Hallstatt

by Miss Penny Black

Our trip to Hallstatt was supposed to be two trains then a short ferry ride. When we got to Salzburg train station our first train had been cancelled.

How annoying.

Luke managed to work out which train and platform we needed to get to and soon we were on our way.

The countryside between Salzburg and Hallstatt is supposedly Austria’s Lake District – not such huge mountains as the Alps and lots of lakes and rivers between gentle green hills.

It was indeed green but it’s no Cumbria;-)

The trains weren’t very crowded, although we managed to sit right by a woman who talked loudly and non-stop for the whole first half of the journey.

On the second train trip we had a bunch of teenage girls sit at the table across the aisle and they managed to be quieter than the woman on the previous train.

After a couple of hours we reached the ferry landing. It’s possible to get to Hallstatt by bus and road but it’s more fun to go by train then take the short ferry ride over.

It also provides a water view of this fairytale-like hamlet.

We were very lucky with the weather too.

We had booked one night at a lovely hotel called the Seehotel Grüner Baum, right on the waterfront. It was our one really fancy hotel for the trip (well, that we’d planned in advance) and so we were really looking forward to it.

The view from the water is lovely and very quiet but when you get off the ferry the number of tourists is quite astonishing.

Fortunately our hotel was right by the ferry landing and on the waterfront so we went down to their restaurant area and had a drink in the shade.

We had a cocktail called a Hugo, apparently popular in this region.

We spent a couple of hours waiting for the crowds to die down a bit – not a hardship with this view!

Then we took a walk through town. The square outside the hotel was extremely picturesque.

The front of the hotel is the orange building on the right.

Many of the building were covered with stunning climbing roses.

After a walk around town, down some of the back alleys and along the main street, we checked into our room at precisely 3pm, very keen for a shower and change of clothes.

A lovely bathroom but the shortest shower screen I’ve ever seen, water went everywhere.

The view from our balcony was pretty spectacular

Refreshed, we walked to the viewing point which is crowded all day. We got there at about 5:30pm when it was relatively quiet.

If you’ve only seen one picture of Hallstatt, it’ll be something like this.

We walked back through the graveyard, where graves are rented for a few years at a time. If no one pays you get dug up and your skull moved to the charnel house. The graves were probably the best-maintained I’ve ever seen.

All had very neat and colourful flower gardens on top.

There are two churches in the centre of the village, the one higher up offers an excellent view from the path around the outside.

We had a drink before dinner and soaked up the peace and quiet of the lake, while at the same time watching the staff of the hotel work with the constant flow of tourists wandering in without bookings and expecting a table. Also we noticed a cat had been asleep in a palm pot the whole time we had been sitting right by it.

I had fish caught from the lake for my dinner. There are only two people licenced to fish from the lake to protect their stocks, which is reassuring, what with the complete disregard for fish numbers in most other places. I know the risotto doesn’t look amazing but it was delicious!

Luke had the pork, which looked much more appetising.

We asked if we could take a bottle of Prosecco and our desserts up to our balcony and were told ‘you can take whatever you want!’ So we did.

Our balcony neighbours were all out but being very quiet, and so were we, except for when I took the cage off the Prosecco and let it sit and then the cork popped all by itself, making us both jump.

Goodnight, Hallstatt!

17Jun2023

Innsbruck to Hallstatt… I Mean Salzburg!

by Miss Penny Black

We got up at 6am and snuck into the hotel dining room to steal a couple of tiny cakes each from the closed breakfast room. On weekdays it opened at 6:30am but on weekends it didn’t open until later – not much good when we had a train to catch at 7:13am.

We caught a taxi to the station and boarded with time to spare. The view from the train was lovely – trees, mountains and the occasional castle or village.

Along the way the conductor came along to check the tickets. He paused at Luke’s e-ticket and said ‘it’s for tomorrow’.

He didn’t seem terribly bothered by it but we were very confused. When Luke checked, it turns out we’d somehow skipped over a day when booking accomodation. Since we couldn’t check in to Hallstatt until tomorrow and our train tickets were technically invalid, we decided to get off at Salzburg and spend the night there. Fortunately Luke found a lovely hotel right by the station, the Cocoon.

The exterior wasn’t super exciting, I’ll admit.

We dropped our bags off at 10am and then went for a walk towards the old town.

We walked through the Mirabel Gardens on the way.

A bunch of people on a tour skipped around the edge of this fountain, if anyone knows why please leave a comment… is it a sound of music thing?

