Salzburg to Braunau - June 9

June 9

After a good Yoho breakfast (including grabbing an extra bread roll for later for the gluten eaters), and Peggy taking our photo, we headed off expecting to have a pretty good run along the Tauern Cycle Path. The path follows the Salzach River, then the Inn River towards Passau. I estimated the total riding distance to Passau at 150km, and we planned to cover it in two days. We were only a few km out of Salzburg when we came upon a big sign in German that seemed to indicate that the path was closed ahead, and there was a bike path sign directing us to turn off.

We followed the signs along the alternate route to Anthering, where the signs stopped. We saw a Radweg (bike route) sign and followed it towards the river. This led us along a forest trail, over two steep slippery fence crossing ramps, back to the main river trail, only to find that it was completely blocked at that point.

Tracey can manage any obstacle!

Then followed the all too frequent backtracking, this time over the two steep slippery fence crossing ramps. We decided to give up on the %#@! Bike route and navigate on roads with TomTom for a while. Except for a few km on an uncomfortably busy road, this worked ok, taking us beyond Ostermiething, where we lost Rod who had ridden ahead, to a point near Tittmoning where the map showed the bike path leaving the river. It seems that the most scenic riding almost always involves some serious climbing. From the point where we rejoined the bike route it followed a quiet road that almost immediately started a long steep climb through forest. This turned out to be a beautiful stretch of riding. Towards the top of the climb we passed a German cycle-touring couple walking up the hill. After the climb followed a very pleasant stretch through forests and small towns.

Beautiful riding - our reward after the climb

We returned to the Salzach River at the stunningly beautiful town of Ach, where we stopped for a well-earned coffee and cake.

View of Ach

Nice coffee and cake

After a steep climb out of Ach we enjoyed a good fast run to Braunau where we caught up with Rod, who had taken a different route. Typical of towns in this area, Braunau has a long and wide central square, lined with attractive buildings in pastel shades, and accessed at one end through a narrow arch.

The arch into the town square

Rod on the bridge over the Inn at the end of the main square

We did not realise until later that Braunau was the birthplace of Hitler. We camped the night at a pleasant campground not far from a shopping centre where Rod had found a very good value cafeteria. The German cycle tourist couple we had passed earlier arrived and camped near us. Tomorrow we should easily reach Passau.

Our campsite in Braunau