Day 45: Punzau to Obertrum

June 13, 2014

We watched the clouds swirling this way and that, and put our raincoats on and off as showers came and went. Now in mid-morning, they seem to have gone! We too are gone, having wended our way out of the hidden valley. we chose to go up the east side of the Irrsee, because there is the town of Zell and a possible grocery store.

In fact I am typing this outside the Spar market. There is a bakery adjacent. Danishes are 1.60 each - a quite fabulously high price, actually. Two qwark taschen and two mohn schnecken and 7 euros is gone. I guess everyone complains about the cost of fuel!

Dodie has just come out with a cart load of actual food, like tomatoes, apples, and yogurt, and damn it all, oatmeal. I will be needing the high octane stuff just to schlepp all that "real food"!

In the town of Zell. We came up the Zell side of the lake to find groceries

In the Spar market, even more Ritter Sport flavours we have never seen in Canada

... Here we are a bit further down the road, in Strasswalchen. We have found a bus shelter to eat lunch in, within what looks like a very busy town. Earlier we were attracted by the "double onion" design of the church in Irrsdorf, and headed for it thinking to find an equally attractive square, with shady bench. Unfortunately it was one of those church styles with a wall all around, graveyard within, and no bench. Inside it was all gold trim - heavy and dark. As in other churches there was a memorial to "our fallen, 1939-1945". It seems wrong for churches with a message of love, to beso involved with war. On the other hand, churches are also heavily into birth and death, and war is death.

Our bus shelter filled up with teenagers, no doubt waiting for a bus! Each one was in his or her own little world, at the centre of which was a smart phone. None ever actually spoke to any of the others, nor seemed to much notice the elderly foreigners in funny clothes. This scene, of course, could have been acted out with teenagers anywhere in the western world.

We left our shelter and began what turned into about two hours of trying to get out of the darn town. Railroad tracks and autobahn formed an effective wall around much of the place, and construction blocked what turned out to be all but one way out. The radweg signage, as it has done in most other places, disappeared within the town. When finally we made our way out, there it was, as if to say "Well, there you are - how long did you expect me to wait here for you to show up!"

Inside the church - a very ornate appearance

Road blocked and almost no other way out

This is part of a large installation in which new cars of various brands are being stored - under netting?

Looking back, Strasswalchen looks innocent enough, but it tangled us up for two hours

The trail today had a few more rather unpleasant experiences waiting for us. Mostly, they were hills. One in particular was a real bug. Sometimes I will ride or push Dodie's bike to the top of a hill, giving here a chance to just walk up, then go back and get my own bike. This hill required that that be done in three stages. Grrr.

The ride in general continued as before - with nice views of meadows and today, just low mountains. There was some excitement when we descended a long hill and broke out above the town of Mattsee, which is on the lake, Mattsee.

The setting is dramatic, with the town arranged by the lake and on a hill. We swooped down and into it. Yes, it was nice, but still it seemed to lack the open public space that makes a town most accessible for us. The church, again, had a wall around it, rather than a market square. Of course, the radweg signs disappeared within the town, so we needed the GPS to get us out.

These are just a few of the machines stored outside this factory or warehouse. Try as I might, I could not make out what their purpose is, what industry they are used in, or anything. They all looked super quality - with many hoses, control boxes, and sturdy looking metal. I am sure the internet will have the answer in short order, once we find the time

Somewhere down there is my bike waiting for stage two of the assault on this long long hill

Dodie likes the yellow used in some houses - like these

In Europe, the Blues Brothers seems to pop up at odd times and places

The GPS and the Mozart map then traded opinions about where the various nearby campings were. The GPS fingered a spot in the hamlet of Zellhof. But when we drew near there was no signage. We moved on, without launching a major search of the area. The Mozart tagged a camping at Seeham, and again we saw no signs. Suddenly we did see one - a guest house that also offered camping. We decided to play instead our final card - Strand Camping at Obertrum - at the south end of the Obertrumsee. Bingo! We got a piece of grass right by the lake, and a decent sanitary block.

We are cooking up our goulash right now, and plotting our next move - for tomorrow. Salzburg is now in reach, and we will be able to revisit this most beautiful of European cities we have found so far. But we can't linger long - we have places to go and people to see!

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,416 km (1,500 miles)

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