CAL2401 Alps and Lakes the first ride 2024
Welcome everyone to Erding, just a few kilometeres outside of Munich, Bavaria. We are here to start our tour that leads us through the Lakes and Alpine regions of Bavaria, Salzburg, Upper Austria and Tyrol. We have 5 great days ahead of us, even if the weather forecast is looking a little sketchy. Stay with us to find out what happens.......
The weather forecast is somewhat gloomy for this morning, so we take a leisurely breakfast and eventually leave the hotel around 9am. The rain has by now subsided to drizzle and it's really not so bad bar the wet roads. We make our first stop in the pretty little town of Wasserburg am Inn and head to the bridge for a few photos. The water level is pretty high, but there are some markings to show it has been worse in other years. We take a coffee under the arches and then make our way towards Prien, where we embark on the ferry to the Herreninsel. A short walk the other side and we are able to marvel at the Herrenchiemsee palace - it really is beautiful as are the gardens there. We stroll back to the Schlosswirtschaft and take our lunch there. By the time we finish the sun has started to peek out from behind the clouds and it's looking much nicer. We leave Prien in the sunshine and make our way towards Salzburg - the roads have dried out and it is much more fun now. A quick late afternoon coffee stop in Laufen and then a short ride to the Hotel in Salzburg. In the evening we wander into Salzburg centre for dinner and a quick look around the old town.
The first hours of the day we used to have a look at the beauty of Salzburg. After that we went of to Kehlsteinhaus, we have been unlucky and it was closed due to the bad conditions. Those bad conditions followed us till Gmunden.
When we wake up it's raining again, but by the time we finish breakfast fortunately it has stopped. We make our way out of Gmunden through the countryside until we reach the Attersee. It is very quiet and peaceful here as we stop by the lake to take in the views. We continue on our way until we reach the Spa resort town of Bad Ischl, where we make a quick coffee stop. Zauners Cafe has an amazing selection of cakes and chocolate so we have to try some. We head out again and make our way to the fairy tale town of Hallstatt, which even today is busy with tourists - mainly Asian as this town is hugely popular is SE Asia. We walk around for a while but we don't linger as the weather is not so nice and we want to keep going. We ride a little further to Gosau where we stop in a small Gastatte for lunch. After lunch we are on our way again, this time we ride up and over the Dienten Saddle and then make another quick stop for more coffee and cakes. Afterwards we are down the other side, down to Saalfelden and then some traffic jam around Zell am See as the main tunnels there are closed for maintenance work. Soon afterwards we reach our Hotel in Kaprun and have some time to relax before dinner.
The weather is still looking so so but a couple still want to ride today. We have to change our plans a little as the Grossglockner road is closed for motorcycles, so instead we opt for a quick ride over to Italy. We head towards Mittersill and then turn to go along the Felbertauern. At the top we pay our toll at the end of the tunnel and stop for the views. Then we head down towards Matrei before turning to go through the Defreggental. The pass at the top is only open for the first 15 minutes of every hour so we stop and have a coffee while waiting for it to open. Then we are down the super serpentine like road on the Italian side until we reach the main road again. From here it's an easy ride to Lienz before we head back northwards towards the Felbertauern tunnel. We put gas into the bikes near Mittersill and in the distance we can see rain, but we make it back to the hotel with just a few drops on us and a rainless day for once!