From the European luxuries to the Balkan fields

Saturday August 17, Austria rendezvous (311 kms)
Today the two groups will become one. Our appointment was at Hallstatt, Austria, at late afternoon hours. The second group’s route was again boring and again full with tolls (even if they avoided the highway in Slovenia):

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Our route was interesting though. We followed the Vltava river in a scenic route through towering trees and with no traffic at all.

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We passed near the castle Rozmberk, which is considered one of the oldest castles in Bohemia.

Just before the open borders with Austria, the scenery changes. Instead of forests, we drive now over small hills and endless grasslands. Secondary roads are really narrow, but with no traffic at all.

Only a few farming machines make their appearance, reminding us that we are not alone at this place.

The Bad Leonfelden is the first major city that we cross. It’s beautiful but the magic landscape, in which we were previously moving, made us to open the throttle and head away from the city. Soon enough we found ourselves driving again on beautiful country roads…

The motorcycle above was in a gas station…

Our route continues in the same scenery until Linz. Small hills, narrow roads, without traffic and the Alps in the background.

We cross the city and continue towards to Lake Traunsee. As we get closer the traffic increases. The Central European do not have the luxury of sea (as Greeks and other Mediterranean nations do), but they have lakes (lots of them). So wherever is a lake, there are too many people enjoying their summer vacations.

We pass lake Traunsee and head to another lake, the Attersee. Bumby beautiful road with great view to the lake.

Heavy traffic awaits us at the lake, which is full of sunbathers and deck chairs…

We pass again the lake heading east towards Bad Ischl through another bumpy but not so impressive road.

We continue even further south, to Bad Goisern where we have booked the hotel for our stay. In general, Hallstatt is very expensive and finding accommodation in a reasonable price proved to be really difficult. Firstly, we ruled out staying in the village and so we searched in the surrounding areas. We couldn’t find anything for a long time, until we accidentally found the website of Luise Wehrenfennig Haus, in Bad Goisern, 11 km away from Hallstatt. The view of our room was really great…

The hotel probably belongs to the nearby church. There were rooms with private bathrooms, but the rooms were like dorms, with 3-4 single or bunk beds. It was however clean and cheap according to the Hallstatt standards.
Check in and back to the road in order to cycle the lake. Initially we had a great view of the lake (at the northern side) but soon the road narrows and the lake disappears behind the huge trees.

We reach Hallstatt and park our bikes just outside, because vehicles are not allowed in the city. The picturesque village is built on the steep bank of the namesake lake and it’s included in the list of the Unesco World Cultural Heritage sites.

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The combination of the beautiful listed buildings, the picturesque lake and the towering mountains that encircle it, have made it one of the most popular tourist destinations.

In a short time the rest of the company shows up…

And all together we start exploring Hallstatt…

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Just before the sunset, we choose a restaurant Gruner Baum for our dinner. Beside the lake with great view, delicious food, but in Hallstatt prices…

As usual, we make a night walk around the city, with the company of an orchestra, playing from a specially designed boat in the lake.

Some night shots…

We return early in our hotel, because tomorrow we are going to have a really full day. We are trying to view the forecast for tomorrow weather -as we aim to cross the famous Grossglockner- but the hotel has really bad Wi-Fi signal… Finally we manage to check three different sites and get three different forecasts… WTH, we will decide tomorrow on our way…