Day 1 – June 26, 2025

Budapest is the city Levente lives in and the night before our departure, he took a train from there to Vienna and crashed at my place in Vienna. We chatted for a while, he had some snacks and we went to bed.

The next morning, we rode our bikes to the Meidling station, boarding a train to Attnang-Puchheim, close to the Traunsee, the lake which is overshadowed by Trainstein, a mountain I had climbed a few years back with another buddy, Florian. The Austrian Federal Railways did a fantastic job - the train was clean, modern, on-time to the minute, where even the otherwise grumpy ticket collector was so friendly, he even helped us board with the bikes. Levente was doing bike packing, with a relatively slick bike, having only a couple of smaller luggages attached to the frame, while I was - as always - heavily packed, bike bags hanging from every possible angle. "A tank", as Levente put it, while others mocked me later for having taken my entire household. Well, yes, I thought to have embarked on a month-long (or even longer) trip - and I prefer having all kinds of different "stuff".

Our bikes......which one is heavier??At the railway station Attnang-PuchheimOur first few miles

Soon we were face-to-face with Traunstein, a mountain with a peak at close to 1,700 meters - and arrived to the small, but decorative town of Gmunden. As someone put it, it is the kind of place where you could sip coffee by the lake in the morning, hike a mountain, then go in for a swim (or vice versa...) and then attend a concert in the evening.

TraunsteinGmunden

Not far from the "downtown" of Gmunden is Schloss Ort, a stunning lakeside castle, accessible via a wooden pier. This castle was "starred" in a German-Austrian TV series called "Schlosshotel Orth", a beloved family drama spanning 9 years. I have to admit I have never seen a single episode - but this is true for many German-Austrian movie series. Anyhow, the castle is quite impressive.

Entry on wooden planksThe interiorA nice window

We had a chat with a lady at the entrance, to our surprise, she was very friendly, but also to our surprise, she hardly spoke English. Anyhow, she gave a warning about thunderstorms that afternoon. Hmmmm, not sure if Levente did, but, honestly, I never cared to check - and the forecast was definitely anything but dry. Oh well, that was still ahead, it was hot and there was undisturbed sunshine, so we decided not to stay dry, but to go in for a dip.

We found an impressive park, called Toscanapark, which was practically empty, in the center of which was a post-classical-style villa once belonging to the Habsburgs. There were two things prohibited here - to bike into the park and to take a swim (well, there was a nice public swimming pool next to it). So we biked into the park and took a swim - but there was no one that seemed to be bothered about this.

Park Toscana - yes, it did feel a bit like in TuscanyVilla ToscanaAncient treesNice swim!

By the time we changed, swam, chatted, dried in the sun and got dressed, at least an hour had passed. It was worth every minute, the only issue was that it now really started to look that we would not stay dry - for the second time. Clouds were gathering, especially looking at these through the sunglasses - they did not look biker-friendly.

It was only then that we started discussing what do to next - the best course of action would have been to find a place above our heads. Well, it was summer time, with a weekend coming up - so the typical issues arouse - either there was no vacancy in the vicinity, or if there was, it was prohibitively expensive. Levente is more of a planning guy, I am a bit of a "hűbelebalázs" (as we say in Hungarian) - Levente suggested we back-track towards Gmunden, I was the opinion we should just go for it and hope for the best.

We went for my option, but did not get all too far, at the first roar of a thunder, we thought it was really time to find a find a place. In addition, Levente had a sudden drop of his sugar levels, him being both tired and hungry. By that time, we were in Altmünster and the only place we could find was a campground, hoping they would have a cabin. We did have tents, but in that kind of thunderstorm, it would not have been pleasant camping. No luck there, no cabin. We also had no luck with the cuisine of this camping, they served a deep-frozen pizza, but charged as much as it were made on a charcoal grill.

I was still in denial, telling Levente the thunder would pass. Wrong. The cramped lakeside bath emptied out within minutes, it started coming down like crazy - and it did not look as if it would stop. The terrace of the camping offered some cover, but that was not a long-term solution. We did see a hotel not far from the camping and when the rain died down a bit, I walked there to ask if they had vacancy.

Apologies to all Austrians out there - but according to some studies (e.g. Expat Insider survey), Austria has been ranked the second most unfriendly country in the world. The lady at the campground did everything to enforce this image. When I reached the hotel, it was another story altogether. The lady there, while her hotel fully booked, went to extremes to find a solution (while I was there, another really heavy spell came down). She started calling other places - and after some rejections, she found a place - not all too far and for not all too much money. She made sure we knew how to get there and wished us good luck for the rest of the journey. I was so impressed that I bought her a small bouquet of flowers in a petrol station next to the hotel - she was genuinely moved by this.

Levente had no idea what was taking so long - all the merrier he got with the good news that we have a room for the night. We united again and waited for the rain to die down further - him taking some amazing shots of the atmosphere after the thunder.

>Compare this to the one before the rainSwan LakeBleak mood

While taking the short ride to the hotel, it was still drizzling and Levente suggested we go for another swim. Well, the spirit is willing and the flesh is weak - as soon as we took our room - and especially my bed - I had no intention of going anywhere - let alone in the cool, damp rain. Yes, the temperature had dropped at least 15 degrees if not more and while we definitely did not set up any distance records that day - it was about 25 kilometers - I was really tired.

The hotel was waaay past its zenith, Levente was making fun of the architecture, there was something very, very outdated about it. It seems to have been extended multiple times, but the "experts" failed to achieve straight lines. Despite this, I was happy to be in a warm place.

Later in the evening, while still raining on and off (when on, rather strong), we went for a "walk", well, we crossed to street and noticed a huge Chinese restaurant (well, maybe some money laundering going on??) with hardly any guests in it. We had a rather mediocre dinner and then retired for the night.

Here is the link for the route of the day: Day 1 - June 26, 2025 - just 23 kilometers.