Today it was time to get on the bike again. The omens, as far as the weather was concerned, were really good: sun full and 25 ° C. After breakfast I said goodbye to my B&B hotel where I spent the last two days.
First I went through Salzburg along the Salzach river in perfect conditions on the Alpe-Adria cycle path. A really well developed bike path on the whole stage. Along the Salzach, it went upstream at first only very slightly uphill. After Salzburg, the mountains to the left and right of the path emerged more clearly and announced the terrain of the next few days.
In the second part of the route came some crisp climbs, which have brought me with the warming sun so slowly to the upper limit of my operating temperature. Shortly before Bad Gastein came then once again the final climb with a good 200 meters of altitude with gradients over 10% - thank you.
Compensation for the suffering with the natural enemies of cyclists - the mountains (quote Rolf Aldag from "Höllentour") were the mountains themselves and a super hotel to finish the day.
The nice thing after such a trauma with the Hotel Bastei is that on a long stage trip guaranteed the other end of the possibilities times comes by. And today was such a day! The family-run Hotel Rauscher in Gastein surprised me not only with a spacious room with a beautiful balcony, but they had already heated the two Finnish saunas and the steam bath. For cooling down a small swimming pond was available. The whole for 52€ - incl. breakfast - of course 😃.
The route in pictures:
What an incredibly beautiful area. There lies the conflict, on one hand doubtless beauty and on the other relentless climbing and exhaustion. The natural enemy indeed. A great place to finish !