Luke had looked up a good spot for coffee and we stopped at Kaffee Alchemie, where I had what was definitely the best coffee of the trip so far. I’m not a coffee snob but in my humble estimation this was just perfect.

While we sat and ate our absolutely delicious apricot and cream cheese danishes we watched athletes outside line up outside for the bus that would take them to their race. The schadenfreude was strong!

Meanwhile…

So good!

After we had not one but two cappuccinos and enthused effusively at the proprietor about the quality of his coffee, we headed out into the old town.

Lots of lovely flowers out.

I bought a few postcards then we headed for the funicular.

It looks crowded but we got straight on. I think the worst of the summer crowds don’t start until July.

The funicular ride was short but swift and took us up to the castle. Fortifications on the site had existed since Roman times, over 1600 years ago.

Of course, it had been expanded significantly over the many centuries, mostly during the medieval period.

A model of Salzburg, which profited from the salt trade for centuries.

The castle was often the home of leaders of the Catholic Church.

There were displays of armour and military uniforms spanning many centuries.

I found the more modern displays, the ones on WW1, very interesting. I hadn’t really thought about how that war would be portrayed from an Austrian standpoint. It made me more interested to learn about what started WW1 (I knew about the assassination of ADFF but not why it was done) so when we got back to the hotel we watched some YouTube videos about it.

After wandering through all the displays we headed back down the hill. After nachos for lunch yesterday we decided on more Mexican today.

Despite the name, the Burrito Factory was excellent.

While we sat and ate we listened to two students next to us discussing their travels. One said she had been travelling with three large suitcases and two cartons of belongings that included a rice cooker and hairdryer and the girl she was sitting with paused and then said ‘Wow, I wouldn’t be so … brave to try to travel with so much stuff,’ and I nearly laughed out loud.

The race people had been heading to finished in the middle of the old town and we walked past as a few people finished.

The previous evening Jane and I had been talking about the fact that it is (or was) a controversial thing to give children participation awards and trophies and how it doesn’t really help build resilience, but I noticed all the adults doing the races today were getting quite a large shiny medal to wear😂.

The crowds were really out in the early afternoon and the touristy part of the city was packed.

We went back to the hotel to have a rest and I watched some WW1 videos on YouTube.

The river was a popular place but the shore looked very rocky.

The evening mainly consisted of a walk around the local area and some drinks in the hotel bar. We had a pizza at a pretty basic local tavern by the station and had hoped to visit a jazz club near the hotel but nothing was happening when we walked by.

Oh, there was also a 24 hour vending machine place with a vast range of things available, including bowls of salad, alcoholic drinks, smoking paraphernalia and cans of chilli.

If you’re ever looking for accommodation in Salzburg I can highly recommend the Cocoon. The rooms had aircon (a rare thing in our price bracket!) good pillows, mattresses, friendly staff and for almost the first time since we arrive in St Moritz no cleaner tried to get into our room before 9am. I don’t know if we’ve been unlucky, but Jane said the same had happened to them, with the cleaner at one place coming straight in and starting to clean the room while they packed! None of us had ever overstayed our checkout time… it was bizarre.

Our room had a hanging seat but it was facing the wall, which was a bit weird.

Breakfast the next morning was great too, bacon, sausages and three kinds of eggs.

Next stop: Hallstatt.

16Jun2023

A Day In Innsbruck

by Miss Penny Black

We enjoyed a bit of a lie-in this morning, with no rush to get on the bikes. Having two nights in one place feels like a luxury after a week of packing every morning. We ended up sitting with Jane and Rutherford for breakfast and making plans to have dinner together before we went our separate ways tomorrow.

Luke and I didn’t have set plans so we walked towards the old town along the river and our first stop was a charity shop that was selling a wide range of items including second hand dirndls, which I’ve not seen anywhere else before.

The quality of the clothing was excellent and Luke ended up buying a jacket* and I was slightly annoyed to find an entire display of just the thing I had looked for in London:

Champagne glasses! Lea likes to drink her sparkling wine out of a nice glass and our Camden flat only had three (not very nice) wine glasses and not one flute, so every time I passed an op shop I looked for a cheap one, to no avail. Apparently they were all in Innsbruck.

Then we walked around the streets and quickly found the main** attraction, the golden roof. Don’t ask me why it’s so famous, it’s so boring I couldn’t be bothered even looking up why it’s so well known.

Here’s a slightly closer photo using a technique I saw on instagram and was able to use thanks to the first real rain of my trip causing some puddles to form. Now I get a photo with TWO golden roofs. What could be more thrilling than that?

