A Tandem Tour of CZ and Austria

Zell am See, Austria to Bad Reichenhall, Germany (47 miles by bike)
Day 10: Monday, May 31.

Click here for a printer-friendly version of this page (no images)

Today was "Pfingstmontag," a religious holiday for Catholics, and the reason this was a holiday weekend. We clambered out of our bunk beds at the hostel and headed down to enjoy the surprisingly good breakfast buffet, joining the school reunion group and several family groups. But, everyone pretty much kept to themselves and we didn't get to interact too much with anyone (one of the things we enjoy at hostels). We made up two sandwiches for lunch, since we weren't sure if we'd find anything open on the holiday. We packed up and were getting ourselves ready to go outside the hostel when a large group of adults and kids came out of the hostel and immediately barraged us with questions about the tandem, where we were from, etc. As usual, they were surprised that we were Americans. It's nice to be able to speak enough German to be able to hold conversations with those we meet along the way.

The Tauern bike route has two options at Zell am See. The pure Austrian main route heads to the northwest, while a second route heads to the northeast and toward Bad Reichenhall, Germany, before rejoining the other route at Salzburg. Since we had ridden the Austrian route before, we decided to do the German route to take in some new scenery. We planned on taking the train from Zell to the town of Saalfelden in order to get a head start on the day and avoid some big hills shown on the map. We rode up to the train station right as the 8:41 train pulled out without us. Well, we were vacillating anyway about whether to take the train or ride, so I guess this was our answer!

The departure schedule at the Zell am See train station. All stations have a similar schedule posted, one for arrivals and one for departures. Look for a small bicycle symbol next to a train number to see if it carries bikes.

Looking south from the bike route across the Zeller See toward
Zell am See (on the right; it's hard to see in this photo).

We followed the alternate route of the Tauern path halfway around the lake and then headed off through fields toward the town of Maishofen, where we decided to temporarily abandon the route and ride some of the main roads, which were more direct to where we were going. The main road was somewhat busy, but since it was a holiday morning the traffic wasn't too bad. There was a good shoulder, too. A long, gradual uphill was rewarded with a wonderful, long downhill into Saalfelden. On the way down a few bike-racer types tried without luck to catch us, apparently unaware of the gravity advantage given to a loaded tandem going downhill. At over 40 mph we were spinning our biggest gear and loving it!

In Saalfelden we turned off before the main town square and headed toward the large Bahnhof in hopes of finding some bathroom facilities (WC in the train station was open). Saalfelden is apparently a jumping-off point for the many ski resorts in the area (famous ones like Kitzbuehl are around here), and the train station was surprisingly large for such a small town (at least twice the size of the city of Linz's).

After a brief stop at the Bahnhof we rode off through fertile fields along the Saalach River, with mountain views all around. We saw many day trippers out enjoying the holiday, and also came across a few organized biking groups. Most of the groups were riding the opposite way, though, as a popular round-trip route is to start in Salzburg, ride the route through Germany to Zell am See, then head back to Salzburg via the Austrian route. The route to Bad Reichenhall stays mostly in the valley and parallels the road for most of the time (not too bad, though). We stopped for a water and toilet break in the small town of Weissbach, which features a nice, new visitor square with clean bathrooms and a cool spring bubbling out of a granite fountain from which we filled our water bottles. The cold mountain "trinkwasser" tasted great compared to the warm, plastic-tasting water that was in our bottles.

We continued alternating between the road and the path until the town of St. Martin, where we detoured through the quaint, small town and then on to Lofer where we planned to have lunch. We passed an open bakery and couldn't resist the temptation, so we stopped and got a slice of Sachertorte and two "Schaumrolles" (cream-filled pastry tubes), along with two cold Apfelsaftschorles (apple juice spritzers). We rode into the Lofer town center and found a bench on the small town square near the Rathaus (with convenient open WCs in the basement). We kept an eye on the gathering dark clouds and hoped the rain would hold off at least until we finished lunch. Despite the threatening clouds no rain came, and we packed off and continued the ride to Bad Reichenhall.

