Sept 25 2015   We left Volkach and rode towards Schweinfurt.  My left knee wasn't working the way it should but we made it to the train station in Schweinfurt in 2.5 hours for 27k.

South of Schweinfurt is the Grafenrheinfeld Nuke plant.  It was taken offline in June as part of the phasing out of nuclear power in Germany.  From Volkach it looked like there was more wind turbines then I remember. 

Not to far from the Nuke is this nice field of blue cabbage.


We got the train from Schweinfurt to Bad Kissingen.  We did some shopping and then rode out to Johanna's sisters house to drop off our laundry and lighten up the packs.   Instead her sister drove me to our house and they went shopping for food for the house.  Probably looked for schmuck too.   When I got home I put the horse liniment on the knee and relaxed.  The Hotel owner in Volkach told Johanna that when her knees were acting up she would use the horse liniment so Johanna went out and got some.  A lot cheaper then Voltarine.  Johanna brought back some of those ice packs that you stick in the freezer and use when needed.  Heavens knows there's not any ice available otherwise.   Anyway it looks like my days of carefree riding around Europe are done for a while.  

Sept. 21 and 22, 2015

Our lodging in Chieming.  The Unterwirt

We haven't been showing pics of our dinners for a while so here is some Schweinebraten at the Unterwirt in Chieming.  There were 2 different kinds of knoedl. 

Then with dessert I had a nice glass of Zweigelt

And during the day a the lakeside cafe we had a slice of zwetschgenkuchen

The island Frauenchiemsee viewed from Gstadt.  There are 2 islands in Chiemsee.  This one has a kloister one it.  The other one, Herrenchiemsee is where King Ludwig built his reproduction of Versailles, called Herrenchiemsee oddly enough

When we left Chieming for Wasserburg we rode to Seebruck.  This the boat harbor at Seebruck   There is a bike trail completely around Chiemsee and we rode that trail as far as Muhl and then left the lake and caught the Mozart Trail towards Wasserburg.

Along the trail we came to Hoslwang.  It was about lunch time so we had some weisswurst at the gasthaus at the right of the pic.  The sun was out and warm and the view over the valley was great.

We reached the Inn River at Wasserburg.  Wasserburg is in a valley along the Inn and we had a hard time finding a way down from the trail which was on the rim of the Valley.  We finally found a trail down but school was getting out and we had to ride on the sidewalk because the traffic was so  heavy.  We  rode as fast as schoolkids walk till we got to the Inn Bridge then things opened up.   We had visions of a certain hotel but it was full, in fact every hotel was full.  We sat at the info center, which was closed, trying to call hotels and local came up to help.  She had a smart phone and was looking up pensions and gasthaeuser around town but when we called they were all full.  The story was that because of Octoberfest eveything is booked within 50 miles of Munich.  Any way it was getting dark so we decided to go to the train station, catch a train to somewhere and hope they had a room.   On the way we stopped to look at a map and a guy in a car stopped to ask if we needed help. He showed on the map about 3 more places we might try so we called and they were booked also.   We got on a train to Landshut, about an hours ride, but when we got there the town is 2 k from the station and we didn't want to ride it in the dark and not find anything there.  So there was a train to Munich that we took  and called Johanna's nephew Felix to see if we could use his couch for the night.   Luckily he said yes.  We got there a little after 9PM and rode in the rain to his apt.  He gave us a beer and we ate sandwiches we had bought at the Munich train station.   It had been a long day and we had ridden about 15k more then we had been doing plus there were some good hills.  

So the next morning Johanna got to play with Felix and Nadine's baby.  

 Mattsee parade and fest videos

The top video is of the parade from the church.  The horses led the way.  There's more video of the parade and as soon as I figure how to cut it up into manageable lengths I'll post.  Of course there is the distinct possibility that I'll never figure how to cut them up to fit googles 100meg limit.  

The 2nd video is of some women playing at the Mattsee Fall Fest.

September 21 2015

Chieming on Chiemsee

We left our not so nice lodging after a lousy breakfast in Laufen (rare for here) to ride to Chiemsee.
It was an easy ride with hardly any uphills. The trails took us through the foot hills,through green meadows with cows and horses and even 2 wild pigs. There were no towns just a few very small villages and big Farmhouses here and there. The Flowers boxes on the houses are very beautiful and I just had to take some photos.
We arrived in Chieming early afternoon and could not check into our lodging right away so we sat in a little cafe in the sun right on the lake and had some drinks.
Our lodging called the Unterwirt is really nice, we actually had dinner in their beer garten two years ago, when we were here with Cherryl and Courtney .
We have been lucky with the weather, no rain to speak of and yesterday was another beautiful warm day..
In the evening we rode along the lake and watched the sunset and then  had dinner at the Unterwirt.

houses along the trail

We passed a farm house that had their own chapel with lots of roses

Beautiful old door on a farm house along the trail

village along the trail

Sunset atChiemsee

Sunset

Sunset

View of the mountains from Chiemsee at alpenglow

September 20. 2015.