We walked around the main mall and back streets of the old town, which were charming.

The buildings were lovely colours and some were very ornate.

Traditional painting of the wine making process.

The old part of town was only about six streets but they had a lot of interesting shops. One sold the most elaborate glasses I’ve ever seen.

This is not a great photo but you get a bit of an idea.

We stopped at a cafe with large umbrellas to have a drink as the rain started, and watch all the very fashionably dresses people go by. Not quite as fancy as Zürich but lots of interesting styles.

The rain and sun alternated every half hour.

More walking through the side streets and looking in some of the shops.

We moved to the riverside and had some lunch – nachos with bbq sauce and some garnish that I think is tiny tomatoes but I’m really not sure!

They weren’t at all spicy… but if anyone knows for sure please tell me!

After another hot chocolate (they really are very fluffy and delicious!) we headed back to the hotel for an undeserved rest.

On the way home we walked through a local market hall that had local vendors with stalls. We bought a bag of fried apple for the train trip tomorrow.

More marvellous looking strawberries.

White asparagus is a big thing here at the moment.

During our walk around town we had found a place for dinner, the Stiftskeller Inn. It had a very ‘Munich beer hall’ atmosphere and seemed to be quite popular.

Luke and I got there a bit early to secure a table then Jane and Rutherford arrived not long after. We had a lovely evening swapping travel stories and eating some very traditional Austrian food.

I had an enormous salad covered in bacon.

Luke had Apple strudel and custard for dessert and I had icecream.

We all walked back to the hotel together and said our farewells, they are off on another section of cycling, this time to Vienna.

Tomorrow we catch the train to Hallstatt, which hopefully lives up to its postcard-perfect reputation!

15Jun2023

Eurobike Tour: Day 5: Ried to Imst

by Miss Penny Black

After our usual ‘stuff ourselves to the brim’ breakfast we hit the road. I took my strongest hayfever meds and didn’t suffer too badly in the morning. At about 12pm we cycled through Landeck, a larger town than any we’d seen so far.

We cycled past Jane and Rutherford, who stopped for a chat and said they’d just been to a chemist! So I went in and bought two replacement bottles of nasal spray and two bottles of eye drops, which now brings my total quantity of hay fever meds to seven.

We stopped at a cafe for a drink which turned out to be more like a dessert – a very ice cream heavy iced chocolate and iced coffee. They came with three long wafers to scoop up the icecream. Delicious!

Heading out of Landeck was a bit of road riding, then gravel, then a lovely tarmac bike path.

Not far out of Landeck we saw this interesting ruin. Imagine living up there! You certainly wouldn’t be popular with the postman.

Lots of horses around, particularly palominos.

We stopped in a little village to refill our soft water bottles and found this curious religious statue. Is it Mary or Eve? Or is this a commentary on how all the women in the bible are either mothers or of ill repute?

A little further along we decided to stop at what looked like a charming little cafe.

It seemed small but was like the tardis as we went in.

Hundreds of seats and a dozen different shops. From the other side it was clearly a Highway service station. We ended up buying ice cream and sitting outside. Coconut for me, caramel for Luke.

The day’s ride was pretty easy compared to the previous days and, apart from a wrong turn down an extremely low and creepy (probably haunted) tunnel, we made it to our hotel without too many worries.

The path was a lot easier in every way and so we made pretty good time, arriving around 3pm.

Time for a drink at the restaurant.

Most of our discussion over drinks revolved around the excessive number of flies in Switzerland and Austria and the complete lack of flyscreens. No matter where you sit they are landing on your plate and no one else seems terribly bothered by them.

We ended up having dinner at 6, knudels (mac and cheese) and salad for me, cordon Bleu and chips for Luke. mine had dried caramelised onions on top, which I will have to try at home because it was a great combo.

Prices continue to become more reasonable the further we get from St Moritz

I’d like to say we went out partying but I was asleep by 7pm and didn’t wake up until after 5am. I think the relief of having enough medication to make the trip enjoyable was such a great weight of my mind I could properly relax.

Our room at the hotel was nice too, spacious with a balcony lined with purple petunias.

Poor Luke was up until 11 playing games with his headphones in.

Tomorrow our last but longest day at 65km.

13Jun2023

Euro Bike Tour: Day 4: Scuol to Prutz (Crossing to Austria)

by Miss Penny Black

We left the hotel at about 10 after a bit of drama with my phone and Three, the company I got my phone SIM from. Danny, my friend in Northern Ireland (with whom I did the Camino) had been very kindly helping me out with renewing my phone plan (the money has to be paid from a UK account) but the credit he’d added had somehow disappeared while I’d been asleep – Luke thought maybe the hotel wifi had dropped out and apps had been updating. Luke used their online chat to fix it and the company renewed the plan for a month with unlimited data.

