Day 22, 18 6 2014, Niedendorf to Traunstein
We decided last night that we would leave the Inn River bike route and ride to Salzburg. We followed the route up to the lovely town of Rosenheim, where, while I was waiting for Roz and looking at a map, a local bike rider offered advice. This happens surprisingly often. His advice turned out to be excellent, but probably added the better part of a day on to the trip to Salzburg.
So, we rode around the lakes, and through the adjoining forests, as shown on the map. This is a bit of a backwater tourist area and none the worse for it. There were a lot of people on the various trails, on foot and on bike, and on the lake shore. This was a relaxing and delightful ride and took the better part of the day.
We arrived at the tourist town of Chieming, the point at which we would have to turn away from the lake, Chiemsee to go to Salzburg to the east.
This was the only time in all of our travels in Germany when we have not been able to find accommodation. It was mid-week, but a holiday period. TomTom showed 10 possible places within 1Km, but the tourist information lady had only two left on her list that were not full, and both of them turned out to be full by the time we got there. We tried a couple of others before deciding to ride on.
It was a particularly pleasant evening for riding and we found a hotel easily in the larger town centre of Traunstein, a bit over an hour away.
We rode into Germany without any signage to say so, and have spent most of the day unsure whether we were in Austria or Germany, not that it matters.
As someone who is monolingual I am in awe of people who can switch effortlessly from one language to another. It is just an observation, but as someone who always believed that the Swiss culture was very supportive of multi-language skills, it comes as some surprise to find that these skills are more evident in Austria and Germany than in Switzerland. It does not matter. Travelling in any of these countries without the appropriate language is very easy.
106Km for the day.
Roz says: These lakes offer a perfect train, ride and swim option. We are too put off by the prospect of dealing with soggy bathers and nudity is not popular this far south!! BUT we could see people having a lovely time in the sun and swimming.
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