(written by Nancy)

Once last chance at the buffet breakfast this morning and we took advantage of it, eating as much as possible and making a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches for our lunch on the road.  What sneaky people we have become…

We were a bit worried about what we would find for traffic this morning getting out of Salzburg but it turned out to be no issue at all, pretty much all day.  We wound our way out and up into the hills outside of Salzburg and were quickly away from the city and into the farmland.  A few fiddly turns but we didn’t really get lost all day (thank goodness for Google maps).

We plotted a route that took us by three different lakes to the northeast of Salzburg – the Mondsee, the Attersee and the Traunsee.  We had intended to ride on the roads most of the day but ended up following a few bike path signs that turned out to be nice routes along some very small farm roads.  And the weather cooperated, with sun and high clouds most of the day.  We rode around the bottom of the Mondsee, then headed across a little farming valley and hit the Attersee, what looks like the biggest lake in the area.  The shore was lined with little houses and cottages, all behind fences with their own private lake fronts.

We stopped at a little picnic area on the shore of Attersee lake and ate our pilfered ham and cheese sandwiches – very tasty!  They gave us some fuel for the hill we knew we had coming.  From the east side of Attersee lake the bike path to our intended destination went south a bit before heading east around a valley and then north.  There was another route that was almost 20k shorter but instead of going around the valley it went up and over the mountain range that stood between Attersee lake and Traunsee lake.  Well, you can guess which one we took….

The hill actually wasn’t too bad, though it was 8k long and the last little bit was pretty steep.  It went through mostly forest – very green and lots and lots of fir trees.  We did see some other riders out and the road was painted with some names and slogans so I expect it is a regular bike ride.  I was happy to see the top as I knew we had a pretty decent downhill almost all the way to our destination for the day.

We pulled into the tourist center in Altmunster to get some info on the camping and then headed to the grocery store for dinner supplies.  Dave came out with fresh sausages for dinner – haven’t had that for a long time, nice change from pasta with various sauces.  The campground was just down the road (Camping Traunsee) and while it is not too flash it will do for a night.  The one big negative is that the tent sites are right next to the major road so it may be a bit noisy tonight.  Not sure why tents should always get the short shrift at these campsites but they usually do.

After we set up camp two other cyclists rode up to a tent that was just down from us.  We met Tim and Georgina, a couple originally from the US but now living in Spain.  They are on a long tour, escaping from the heat in Spain.  We had a nice chat with them, and then met up with them for a glass of wine after we had dinner (good sausages, did I mention that?).  We had a great couple of hours just chatting about living abroad, cycling, travelling, etc.   A nice treat after just talking to Dave for the last few months… (okay, just kidding about that Dave part).

It is late now so we will make this short as we still need to figure out our route tomorrow so hopefully the pictures will tell you a bit more about our day.  Tim and Georgina told us about a nice campground in Linz so that is where we are headed.  Hopefully we can find some more nice roads like we had today.

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