The Original Sound of Music tour Bus!
Day 18: The Hills are Alive... with the Sound of Music tour! and then 30miles more...
Sunday July 14 - Day 18 - 29miles - Total 681miles
We started the morning off with a breakfast on a terrace overlooking Salzburg. We had woken up to the competing bells of the 3 or 4 churches in the area, calling their wayward flock to church on a Sunday morning. It was excellent. Breakfast had a good spread, especially because it was totally in a dorm cafeteria. Out on the terrace in the early morning, it was even a little chilly, but it felt great after days of heat and sweating.
Last night, we booked ourselves on a SOUND OF MUSIC Tour of Salzburg and surrounding area. !Thank you Karen and Rich! We were told to be down in the lobby for 9.10am pick up for the 9.30am tour. However, we got a call to the room at 8.58am saying that the minibus was here and why aren't you?
Rushing down with all 11 bags in the tiny elevator, we made it in the bus by 9:03. Andrea chatted with our driver and found out that he spent the 60's in Hingham and went to BU for University. What a small world. After a few more stops at other local hotels we made it to our tour bus. The brightest most vibrantly painted tour bus around, with the sound of music cast and scenes from the film painted on all sides. The tour bus was packed with Americans and Japanese tourists of all shapes and sizes.
It was a good tour....tacky.....but fun nonetheless. We got to see the Gazebo that "I am Sixteen going on Seventeen" was sung in; the lane that "Confidence" was filmed; the Church where Maria and Capt. Von Trapp were married; the Convent where the real Maria was a novice (built in 1492 and still a working convent of silent nuns... not singing ones...); the estate that was used for the back of the Von Trapp home and the pond in which the children and Maria fall in; and last but not least we saw the Mirabelle gardens where "Do, Re, Mi..." was filmed. We sang along to the music when the tour guide needed to keep us entertained. We enjoyed being chauffeured around and told what to do and think. Really good people watching was had by all, even though it was very disconcerting being around all that American English again. Especially when we tried to order food in our broken Bavarian German and the waiter spoke back to us in perfect English... it is good to be a tourist sometimes but it is so much better to tour.
When we got back to the Mirabelle gardens, the driver (Micky) and tour guide (Naomi) dropped us off and disappeared. We asked our friend from Hingham how to get back to our hotel. He seemed surprised that we didn't know that they only provided pick up and not drop off. Slightly dismayed, we asked for directions back to the hotel, and after a quick lunch, we headed back to pack up the bikes again.
Back at the hotel, we changed into bike clothes....loaded up the bikes and headed out by 3pm towards Unterach am Attersee (30miles to the east...ish). Out of Salzburg, we followed an old railway line up to Eugendorf. We were definitely hiking it uphill but with a much more gradual incline, so we gained a lot of altitude without nearly the amount of work of the bike route in Bavaria. We coasted down to Thalgau and St.Lorenz and along the bike path on the main road. We passed small farms and alpacas with poodle cuts. Part of our path was through a mountain tunnel just for bikes! It was really long and cold. The walls were covered in spray cement and the road surface was perfectly flat. We met a few other cyclists coming the other way but had most of the tunnel to ourselves (no it was not the tunnel of love... but it still was really cool). There were little exit-ways to get a bit a fresh air and a view of the lake before heading back into the cool darkness of the mountain. Problem was, when we exited this testament to bicycle infrastructure... there was no bike lane or other infrastructure on either side! We caused a bit of a traffic jam because the road was really narrow and we more-or-less take up an entire lane when we need to/want to.
Soon we were at the Attersee and eventually found our campsite.... we were literally right on top of it but there was no signage from the old road (which is the bike route) only from the new road - but some friendly locals pointed us in the right direction. The bikes were unpacked and the tent went up in less then 15 minutes because we knew we needed dinner and were not sure when the restaurant next door closed. Dinner and beer was had and we closed up the place by 8:30. Tomorrow we will take the ferry up the Attersee to the plains of upper Austria.
The World is Ours!