Obernburg Austria - Laufen Bavaria

These photos are from the ride from Mattsee to Oberndorf in Austria to Laufen across the bridge in Bavaria

leaving Austria

Stille Nacht Kapelle

Stille Nacht Kapelle Altar

Stained glass window in Stille Nacht Kapelle This is of Franz Gruber who wrote the music to Silent Night

Stained glass window in the Stille Nacht Kapelle of Joseph Mohr who wrote the lyrics to Silent NIght

Old water tower in Oberndorf

Marien Altar in Oberndorf Church

Kreuzgang in Oberndorf Church

Laufer across the Salzach river

band at Autum fest

Horses in the Sunday procession

trackto in the procession

The band

procession

ladies in tradtional  clothing

Horses in the processionSunday Septemeber 20th 2015

Sunday September 20th 2015

At breakfast we found out that there would be a celebration for bringing in the harvest.
On our way out of Mattsee we stopped to wait for the procession to start. It would happen after mass.
The musicians had already assembled.After the mass was over the procession started with horses and riders. up front than the band  and then the men women girls and boys and everyone else to follow.
It's always a treat to see things like this unexpectedly.
We continued on our ride. The four of us could ride for a while until at Anthering there the trail split.
Mac and I continued onto the Mozart bike trail, M+W went on to Salzburg.

We reached Oberndorf and visited the Stille Nacht Chapel were the Christmas song  composed, rode across the beautiful long Salzachbridge into Laufen and we are in Bavaria.Found a place to stay.
The weather was overcast and sort of cold, but no rain.
Tomorrow on to Wagingsee and Chiemsee.

At the fest

Sat Sept 19 2015   Woke to sunny skies and took off to Mattsee after breakfast.  The trail went thru rolling hills dotted with farms.  We got to Enharting and Johanna wanted to stop at the Church.  When we got there a wedding was just starting so we watched the prelims.  A small band, 5 instruments, started marching down the street and everybody joined in and the walked down to the square, turned around and walked back and into the church.  Everybody was dressed in their best dirndls and lederhosen.  We weren't invited to the ceremony.
We rode on thru woods and over pasture lands to Schleedorf where they were setting up for a fest.  The beer tent wasn't open yet but we got some homemade cake at a stand.  After the cake we rode on towards Mattsee.  This is where Wayne and Margy stayed  yesterday.  We managed to take the right turns though we had to ask a couple of local farmers for direction.  Finally we rolled into Mattsee and went to the church to find W+M.  We sat down and they showed up.  There was a autum fest" going on in the park and we were hungry so we got some sheep bratwurst with potato salad along with beer.  To top it off we had some schnapps and a bread stick.  Then we followed them to out pension Kranzinger.  Johanna and I dropped of our bags and she wanted to go for a ride.  I protested but you know how that goes.  We took off and promptly got lost.  It was like Margy said "you leave the pension and it turns into a wormhole".   We had to go back to the pension and start over.  We backtracked to the church then still had problems finding tomorrows trail but after stopping at the info we got it.  Back to the Pension and shower to get ready for dinner.  Had Italian for a change and it was good.

Window box along the trail

The Omas at the wedding.

The friends of the bride and Groom in the dirndls

Village along the way

Mac

Big Farm

With it's own Chapel

Along the trail

Along inthe trailinthe foot hills

Bike trail through the villages

Friday September 18, 2015

We left Nussdorf after a nice breakfast. It was overcast and looked like rain. The Trail took us down to the lake and we rode along the shore for many miles. Our goal was Mondsee were M+W would be waiting for us.  For once there were no steep hills to climb. We rode through Unterach with its beautiful old Villas along the shore..We were riding through beautiful green pasture and farmland with views of the Hoellen Gebirge and further on the Drachenwand.  We left Attersee behind and soon reached Mondsee.and spotted M+W right away We all rode together towards Mattsee M+W goal for the day.We only had one long hill because of a construction zone were we had to take a detour.. After that it was easy going., We soon passed Irrsee another Lake in the Austrien Lake district. We stopped for lunch in Oberhofen.. Soon we arrived in Strasswalchen our goal for today. Checked into Gasthof zur Post. M+W pushed on for Mattsee another  20km, where  we will meet them tomorrow.

Attersee view from the trail

Attersee

Villa on the lake

Attersee with view of Hoellen Gebirge

Mondsee

Mondsee with Drachenwand

some lady's  birthday wishes

Mondsee with Drachenwand

Mondsee at the market

along the trail

view of Irrsee

Mondsee at Unterach

Mondsee at Unterach

Mondsee

along the trail

Irrsee

Flowers along the trail.  There were lots of Gestehauses along the trail and had beautiful displays of flowers from their balconys.

beautiful horses along the trail