Short and Sweet

 Kufstein to Grassau

Today’s ride was even easier and shorter than we thought it would be: both less elevation and less distance. We rode just under 46 kilometres when we were expecting 48.5. Occasionally for no discernible reason, RWGPS does some nonsensical out and backs or little spurs off the route one is building. Unless one literally goes over every meter of every route one builds there is bound to be some of these but rarely such a an amount extra as today.

The route was quite pretty as you will see once we are underway.

As usual, both RWGPS and Garmin Connect wildly overestimated the amount of elevation, not in small part because we went through three tunnels along the way. This is what the elevation profile looks like and generally the shape is fairly accurate but the one bit which is a series of jagged edges sticking is where the tunnels are and that distorts the amount of up and down.

So, underway we are. Here is a photo of Di - the first in sequence - as we descended from our highly enjoyable stay in Küfstein … 

We were soon down on the bank of the now highly placid Inn River. Despite its brown colour the river is actually reflecting the trees from the other side very well …

As the river curved around we rode in and out of the shade and it was still quite cool, which is why we’re wearing our arm warmers. Even though we didn’t deliberately make an early start we were away before eight o’clock and the sun wasn’t very far up in the sky. Di’s got a nice little neck gaiter that helps keep a fair bit of warmth in and she stopped to put that on too.

After only about 6 kilometres our route took us away from the Inn River. It has only hit home to me that this was the last time for us to ride along this mighty river or one of its tributaries since we started descending the Resian Pass five days ago. While we strike out more east and northeast, the Inn flows north for quite a distance before it gradually bends around north east and then east before eventually flowing into the Danube at Passau. I don’t know how much more water the Inn is carrying by this point but the Danube must be much bigger once the mighty Inn has joined it

Anyway back to our day’s journey. It was a beautiful day for riding and taking pictures. We are on a minor road here heading towards a low range of hills. We actually spent a fair bit more time on roads today than on bike paths. Apart from here in Grassau though - which I’ll talk about later - drivers were generally very patient and considerate. There were stretches like this where we barely saw a car and other roads where there was a fair bit of traffic. We saw lots of vehicles carrying either mountain bikes or slalom kayaks so there must be quite a lot of fun to be had in those hills. And we saw a LOT of road cyclists too. If you have a look at either of the videos I’m going to post today you’ll see what I’m talking about.

In the photo below we are nearing  our low point of the day after having only descended about 20 metres overall from Küfstein at nine kilometres into our ride but we’ve still got a few kilometres to go before we start climbing…

… and we’re pretty much still riding along the flat here but starting to close in on those hills ahead ...

In the next photo we’d just started up the first climb of the day when Di realised she hadn’t used her asthma inhaler yet which is very useful when she’s working hard, especially if the air is cooled. While she sorted that out I noticed this nice scene of a boy working with his dad to solve some sort of problem. I thought it was quite nice to see the way they were interacting so decided it warranted a photo. 

This next picture shows the stained glass detail on the side of a very small chapel just after we’d finished that first of two climbs for the day. That was the high point of our ride. There was the occasional bit of seven percent in the climb but the overall grade was only four percent so there was also a fair bit of one to two percent as well. We’d taken it nice and steady as we’d penciled this in as an easy day. 

Just past that small chapel we both stopped to take this photo …

We now had a gentle descent of almost exactly 100 metres over a distance of 11 kilometres on a road that gradually wended its way downwards.  Very pleasant stuff and a bit of fun powering up short rises to maintain momentum. 

 Interestingly enough, much of it was in the shade and it was in fact quite cool, but not cold enough to warrant stopping and putting on a vest.

Once that descent finished we were pretty much straight onto the second climb, which on paper was meant to be 900 metres long with an elevation gain of 36 metres, so notionally about 4% gradient. So way, way easier than the first climb. It was a shock to see when we started up it some dark red sections indicating real steepness but I soon realised this just had to be an alignment error - and it was. The Garmin often seems to do this and over a full ride the actual total amount of climbing ends up being significantly less. 

Just over the top of that hill I spotted this structure. Not sure of its significance but I have a feeling it was some sort of retreat. There was a plaque that I glanced at but couldn’t really make much of it. Kind of a neat building out in the middle of nowhere though.

Once over the hill we were on to some gently rolling terrain and that’s just what we did: roll gently along towards a cafe I’d mapped on the route with about six kilometres to go.

There was some nice scenery either side of us so I took a couple of photos …

I did wonder what the name of this next hill might have been … did ancient folk living in this region think that trolls lived up in those strange rock formations? I decided to call it “Wart Hill” because of those two unusual lumps of rock together and the other one that had a bit of tree cover.

We had a lot of time up our sleeves before our scheduled check-in time at the Gasthaus Sperrer in Grassau. Di kept asking me things like “Are you sure there’s a cafe?” … and … “Could it have been that place we just passed?” … and “Are you sure we haven’t missed it?”, to which I replied each time “It’s still ahead. The distance is diminishing” until I finally said “There it is across the road - just where the map said it would be”.

I sent Captain Michael - who had to retire from our great adventure - one of the nice photos from the ride Di and I were doing and when he asked where we were I said we were at a cafe just short of our destination and we had a lot of time to spare AND that I was thinking of having a second pastry. He urged me to give in to temptation because “You never know when it will come around again”. I obliged and sent him a photo of my choice for seconds …

Here’s one more lovely bucolic scene before we arrived in Grassau …

This is an odd sort of place, at least in my way of thinking. Sure enough, we could not check in early at our accommodation so went and had a nice lunch at a pub nearby. I had a chat with the guy running the place and he told me the town only had a population of about 8,000 people. Yet there were three very large guesthouses with restaurants attached and at least another three eateries at a crossroads within about 100 meters of each other. Bizarre. On top of that, the roads running through it are relatively narrow and quite windy, including at this point where all these accommodation and eating establishments are located and where we are spending the night. It was clearly an attractive spot for road cyclists because quite a few of them came riding through while we were choosing somewhere to eat.

Three photos only from Grassau: this church across from our accommodation (with a cyclist passing by) …

This pole adorned with figurines right in the centre of the town which I’m guessing tells the history of the place … 

…  and this multifaceted nymph figure hanging from the ceiling in the dining room of our hotel …

Can someone please tell me which deity this is in German mythology? She is a-mazing (without even mentioning her physique): antlers growing out of her back; a mermaid like bottom half; her tamed viper leading the way to wherever she is going; a great tan and a very stylish hat. On top of that she seems to be wearing a benign, tolerant expression - maybe intended for the folly of men? Let me know what you think.

Here’s all the video clips I shot on the ride combined to make a make an overview of the actual riding. There’s no photos included, just footage shot from the camera on my handlebar:

PS: We’ve got one more day of this adventure left. It should be quite a good ride into Salzburg but I may not get the post published until the next day because we’ve got a lot on our agenda once we arrive.