July 8, 2018

Again we were awake early, the tent was soaked inside from condensation and dripping on the down covers! We got up, washed, ate breakfast of peanut butter and jam sandwiches and were on the road by 8:15.

We were on gravel as soon as we left the campsite/gasthoff and joined the river path.

About 5 kms along the path, Ralf took me away from the gravel path and onto the L501 and the L205. Both of them were paved roads with little traffic. It is Sunday and he figured that even if they were usually busy roads, on Sunday they would be quiet. He was right, there was some traffic but nothing too busy, only old folks going to church. Some of them were obviously late considering the way they were driving.

We had time to stop and take pictures.  There was a sign for a \”lookout\”, this is where the River Inn and the River Salzach split.  The River Salzach we follow into Salzburg.

Most of the villages/towns we cycled through had a cycle-path which disappeared as we left the village/town. However, most of the cars waited behind us as we struggled up the hills.

As we crested one hill we spotted this lovely old Citroen – referred to as “The Duck” It was advertising a Gasthaus called the Enten (The Duck in English). The license plate on the car was Ente! As we came up the hill and spotted the old duck, I told Ralf I was heading down. What a great downhill and up the other side without needing to pedal. You cannot do that on gravel roads.

What a lovely ride, it was hillier than if we had followed the river, but we could enjoy the scenery because we didn’t have to concentrate on the gravel and the soft spots when we were cycling up the hills. I didn’t have to get of my bike once to push.

I knew we were getting closer to Salzburg and started singing the songs from the Sound of Music – the Hills are Alive, Raindrops on Roses and whiskers on kittens. Fortunately. Ralf was far enough behind me he couldn’t hear me singing.

At one point we knew we would have to follow the Radweg into Salzburg.  The road was getting busier and there was no shoulder.  We stopped and a young boy came across the road and started asking us questions.  \”Where are you going, with all of that package? Where did you come from? How many kilometres\”?  He was such an inquisitive young fella.  Eventually, we were able to ask him if the radweg (cycle path) was paved or should we continue up the road.  He told us the radweg was paved, but if we went up the hill it would direct us onto the radweg to Salzburg.  We followed the radweg, little shit, within 500 metres the paved road turned to gravel.  Fortunately, it turned back to paved all the way into Salzburg.  Except for one 250 metre section where we negotiated this tiny path.  How did we know to follow this tiny path, because an older couple on E-bikes told us to follow them.  The radweg came to a T-junction, (right or left) nope, straight on and within 250 metres the paved path was there again.

What a difference a day makes. The weather was good, we were cycling on roads and we had a tail-wind coming into Salzburg.

However, as we reached the outskirts of Salzburg we had to call the owner of the apartment we had arranged to rent. We had booked it through Bookings.com but I think it is also advertised as an AirBNB, E76 per night.

In Europe there are no roaming charges for the phones. But . . . we couldn’t get through to the owner of the apartment on our  “not very smart phone”. We tried to text him, but that didn’t work. Ralf programmed the garmin and we found the apartment. We were at the apartment but had no way of contacting the owner. I had spotted a Gasthaus which I thought was open, we headed back to that and I was going to be the  “stupid” tourist to ask for help. The Gasthaus was closed, of course, it is Sunday! Then we spotted a “phone booth” remember those things, there is a phone in a box, you dial a number put money in and get connected to whoever you might want to speak to. Unfortunately, the owner of the apartment had given us the number as if we were outside of Austria!!

Ralf was about to rip the pay phone of the wall, because it wouldn’t give him the money back. Fortunately, there was a lady in the parking lot near the tram line. I had the phone number and I asked her what we were doing wrong. “If we were calling from outside of Austria we needed to use the + before the number” I said “The +” she meant we had to use the international 001. “O.K. I am in Austria do I need to dial the + and the 43? what number do I need to dial.” All the 12 numbers of the phone number plus a 0 in front. So, 0 area code and then the phone #. “Yes” she said. Thank God, she spoke English and Ralf had not ripped the phone of the wall by the time I got back to him. Dial this number , I told him – finally we were speaking to the owner and he would be at the apartment in 15 minutes. Ralf being arrested for public vandalism was avoided and the phone gave him his E1.00 change.

We cycled back to the apartment, Wolfgang arrived 15 minutes later and showed me the apartment. We have a lovely place to stay for the next three nights. We decided to stay an extra night to enjoy Salzburg.

We settled in, showered and headed out to the main Train Station where there is a Spar open 7 days a week. We got supplies – beer, wine and even some rum! Oh and some food for dinner, then back to the apartment. We got the washing out of the way. Another translation issue, I put too much money into the machine – E1.50, I had enough for two washes and possibly another wash.   It was 10 cents for 20 minutes of washing – one wash was 1 hour and 10 minutes. My brain wasn’t working to do the math and I thought E1.50 was really cheap. Maybe there will still be credits on Tuesday night and I can do another wash before we leave.

I spotted two windmills – one I happened to turn around and there it was in the garden, the second Ralf was trying to find the route and I spotted the second – all is fair in love and windmill spotting. Running Total is Ralf 15 Jacky 8