Training Log Archive: LOST_Richard

What a lovely walk between the cable car and chair lifts on the south side of the Inn Valley above Innsbruck.

Took the cable car up to Patscherkofel and walked the nice graded Zirbenweg track to Tulfeinaln and got the chair lift down and bus back to town. A classic day trip from Innsbruck but a good one on a sunny day with no wind.

A stop at Boscheben for coffee and cake and then a beer and lunch at Tulfeinaln, plenty of other walkers on the track. A few MTB crazies and even some 3 Wheel recumbent bikes that had ridden up the ski road, impressed until we spotted the battery packs!

GPS does not cover the whole walk as I forgot to turn it on for the first couple of Km

C • Austrian cakes! 2

Day 13 Worgl to Innsbruck

Totals 792.95km 3545.2m

Arrived at Innsbruck after a nice day ride though the Inn valley along mostly well signed sealed paths so made good progress relative to the gravel and hilly days. Yr.no was a fail today as it had rain but we dodged tt and whilst cool we did not have to deal with precipitation.

Great views along the valley floor of the mountains on both sides of the valley. Being a Sunday in Austria not many places open for a coffee stop but the OOB Cafe was open for business Schwaz was open.

Rolled on into Innsbruck which does not follow the normal Austria rules and was alive with tourists.

We made our way to the Airbnb for the next 5 nights, great spot just out of the centre of the city. Enjoyed a beer and wine in a pop up fish market by the river.

Aborted trip to the Bahnhof

Day 12 Stephanskirchen to Worgl

Totals 726.52km 3350.2m

With a ton of rain in the forecast and overnight storms, we decide that we could skip the ride and go for the train at least half way, so headed down to the Bahnhof only to find that there were hordes of people and that the "trains had fallen out" i.e. get a bus or ride.

So found our way back to the river and headed on upstream, still lots of rain and wet gravel paths made for slow progress along the river bank. Between the clouds we could look at the mountains as the valley closed in. Like most alpine valleys they fit in the autobahn, railway, local roads and the bike route. We stayed on the look out for suitable coffee spots but either closed on account of the rain or just not there so a long way to caffeine today.

Made it to Kufstein and found a coffee shop as a thunderstorm came through so missed the worst of that before the last section of the path in the showers.

The route from Kufstein to Worgl was mostly sealed and we made better progress until in the outskirts of Worgl where we took a wrong route up a short steep hill to end in someone's backyard back down onto a narrow muddy track on the river edge to make our destination.

Interesting that today we crossed back in Austria and the German police were manning the border crossing and while we did not see any cars get stopped, we assume they knew who they were looking for.

Day 12 Muhldorf to Stephanskirchen

Totals 661.25km 3043.2m

We knew it was going to be a long day with a few hills, and with some hot weather in the forecast we tried to get going a bit earlier than some days, managed a 9:15 start so not too bad, but hardly an alpine start.

A rude awakening to the hills after only 4km when around the bend and a very steep climb up through a farm yard onto a river terrace, good that the gravel stopped and it was sealed otherwise I don't think I would have made it up with a loaded bike.

Some rolling up and down but short sharp hills to the 25km mark. We did diverge a little from the official Innradweg shown on the map to avoid some obvious diversions through to Gars-Bahnhof, where we stopped at the Bahnhof Cafe for a coffee. The owners were SE Asian probably Vietnamese and we wondered how big the SE Asian community is in Germany as we have not seen many Asian faces?

After Gars-Bahnhof we had a nice gravel section along the river bank with steep wooded slopes up from the river. After around 5km we hit the biggest hills of the trip so far and climbed up into farm land a 100m or so above the river level. We now got hazy views of the mountains in the distance. The route stayed high until we got to the outskirts of Wasserburg and there was fine look-out over the city which is built in a tight bend of the river.

Onward to Griesstatt where we crossed to the north bank and a long flat section on the gravel levee bank brought us to Rosenheim. Our booking for the night was in the sister town on the south bank in Stephankirchen so up the hill from the bridge and through the town to find a very nice apartment.

No beer gardens tonight as we have full cooking facilities and a garden of our own to relax in.

Day 11 Simbach am Inn to Muhldorf

Totals 588.75km 2387.5m

Headed out of town and after a 5km of back roads hit the river bank gravel for another 8km until the confluence of the Inn and the Salzach rivers. The Salzach heads to Salzburg but despite the Sounds of Music in our ears we will leave that for another year.

Followed back roads to Marktl which has a claim to fame as the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI, had a nice coffee in the square next to his family home.

From Marktl the path followed the river with sections of gravel and bitumen with a few short sharp climbs around the power station weirs. Stopped for lunch just south of Perach on a lake with lots of people out swimming, sun baking and enjoying the beer garden on the banks of the lake. We cruised through the rest of the ride to arrive in Muhldorf around 3:00pm, worked our way through the city to the square and and our hotel. Found a note on the front door that seemed to say call this number for check in but in fact said sorry new owners and we are closed!

Off to the Tourist office and found an alternative, and then to contact Booking.com and ask WTF why were we not informed, helpful help desk after waiting the usual amount of time on a call center said yes we have it listed as closed and you should have been notified. All is well and they gave us a Euro 2 payback for the more expensive hotel if we submit a claim with will offset the $2.40 phone call!

Day 10 Scharding to Simbach am Inn

Totals 537.04km 2228.1m

Yr.no told us to expect rain overnight with the rain clearing by 10:00 or 11:00am so had a bit of a late start and Yr.no came good. While it was still overcast and very humid the rain did pass by the time we got going.

Crossed the Inn to the German side at Neuhaus and turned left to follow the river bank, after a short section on sealed roads the path turned onto the levee and was hard pack gravel, which while fine to ride on was a couple of km/hr slower than the sealed path. The rain had also left quite a few puddles so the bikes really need a clean now.

Some 20km on the levee bank with good views of the river and surrounding countryside, most of the farms were either corn or hay pastures. Saw a few other cycle touring riders, but not the huge groups of the Danube and most seemed to be self supported independents without the logo panniers of Rad und Reisen and others companies. Also quite a few people just doing a circuit.

Played coffee shop bingo and had a win. We headed into a what looked like a small village, AIgen, to be pleasantly surprised to find a choice of coffee shops. We picked a local bakery and had very nice coffee, hot and strong not the unfortunate norm of tepid and weak.

Continued on through rural back roads until 5km from Simbach we went back to the gravel levee bank until the bridge between Braunau and Simbach.

Decided it was day to visit an Eis cafe and pig out on large ice cream sundaes, not disappointed in the size, flavour or cost of either the strawberry or the nut selections. Amazed that Germans (and Austrians) seem to be able to consume large ice cream sundaes at any time of the day or night.

Took a walk around the town to check out the dinner options, selected a nice looking Bier Garten and then walked across the bridge to see what Braunau had to offer. Braunau has a place in history as the birth place of Adolf Hitler and there is a plaque somewhere but I did not find it.