According to the map, just past Lofer the path turned to gravel, so we once again stayed on the road and enjoyed seemingly endless downhills. We began to get worried that at some point we'd be paying for all the downhills with a killer uphill, but nothing seemed to turn up. I guess we were descending out of the Alpine foothills into the valley around Salzburg. The road and path parallels the Saalach river most of this section, giving great views of the blue-green, rock-strewn whitewater. It's easy to see why the river is so popular with kayakers. Thanks to the downhills, before we knew it we were rolling into Unken and were routed through the town since the main road turns into a vehicle-only road and goes through a tunnel. A short uphill led us to the Steinpass and the border with Germany, where there was a now-disused border station thanks to the EU. Rather than going over the pass, the trail turns to the right behind some houses and descends steeply to the river bank, where it crosses the river on a bridge. We were shocked to see a loaded Cannondale tandem laboring up the steep hill. We smiled and waved at each other, and continued our descent. The path follows the river closely through a narrow gorge, still slightly downhill. We kept wondering: When is the uphill going to come?

After a mile or so the path took us directly through the middle of an active stone quarry. Thankfully nobody was working since it was a holiday, but this could be a tricky part when it's open. We had to dodge good-sized pieces of gravel on the path in this area. We saw yet another loaded tandem, which we assumed was traveling with the other one. We waved and smiled again, and got a British-sounding hello in return. Shortly thereafter the path detoured across some very rocky terrain where a new house was being built. A sign then warned bikers to dismount. We ignored it and kept riding, only to be stopped almost immediately by an extremely steep and graveled switchback single-track path. It was even hard to push the bike up on foot! The uphill led to a gasthaus, where the path then joined a hard-packed double-track dirt road that went up a bit, and then descended again to the river. Despite being dirt, the road was smooth and easy to ride, and went through a pretty forest area. We crossed the river on a small bridge, taking us off the trail and the dirt road in hopes of avoiding the marked uphill on the path. A good choice, as we then had yet another nice downhill (we could get used to this!) all the way to Fronau, where the path rejoined us on the road. From Fronau to Bad Reichenhall is mostly on a gravel riverside path with slight ups and downs and lots of walkers and casual bikers. It might be easier to take the road, but it's probably fairly busy, too.

We rode into the outskirts of Bad Reichenhall and were not immediately impressed. It's a good sized town, and not the small, quaint spa town that we were expecting. More along the line of Baden-Baden, rather than the typical Alpine spa town. The town obviously had seen some glory days in the past, with large hotels and pensions, big public buildings, and nice pedestrian-only shopping streets. We found the main square, but unfortunately the TI was closed. We managed to pick up a hotel finder brochure outside another closed TI, and set out to find lodging.

Pension Clematis (first on right) in Bad Reichenhall. The town is full of
ornate Victorian-era houses from the spa's heyday in the early 1900s.

Most of the hotels and pensions were very expensive, and we ended up at Pension Clematis on a side street near the train station. Attractive on the outside, it had definitely seen better days on the inside and didn't really seem to rate the 54 euro price tag. I don't think I'd really recommend it. Yet, it was clean and had a bed. We showered and changed and then went in search of a restaurant. We were both in the mood for some good Bavarian cooking, and our host recommended Schwabenbraeu restaurant. It was great! One of the best restaurants we've ever eaten at in Germany. The rain forced us inside from the pleasant Biergarten, but we found a small table and enjoyed an excellent, reasonably priced dinner along with all the locals. It's just outside the main pedestrian zone at 22 Salzberger Strasse, and we highly recommend it.

After dinner I had a need for my favorite ice cream dish, "spaghetti eis." This concoction is made by straining vanilla ice cream through a spaghetti press over a mound of whipped cream. The ice cream is then topped with strawberry sauce, creating a dish that looks surprisingly like -- you guessed it -- a plate of spaghetti! We found an Italian "eis cafe" and ducked under the awning just as the skies opened up with a torrent of rain. We sat for 20 minutes or so outside, and then decided to move inside when the owners starting retracting the awning to keep it from blowing away. After the rain slowed a bit, we put up our hoods and splashed our way back to our room with the creaky bed and floors.

Daily costs 5/31 (euros): Lunch: 5; Pension: 54; Dinner: 27; ice cream 5. Total: 91 euros/$112 USD.

NEXT PAGE >