Day 2 – June 27, 2025

As much ws we criticized the hotel, there was nothing we could have said about the breakfast - and like locusts (as Levente put it), we fell on the food - having fried eggs, fruits, muesli, cold cuts, cheese - we needed the energy for the day.

We bid farewell to our friendly hosts (who managed to remain friendly despite us devouring the food) and off we rode. We were now headed towards Attersee, to what I presumed was the Grossalmstrasse.

Starting on a gloomy day, but with a smile on our face

I had ridden on this road twice in the distant past and I remembered to have a stunning view of Attersee from above - and was telling Levente about what was to come. We might have taken a wrong turn or something, while the road was quite scenic, it was certainly not the one with the great views. Having said that, we still had a great ride.

The long and winding road

Oh well, we still had quite a climb and had a pretty (if not great) view of Attersee below.

Hello, AtterseeLevente taking a sip at the summit

We dropped to the second lake and I decided to take a quick dip. First Levente resisted the refreshing water, soon we were both in the azure-colored water. I borrowed his swimming mask and was amazed to see how clear the water was - no wonder, I knew from earlier visits there is quite some diving going around the shores.

We contemplated for a while whether to take a longer ride following the shore in an anti-clockwise route, but we both realized it would shorter going the other way, so that is what we did.

So we followed the bike path between the rocky walls and the lake, riding past wonderful wooden villas.

Amazing rock walls......pretty villas......and even more nature...

Reaching the of the lake, there was a small incline, when we were not long without a lake, we arrived at Mondsee. Let the pictures speak for themselves.

Hi there, Mondsee!Pretty...

The road here was really narrow, there were bunch of bikers sharing the road with cars - who were not really happy about making progress.

Narrow roads...see that brake pad residue?

From a narrow road, we veered to a narrow bike path.

What a bike path!

Eventually, we reached the main city on Mondsee, called Mondsee, who would have guessed. A nice little town, with an abbey and a basilica, plus here is where the wedding scene in Sound of Music was shot. It is also where Jedermann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s play has been performed since 1922 (over 100 years!).

A nice little townThe basilica with a fearless rider

I told Levente I would need a quick bite, he went on a city tour (lasting not longer than 5 minutes). Looking at me eating made him hungry, so we both started eating and my quick bite turned into a recess of over an hour or so. Whatever.

Leaving town on a steep incline, Levente spotted some four-legged animals enjoying the taste of the lush grass.

ApacaBambi

We were now heading towards Salzburg. I recommended that we go via yet another lake, Fuschlsee, but it would have meant quite a climb, so we discarded the idea. There was a fork in the road, we went on a smaller, more quiet road, however, we were pretty sure there would be big inclines awaiting us. Not only inclines, also quite a bit of rain would "welcome" us, we took rest at a pretty run-down car repair shop.

I felt some insect of sorts on my face, I hushed it away, probably too late. All of a sudden, Levente looks at me asking, "what the heck happened to you?". Something really odd was happening - the spot this insect was on, just below my nose, started swelling, the area around it feeling as if I had received an anesthetic substance. It looked really weird - and lasted a couple of hours. Probably an infected mosquito must have bitten me and my body overreacted a bit.

Right after this, we had a major, major incline on a wet, wet road, not the most pleasant combination.

Steep road

We reached smaller villages on some highlands in the vicinity of Salzburg, and as it started raining yet again we even thought of just staying there for the night - had they had any accommodation - that they did not. What goes up, must come down - we soon had a nice long drop into the city of Mozart.

In town, there was a city festival going on, so no bikes were allowed - even if they would have been allowed, it would not have been possible to ride due to the large crowds.

You would not want to hit the pedestrians, would you?

So we shoved our bikes and did a mini city tour of town.

The castle...GetreidegasseMozart´s birthplace plus a SPARDowntown

It was around 6 pm - and we had not yet thought through where we would spend the night. We thought of finding a campground, but everything would have been wet - plus there was more rain forecasted for the night. One option would have been to leave town and find a reasonably-priced place outside it, but then we were also hungry. We started checking hotels and to our luck, we found a place for about €50 per head. It said it was a small room, but we were still happy to have found it.

Getting around town was still tough, there were people everywhere, listening to concerts and performances - well, at least when it wasn´t raining cats and dogs. We decided to have a quick döner dinner, Levente having the vegetarian option, the moment we started eating, a huge downpour came down. The one benefit of this was that the roads opened up, so it was a bit wet, but managed to leave the center.

We got to the hotel, well, almost. About 900 meters away, a new downpour came - and we were almost hugging each other for not having slept in a tent that night - would not have been too pleasant. Plus, there was a bit of action which faith had in store for us (well, in this case just me).

Our accommodation was on a small road on an industrial part of the city, not too far from the central train station. Reaching it, we literally bumped into two pretty girls, just about to leave the hotel - they immediately struck up a conversation with us. To paraphrase, the bolder one of the two said (and mind you, I am paraphrasing): "Hey guys, it´s not that we want to f*ck with you, but why don´t you join us to the city for a drink or two?". Hmmm, interesting entree, wouldn´t you agree?

We were both a bit surprised - and for reasons Levente would dwell on if you asked him, he decided to retire for the night. As for me, on the other hand, while the entree of the girl was a bit weird, I thought to myself, why not? So after checking in the hotel, I took a quick shower and rode back to town.

The girls were already on the rooftop terrace of Hotel Stein I had suggested (I visited that place two years prior with some friends) and had already struck up a conversation with some local teenagers ("local teenagers", yeah, Austrians, one guy was of Turkish origin, the other gal of Egyptian, the third Brazilian). I was by far the oldest in the crowd and was quite tired - still, had a nice time, chatting away with this somewhat weird mixture of cultures.

Hmmm...the Hungarian author living in Austria having drinks with a Brazilain girl living in Italy, with another one from Sao Paolo, then three Austrians of very much mixed origins (Turkey, Egypt, Brazil)

The teenagers left and I was left with the two girls (or ladies, I should say), we left the rooftop bar and I showed them some highlights of Salzburg. They wanted to go clubbing, which was a complete no-go for me, I walked them to a night club and I waved good-bye.

It was only at 2 am by the time I got back to the hotel room - which thankfully was not tiny, as advertized - and I dropped in one of the empty beds and fell asleep.

If I think about it, I had experienced more that day than in a regular week...

Here is the link for the route of the day: Day 2 - June 27, 2025 - about 77 kilometers.