Sunday July 14 - Day 18 - 29miles - Total 681miles
We started the morning off with a breakfast on a terrace overlooking Salzburg. We had woken up to the competing bells of the 3 or 4 churches in the area, calling their wayward flock to church on a Sunday morning. It was excellent. Breakfast had a good spread, especially because it was totally in a dorm cafeteria. Out on the terrace in the early morning, it was even a little chilly, but it felt great after days of heat and sweating.
Last night, we booked ourselves on a SOUND OF MUSIC Tour of Salzburg and surrounding area. !Thank you Karen and Rich! We were told to be down in the lobby for 9.10am pick up for the 9.30am tour. However, we got a call to the room at 8.58am saying that the minibus was here and why aren't you?
Rushing down with all 11 bags in the tiny elevator, we made it in the bus by 9:03. Andrea chatted with our driver and found out that he spent the 60's in Hingham and went to BU for University. What a small world. After a few more stops at other local hotels we made it to our tour bus. The brightest most vibrantly painted tour bus around, with the sound of music cast and scenes from the film painted on all sides. The tour bus was packed with Americans and Japanese tourists of all shapes and sizes.
It was a good tour....tacky.....but fun nonetheless. We got to see the Gazebo that "I am Sixteen going on Seventeen" was sung in; the lane that "Confidence" was filmed; the Church where Maria and Capt. Von Trapp were married; the Convent where the real Maria was a novice (built in 1492 and still a working convent of silent nuns... not singing ones...); the estate that was used for the back of the Von Trapp home and the pond in which the children and Maria fall in; and last but not least we saw the Mirabelle gardens where "Do, Re, Mi..." was filmed. We sang along to the music when the tour guide needed to keep us entertained. We enjoyed being chauffeured around and told what to do and think. Really good people watching was had by all, even though it was very disconcerting being around all that American English again. Especially when we tried to order food in our broken Bavarian German and the waiter spoke back to us in perfect English... it is good to be a tourist sometimes but it is so much better to tour.
When we got back to the Mirabelle gardens, the driver (Micky) and tour guide (Naomi) dropped us off and disappeared. We asked our friend from Hingham how to get back to our hotel. He seemed surprised that we didn't know that they only provided pick up and not drop off. Slightly dismayed, we asked for directions back to the hotel, and after a quick lunch, we headed back to pack up the bikes again.
Back at the hotel, we changed into bike clothes....loaded up the bikes and headed out by 3pm towards Unterach am Attersee (30miles to the east...ish). Out of Salzburg, we followed an old railway line up to Eugendorf. We were definitely hiking it uphill but with a much more gradual incline, so we gained a lot of altitude without nearly the amount of work of the bike route in Bavaria. We coasted down to Thalgau and St.Lorenz and along the bike path on the main road. We passed small farms and alpacas with poodle cuts. Part of our path was through a mountain tunnel just for bikes! It was really long and cold. The walls were covered in spray cement and the road surface was perfectly flat. We met a few other cyclists coming the other way but had most of the tunnel to ourselves (no it was not the tunnel of love... but it still was really cool). There were little exit-ways to get a bit a fresh air and a view of the lake before heading back into the cool darkness of the mountain. Problem was, when we exited this testament to bicycle infrastructure... there was no bike lane or other infrastructure on either side! We caused a bit of a traffic jam because the road was really narrow and we more-or-less take up an entire lane when we need to/want to.
Soon we were at the Attersee and eventually found our campsite.... we were literally right on top of it but there was no signage from the old road (which is the bike route) only from the new road - but some friendly locals pointed us in the right direction. The bikes were unpacked and the tent went up in less then 15 minutes because we knew we needed dinner and were not sure when the restaurant next door closed. Dinner and beer was had and we closed up the place by 8:30. Tomorrow we will take the ferry up the Attersee to the plains of upper Austria.
The World is Ours!
"I need someone older and wiser... telling me what to dOOOooo... " If you get this you are a Sound of Music geek too...
Overlooking the Austrian Lake District
Bruce heading into the Bike Only Tunnel near Unterach, Austria
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