Salzburg Lakes

Today, Ibbo took us on one of his rides. It was a great ride. We had perfect temperatures all day. It was a little overcast in the morning, beautiful around lunch time, and we picked up a spot of rain on the last 30 minutes back into Zell.

Ibbo took us to a world heritage site in the Salzkammergut region of Austria about 120 kilometers north-east of Zell. It was designated because of its classical Austrian Alpine style and beauty. It was interesting to try and guess when we had reached the town on the way in. There were so many towns and villages that looked like Austria in the movies. On the way, Ibbo took us down a bunch of one-farm roads that came replete with the smell of freshly spread manure. It is great to see the old way of things still being done rather than the chemicals we cherish in the US. It took me back to my old days of living in Worsthorne.

We arrived in Hallstatt along with many others and had trouble finding parking. Then after hanging out by a parking attendant for five minutes Mac began to drive into the lot as one space had opened up when she looked at us dumbfounded and told us there was free parking at the bus station for motorcycles. We rode back, parked on the pavement, and hoped we wouldn’t get a ticket.

Apparently, the town of Halstatt has been recreated in China. Consequently a large number of Chinese come to visit the town and see the original. It was interesting to watch one Asian man carrying $5000+ of camera gear around his neck pull out his phone and take a picture with it. The other ethnic group that visit this part of Austia are during the summer are the Arabs. It seems they take a break from the summer heat of the Middle East and decamp to the alps.

Either at breakfast or lunch, we discussed that we had not yet tried some Austrian baked goods. This complete ignored the fact that Julia and Carola had served us a wonderful apple cake for dessert the previous evening. After lunch, Ibbo took us on a route north to one of the other lakes in the region. It looks perfect for some water skiing but the only powerboats that we saw on the water were deathly quite electric boats.

From here we headed southwest to a town with an incredible Konditorei. I had one of the cream filled pastries and tasted wonderful. It is basically the last day to ignore my diet. Martyn and Ibbo both chose something similar. Mac was being good. He declined the cake and had two scoops of ice cream and an iced coffee instead. I think we might all need Harleys the next time we ride.

The ride back into Zell was great except for a little rain that caught us part way back. It has stopped by the time we arrived and we had mostly are dried. Then came the sad part of the trip, packing up the bike for the last time.