personal cable car

It's not that unusual to have a private cable apparatus to carry the milk and produce down to the road.

Dienten - out of the valley and up the hill
Dienten is North of us, we drive down the valley pass through the exit tunnels and then turn left and then right up a steep and winding road. Under an hour away from home, it is a pretty village in quite a narrow valley that benefits from the fine backdrop of the Hochkonig.
It's on our ski pass so we head up there sometimes in Winter as well. Dienten links to Muhlbach on the RHS and MariaAlm on the LHS as you head up the road so there is plenty of skiing. They have invested a lot of money in recent years on new lifts. There used to be a massive long drag lift when we first came.  There's another new lift for this season that has replaced a cranky old chair so hopefully we will find our way up there again. We particularly like the SteinbochAlm which is a lovely modern hut at the top of the hill on the left.

The Hochkonig for a backdrop

We had lunch in the Dorfstubn in town. It was our second visit to this hostelry. The first time it was just for a drink and it seemed to be a lovely, typically Austrian, family run Gastof. We were not disappointed on our second visit, good food and a friendly atmosphere.

We will just have to come back and do some more walks to justify another good lunch!

Austria - E-biking in Gastein - the Kogel Alm Ride

A new Hut on a cold wet October day.

Cow of the day in Dorfgastein 

It was a pretty cold 0ne today so I decided to stay low. The KogerAlm is right at the end of the valley but is only at 1400m. To get there it's nice cruise on ECO down to Dorfgastein and then a left turn under the Road and Railway to Underberg. Through Underberg and join a signposted route around the right flank of the mountain. It's quite a rough track and fairly steep. There is a turning off left to the Amoser Alm, another hut worth visiting, but I carried on up my trail. There's a good aerial view of the stone quarry across the road on the right. It looks like they are creating a marble staircase for a giant!

Low cloud on this cool October day

It's a pretty deserted area but I passed another hut that looks like an Alm but it is now just for private hire. I think that is where I cycled before. I needed to wind upwards for a few more turns before reaching the top of the hill and coasting down to my destination. The Kogeralm faces North towards the Salzach valley so the views can be spectacular. Not today though as the cloud was masking the hills. It's quite a substantial building built in 2011 to replace a previous Alm that burned down. More like a Farmhouse than a traditional Alm.
It has a large outside terrace but there was no way I was sitting on it today. I tied up Sparky and headed inside. Two people were sitting at a table cutting up potatoes and there was a waiter/farmer  behind the bar. They were surprised to see me and asked if I was cold. I wasn't but I was glad to be inside the cosy warm room.

Nice hot soup - freshly made Gamms suppe.

There were no other guests as I ordered my Beer and freshly made Soup.  The waiter was decanting a clear liquid into a bottle. I asked him if it was schnapps, it was - and he kindly gave me a sample glass. Very warming. It was a good soup, I could hear the Lady in the kitchen making it and she served it to the staff as well. It definitely stuck to my ribs. Anyway, I was well wrapped up for the ride down and at least the initial short uphill combined with the schnapps meant I was centrally heated for the bumpy ride down to the valley and the pedal home. The Kogel Alm closes in October and will open again in May or June depending on the snow. It's not the prettiest of rides but it is worth going for a spin up there.

A cosy room

Not a pretty hut on the outside but has sleeping accommodation for guests

Austria - E-biking in Gastein- and the high altitude cakes of Austria

Current thoughts on electric assisted cycling in Gastein

Heading for  the BiberAlm

How did I end up with an e-bike?

I have been riding my bikes in Gastein for around 14 years on various trips and I never tire of it. A thousand metre climb from the valley bottom up to a mountain hut for a friendly greeting and a cold beer and cake is a very simple pleasure. Over the last few years I have seen the growth in the use of e-bikes and watched them speed past me as I climb on my MTB. TW has had pedal assist for several years and we often cycled together, she whizzed up the hills as I huffed and puffed. Her having an e-bike meant we could ride together to some of our favourite places like the Baerstein Alm, the FundnerAlm, the Himmelwand, Hauseben and the Hauserbauer in Dorfgastein.

Ignoring the cost, I suppose I resisted buying one because hill climbing is the thing I do best and probably the thing that keeps me fit. Then, on our June visit to Gastein, I hired an e-mtb for a day, bit of a revelation! 

As a regular cyclist an e-mtb enabled me to go further and faster, still getting plenty of exercise but with reduced pain. 

