houses Residential homes in Absam, Austria.

The Swiss Alps were beautiful when I visited them last summer, but Switzerland itself is pricey and I thought it might be best, when I decided I wanted to go explore the Alps more, to choose Austria as my destination instead. A few internet searches later and I had landed on Innsbruck as my home base, with its ample hiking opportunities and mountain biking trails to explore. The plan was to stay outside of Innsbruck, with a day trip to Salzburg in the middle of the break. I planned to rent an electric mountain bike for a day or two and ride up into the mountains.

eng_garden_view geese A view of the English Garden. Right: geese.

The train ride down from Berlin took me directly through Munich, so I set up long train layovers in excess of 6 hours, to allot me time to explore Munich a bit, both coming and going from Austria, which paid off very nicely. Munich’s English Garden is beautiful, even in the excessive heat on the days I was in town.

In Munich, there are surf-able “wave” areas in the river that runs through the garden. I was initially surprised to see people walking around with surfboards, until I saw them jump to board them in the rushing water. Munich is cleaner than Berlin, and more commercial; taller buildings loom overhead, and people who are clearly well-off roam about.

eng_garden_flowers pizza Flowers in the English Garden in Munich. Right: pizza in Absam, Austria.

Austria

Innsbruck

colorful_buildings Pretty, colorful buildings in downtown Innsbruck, Austria.

Patscherkoffel

My first mountain biking trip was to Patscherkoffel. After being set up at the bike rental place with a Trek Powerfly, I cruised my way up into the mountains. Despite having the electric assist, the ascent was a serious workout. For a short while, I followed the Garmin GPS attached to the bike up a hiking trail instead of a mountain biking trail on accident, and I had to push the bike through the narrow trail for a while, and then lift it over three cow fences. Luckily, the first time I had help from a hiker passing by, but the last two times I somehow found the strength within me to awkwardly heave 50 pounds of e-bicycle almost over my head to clear the 5 foot gates. I was relieved when this detour was over and I was back on the bike-friendly path.

pat_bike_view pat_fence

The huts along the way were beautiful, and the summit was extraordinary!

pat_view

Going down was as fun as it was dangerous. I had never biked this fast downhill on the edges of mountain paths, so I really had to focus and kick my senses into 6th gear to use my balance and braking skills to maintain control. Once out of the mountainous paths, and back on the pavement, I reached a max speed of 61kph (37mph), and a road bike actually passed me at this speed. That was about the point when I really started to feel like I should be wearing motorcycle gear. It was smooth sailing from there back into the valley.

pat_route salzburg_view pat_bike_view_summit salzburg_globe Left column: Patchser route and summit. Right column: Salzburg view from the fort, and the fort from a distance.

Salzburg

Upon arriving in Salzburg, I visited the Mozart museum and immediately felt a bit faint, as it was nearing 100 degrees almost at 11am, and I hadn’t filled up as much as I should on calories since the intense Patscher ride. I made it to the nearest grocery store to get a sandwich, drink, and fruit. From there I hiked up to the fort that overlooks Salzburg. It is not decked out as a museum of all things medieval - knights armor, canons, historical items and artifacts.

fort fort_view Pictures from the fort in Salzburg, Austria.

Seegrube

Seegrube was much steeper and more difficult to ride than Patscherkoffel, so I’m glad I went there after being somewhat conditioned. The terrain is filled with golfball to softball sized rocks towards the top, and much of it is loose and difficult to find traction on. The switchbacks were incredibly steep, to the point where one trail I decided to back down from because it was too steep to ride up without danger of falling backwards. I’m impressed that any MTB-er could make it up that trail; I imagine it was the expert level one. Even taking the regular route to the summit, there was one spot I stopped at and realized I couldn’t get back on the bike - there was no time to jump on, get balance, and start pedaling, before beginning to roll backwards. I had to walk a few minutes to reach the next slightly-more-level area to heave myself back on.

seegrube_switchbacks It’s hard to visualize just how steep these roads are.

Seegrube was less fun to go down due to the looser gravel terrain, and the fact that it was so steep and the switchbacks so short, that picking up speed was near deadly if I couldn’t make the 180 degree turns. So I felt like I moved down it much slower than Patscher, but it was still a lot of fun.

Fallbach Wasserfall

I actually stayed outside of Innsbruck, in a town named Absam, which has a number of trails running nearby it, including one to a large waterfall. I hiked out to see it for the adventure, and because I’d be able to cool down by swimming in the pool below. It was extremely hot in Austria during my trip - near 100 degrees, if not past it - so the cool mountain water was very welcome.

waterfall1 waterfall2 cave hiking_view I also explored some small caves and hiking trails nearby the falls.

Austria was a great experience!

Daniel