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Austria 6: St Veit to Salzburg

Posted on 20 October 202216 November 2022 by Rob Ainsley

A plunge to the valley floor this morning, and then a day of more green and lovely plains in warm autumn mountainscapes. And, perhaps most pleasingly, a rhubarb Streusel: sunny Austrian castle-town cafe meets gloomy Yorkshire forcing-shed.

Luckily we were going down
Autumn: If Keats had been Austrian…

One stretch of riverside cycle path in Bischofshofen was so good we could have turned right round and ridden it again. Which was just as well. We had to, because a bridge was closed, so a backtrack and a detour it was.

Calm water, calm cyclists

It was all pretty fast riding, assisted by a huge tailwind on a stretch of downhill road winding down a steep-sided valley, traffic-calm thanks to a parallel motorway. Elevenses was coffee and cake (that rhubarb Streusel) in Werfen, an attractive village overlooked by a castle.

Werfen: A bit of Yorkshire in the alps

There was another pass to climb over – Lueg – though much smaller than the previous two whoppers of Arlberg and Thurn.

Horses were hoping for our Aldi chocolate. Horses were disappointed.

Somehow Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Climb ev’ry mountain didn’t quite catch my mood. I wasn’t struggling, or in need of dewy-eyed inspiration from a wise old nun. I was just very happy and enjoying a pretty easy ride in gorgeous weather and landscape. I’d already found my dream. A dream completed when I could settle down with my post-ride beer.

Why this sudden craving for onion soup

There was more gentle downhill along beautiful smooth paths in verdant alpine levels; yes, it’s getting repetitive, but it’s a repetition that makes for perfect cycling.

Pretty clear where the route goes

In Hallein we filled our pockets with ATM cash and our stomachs with Billa bargains, and rode the last few miles alongside the grey-blue Salzach river on good tarmac, and sometimes gravel, paths to Salzburg, arriving mid-afternoon.

Big tailwind not illustrated

We’d passed through here a few weeks before on the previous leg of our Interrail trip and didn’t need to sightsee; this was purely a functional overnight, at the same lively hostel as before.

Oxygen not required: Lueg Pass

We didn’t get the same room, which meant I couldn’t check under the bed in case that’s where I left my cycling jacket. I suspect it’s somewhere on a luggage rack on a Cologne to Salzburg express.

Unlike Mozart, we looked forward to coming back to Salzburg. But they didn’t have AO Hostels in 1780.

The hostel bar offered wifi, work desks, and good-value pizza and beer, all of which we enjoyed, though perhaps not in that order.

Miles today: 46
Miles since Bangs: 287

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Austria 7: Salzburg to Schwanenstadt →

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