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

Thursday September 17 2015

Gmunden to Nussdorf on Attersee.

Another warm and sunny day and we left Gmunden .Found the bike trail that immediately made us climb a very steep hill. At the top of this monster we had to consult the map and ask for direction.
We found the Radweg Salzkammergut R2 and were on our way.We are now riding in the foot hills more or less. The trail meanders through fields and meadows in a sort of roller coaster fashion.We reached Seewalchen am Attersee and rode through the promenade and looked at all the beautiful old
Villas along the lake. One stood out Villa Paulik castle like were the Austrien Painter Gustav Klimt spent many summers. We looked at Castle Kammern in the beautiful park by the lake. Stopped at Cafe Klimt for some Kaiserschmarrn with zwetschgen, Marillen juice gespritzt and for Mac a Maerzen..Good thing we had some food because soon after Seewalchen the hills from hell started .
Soon we were both pushing our bikes up the steep grade. We reached the small settlement of Berg(mountain) it was called and to our horror we still had another steep hill to climb.
These two hills were the steepest of the whole trip and we were in the foothills. From there the trail was mostly downhill with a few roller coasters here and there..Nussdorf was not very far and we reached our Gasthaus Lexenhof around 4.00 p.m.It was a more upscale place, calling it self a Golf  Hotel.the room price was reasonable at 86.00 included a very good breakfast.
In the evening we had Dinner  Wiener Schnitzel with parsley potatoes and salad and beer. It was very good.. For an appetizer they served some Schinken hanging on a little cloth line along with bread and butter. little pickled onions and soft cheese with herbs After diner Mac had blaufraenkisch ( a red wine) and I had Gruener Veltliner (white Austrien wine). Mac wanted to look in the desert menu

Swans at Attersee

Attersee at Seewalchen

Schloss Kammer Attersee

komming up the hell hill

Almost to the top of the first pitch

First pitch 

Little stoneman at Berg

Salzkammergut Radweg

View of Attersee from Berg

Downhill from Berg

On the way to Nussdorf

Welcome to Lexenhof Nussdorf am Attersee

 Welcome

Appetizer at Lexenhof

Zwtschgen Knoedel

 and we had Topfen Zwetzchgen Knoedel with some Zwetzschgen Parfait. It was heavenly.
In the meantime we had an e-mail from M+W who will meet us at Mondsee 26 km up the trail.
Don't know yet were we will be tomorrow night.Weather overcast but no rain yet.