I still was not totally convinced but on our return home my normal cycling pattern was disturbed by the loss of the Sandbanks Ferry. To get to the Purbecks I had to cycle around Poole Harbour. Just getting over there, mainly off-road, meant a 40-50 mile ride so I had no great desire to do any climbing on the Hills. I started using my road bike which was much easier but then I missed the off-road comfort. Hmm, maybe I need to spend some money?

BiberAlm, the view from the top

After a bit of a survey and a lot of thought I ended up at Primera, our local bike shop. My budget was £2k and I wanted  an e-MTB with a Bosch engine. Cube have a good reputation and the Manager, Clive, had a solution. In a couple of days time Cube were releasing their 2020 bikes and there was a bike for me. So after sizing and test rides I became the proud owner of a Cube Reaction Pro 500 with the very latest Bosch CX engine. 

Coffee and Pofesen at the BiberAlm

It was all I had hoped for. Around the Harbour to Lulworth Cove and back was well within range. Ringwood and the Forest finishing with a headwind back along the prom was easily accomplished. A cliffside ride to Lymington and back was easy-peasy.

Oma's Chocolate Cake at the FeldingHutte

Further and faster without the pain and with cake! So I had to bring my e-bike to Austria for our Autumn jaunt. Would it deal with the long climbs and did it have sufficient range?

When we bought our bike rack we selected one from Thule that would cope with two heavy e-bikes so it was future-proof. We also bought a ramp to roll the bikes up onto the rack so we were all set.

Lifting the e-bike onto a rack is not easy!

So, we headed off through the Tunnel. A tow-bar bike rack is not an extra charge item on Euro Tunnel but we did need to be a bit more careful driving aboard. We were also asked to put our warning flashers on in case there was anyone wandering in the carriage.

Heading down through France in a bit of a hurry at 130km/h was a bit heavy on juice but, otherwise, driving was not affected by the heavy lump on the back. We stopped for the night at Hotel out in the sticks in a place called The Relais de la voie Sacree in Issoncourt. The room was quite basic but the Restaurant was lovely. The owner and his wife had worked at the in Savoy London so standards were pretty high. One of the waitresses was obviously new but she was getting plenty of tuition from Madame. 

After a day spent on the A26 and A4 Autoroutes we opted for a more southerly cross-country on the next leg, past Nancy and through Freiburg to our next stop at Titisee in the Black Forest. Quite by chance we stopped for lunch right by one of the Rhine Canal paths I pedaled down between Strasbourg and Basle. I had stopped just up the road in Marckolsheim. 

https://takeahat.blogspot.com/2013/09/london-to-salzburg-on-bike-stage-8.html

We were very envious of the people pedaling by in the sunshine but doubly so of those stopping for cold beer at this shady spot. We toyed with the idea of taking the bikes for a quick tour but our plan was for a ride around the Lake Titisee later in the afternoon. Anyway, we were a bit late for lunch and hungry and the Kitchen was about to close. We demolished a couple of Pizzas and headed for Germany. 

A Pizza by the Canal at Marckolsheim

Perfect cycling down the canal path

It was busy on the road through Freiburg but, eventually, we climbed up to Titisee. To be honest, I had not heard of the place when we booked but we soon found that it was bit of a tourist spot! If you want to buy a cuckoo clock this the place for you!  We checked into our very nice B&B, dumped our gear and grabbed the bikes for our ride. With the weather due to change we wanted to make the most of the daylight available. We thoroughly enjoyed our short waterside ride around the Lake, particularly as we had a very pleasant beer stop en route.

Half way point on our ride around Titisee

A dustbuster - had to be done

Gastehaus Wald und See

Our next travel day was hard. It rained all the way, with lots of traffic jams. Our route took us East of Bodensee and into Austria. Then through the Arlberg Tunnel and Innsbruck. I had a senior moment in when filling the car up. I thought I had put the wrong fuel in our little car and caused a lot of confusion. A day to forget really. We deserved our Schnitzels that evening in the Gastein Alm.

Testing Times in Gastein

At the Gadauner Hochalmen on my FeldingHutte ride

I tried Sparky on my three regular high rides, to the Felding Hutte, Biber Alm and Grabneralm.

Each represent about a 1000m climb. With a fully charged '5 bar' battery for each ride the bike had plenty of range and I still had 3 or 2 bars left when I returned home. My e-bike has 4 modes, ECO, TOUR, EMTB and TURBO each giving increasing level of assistance. I used only ECO and TOUR on my climbs.

The Canine superstar at the Fundner Alm

My favourite - Ham and Eggs at the GrabnerAlm

Krapfen and coffee at the GrabnerAlm

Closed today at the WiednerAlm