We left in the drizzle today hoping it would be like yesterday with improving conditions. We did not even look at the forecast.

Austria has had wonderful bike paths, weaving around villages, up some absolute corkers of hills, gravel, dirt and some beautifully sealed.

We started on beautifully sealed and climbed and climbed.

Everything is so neat and picture perfect.

Great signage.

Cute villages.

Even a theme park, with a big ‘ride on’ character (one for my Zwift friends).

Some of the paths were suffering badly from flooding. The overflowing creek ran into a pretty lake.

The rain started to bucket down, and at the 23 km point, we arrived in a little village. We were a bit cold and wet so decided to grab a coffee. The lady was so kind offering us blankets. I said no, as I did not want to get the white blankets wet and dirty. Besides, if you get too warm, it makes it harder when you roll on.

The rain eased a tad as we rolled on, and we were very appreciative. We were following another flooded river, on a predominantly gravel path.

At the top of a really steep gravel climb, was a Pub!

Just after this pub, was this sign. Neither of us have ever seen such a sign. The dirt track was narrow, and given the small pub at the dead end, good reminder to both cyclist and drivers.

It was a beautiful forest alongside the river. Germany was on the far side of the river, whilst we remained in Austria.

Just one 100% German photo. This is the sizeable town of Bad Reichenhall. We kept moving, as it was raining on the hills around, as you can just see in this photo. We had about 20 km remaining to complete the ride to Salzburg, and we were keen to avoid getting wet, if at all possible.

So we motored on, now mainly on sealed tracks.

The following are all of Salzburg, as we rode into the city centre.

On the road is an adult goose. We had to ride around him. He was not moving as on the far side was one of his goslings. They live at the lake in the second photo.

For some distance we had a great view of a castle on a hill. This is Festung Hohensalzburg, and is one of the largest medieval castles in Europe.

Construction commenced in 1077 and expanded in the 1400’s.

During WWI it housed Italian prisoners and Nazi activists before Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938.

Riding through the ‘burbs’ was this church.

Once at our hotel, we cleaned our bikes as I ‘negotiated’ a bedroom storage versus their open 24 hours a day car park. The guy told me, people park their Mercedes there and they do not get stolen! I responded, you can’t pick up a Mercedes and walk away with it!

We headed off for a look at the old town, and found the steepest path I reckon I have ever walked up! It heads to Kapuzinerberg, a hill on the eastern bank of the Salzach river, at an elevation of 640 metres.

Also at the top is the Claudine’s cloister, constructed in 1599. Evidence of prehistoric settlements date back to 1100 BC.

The views were really good, despite the weather. In the second photo is Mozart’s home (the brown multi storied building top left). You cannot walk around Salzburg without being inundated with Mozart references.

Walking back down the stairs, we were curious about this roof top garden. It seems to have been jammed in quite curiously.

We finished our walk at the river, then back closer to our hotel, where we finally found a restaurant offering ‘Mozart balls’. Thank you Rodney V for the tip, we enjoyed our Mozart balls!! 😂😍

Our route and chart for today.

Tomorrow the forecast is looking heaps better! We are hoping for no rain!! We have had rain every day since we rode Zadar to Split….12 day’s ago…. We ride back into Germany to revisit the Danube, at Passau.

As I write this, I can hear a bunch of loud Australians. I am sitting at reception as the wifi is not great in our room. They are drinking at the bar. 😎

Thankyou for reading,

Ooroo