You just don’t realise how important internet access is until you don’t have it. We only have one UK phone number between us and it’s on my phone – something to rectify for next time. The delay made me feel a bit anxious as this was our longest day of cycling yet.

On the way out of Scuol was a very scenic bridge and no cars allowed, which makes any path more pleasant to ride!

So picturesque.

Snow melt makes the rivers such an unusual colour with all the minerals washed down from the mountains.

I didn’t take a lot of photos today. Switzerland has experienced really bad storms and some landslides. Trails that were probably fairly smooth a couple of weeks ago were very potholed and rough. Or maybe they were always like that. The day before we had been detoured due to a big landslide.

There were several parts of the ride early on where railings seemed to be missing or edges were more precipitous than they should be. I really don’t like coming down steep and winding gravel roads that have a sharp turn at the bottom and no railing or fence. It made me very tense and I’m surprised, after so much white-knuckled riding today that my arms and shoulders aren’t sore.

The other thing that was making me worried was that my most powerful and fast-acting hayfever medication is getting very low as the bottle has leaked a bit. I’d tried taking it in two half doses the day before with middling success but today I thought I’d wait until I felt the symptoms before I took it. With the wind in my face and a great deal of pollen in the air it didn’t take long for my eyes to become extremely itchy and feel swollen.

We stopped in a tiny hamlet and I felt really overwhelmed by the terrain and how my face felt. It was hard to see with such itchy red eyes and I had a bit of a cry. Luke tried calling the Eurobike help line to see if the bag transport vehicle was anywhere near us. It took them half an hour to get back to us and then they said no, the driver’s van was too full to pick us up.

We had deliberately booked through a company called Natural Adventures in order to avoid Eurobikes as their reviews weren’t good. It turned out that Natural Adventures use Eurobikes anyhow and that their promises of support to riders did not extend to picking us up, knowing anything about local transport services, connecting us to taxis etc or offering any help whatsoever.

After being the very definition of useless, the person at the other end had the temerity to say ‘have a nice day,’ and I replied with ‘unlikely,’ and hung up in a rage.

Since there was nothing for it, I took some of the remaining fast-acting hayfever meds, waited a bit and then kept going.

The next part of the path was pretty dreadful (short, steep, very rocky climbs and narrow paths next to steep edges) but eventually became a decent road which then turned into us riding on the side of a highway.

Initially we were on a bike path next to the highway but after some roadworks the bike lane disappeared and it was just us and cars and trucks all using the same lane. Fortunately due to the roadworks the traffic was slow and Swiss/Austrian drivers all moved over and were very polite. I didn’t feel in any danger and there were other cyclists on the road.

We had to ride through several tunnels. Partway through one I could see what I initially thought was my hair curling around the front of my hat, which was weird because I had put my hair in braids that morning. No, it dawned on me, it wasn’t hair, it was the legs of a huge beetle reaching under the brim of my hat right in front of my face. It was big enough for me to hear the thump as it hit the road when I brushed it off. Ick.

The highway riding was very fast (for us) – we rode between 30 and 40 kph for quite a while and made up for all the time wasted by the call to Eurobikes (world’s worst bike company?). After the highway the rest of the ride was along pretty quiet and well-sealed country roads through small villages until we reached our hotel.

Today’s ride was about 50km. Tomorrow is more like 35km and hopefully the high quality roads continue as we get closer to Innsbruck. The final day is 65km but if my hayfever is worse there’s a train line along that stretch so we can cut some of it out if needed.

Luke has been really supportive and kind about all my suffering and lets me set the pace and take rests when I need them. Technically I guess this is our honeymoon holiday since we’re on our own for a stretch and, even though it hasn’t been perfect, having Luke be so considerate with my challenges and severe discomfort at points has really reminded me what a wonderful human being he is and how lucky I am to have him.

Our hotel for the evening was on a busy road and didn’t look super fancy but the staff were really lovely and our room was a good size as well as having an enclosed balcony.

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant, where the food was easily half the price it would’ve been in St Moritz. We had pork schnitzels with cranberry sauce (a great combination) and they served wine in a 240ml carafe for 6€, which cheered me up even more.

We finished the evening drinking our duty free gin and watching from our balcony as the clouds changed colour and listening to music inspired by the restaurant’s playlist of 20 year old trance classics.