Steyr to Attersee

The day’s stats at a glance:

• distance ~ 112 kilometres
• total ascent ~ 1680 metres

We set out this morning from the pretty city of Steyr under lovely, mild conditions. Before we left I wanted to get a few pictures, one of this gorgeous speed machine which belongs to a pocket rocket. She would rather not appear herself in these pages, either by name or image but she is happy for me to disclose the discovery, however, that she and I share a birthday (the Ides of March, no less!) And she hasn’t said I can’t show off her bike, so here it is …

I also wanted a photo of the Three Gentlemen of Woolongong …

Three Gentlemen of Wollongong

There are three genial gentlemen wheelers of Wollongong
About the same vintage as … Yvonne Goolagong
They’ve come away cycling on a Bike Odyssey epic
With a funny hat, a backpack and a Colnago, they’re quite authentic
Those charming blokes – those three gentlemen wheelers of Wollongong

The central platz here in Steyr, like so many old European cities, is covered in paving stones – as are some of the historic streets leading in and out. I love the patterning and texture even if it isn’t the smoothes surface for riding over …

There was a beautiful morning light playing about before we departed ..

We had a steepish pinch on one of the cobbled streets straight out of the square for about three hundred metres to kick off proceedings. A nice little warm-up, eh! ????

Almost immediately we were out in the country and what I think might have been an abbey or a convent appeared …

… and then a small field of poppies, where I think every one of our group stopped for a photo …

… or two …

While Dianne and I were enjoying the view there some of the other riders rolled by …

Shortly after we crossed a river which I assume must have been the Steyr …

There are so many beautiful properties in this rich agrarian region that it’s sometimes hard to restrain oneself from constantly stopping to take a photo. This time I couldn’t resist …

There is a church in every little hamlet. Sometimes it can be difficult to get a clear shot but this one stands proud on its own at a crossroads …

The crops are a little more well advanced than they were east where we were a few days ago. Here is another beautiful field of grain …

Mountains are starting to appear again, some quite rugged-looking ones. When we passed this little splash of colour with mountains showing in the background I had to pause once again …

There seem to be fewer, generally less showy roadside religious icons in this area, but I’ve decided this blog has to feature at least one each day …

Our coffee stop came at 38 kilometres and was a welcome respite from the roller coaster ride (well, the downhills were fun!) … that had given us half the elevation gain for the day. Here’s a nice little shot of folks talking logistics and contemplating consumables …

With the road flattening out a bit we all made good time to our first big lake for the day, Traunsee where we took lunch right beside the water and enjoyed the views …

Some of chose to extend our ride by heading south a distance along Trausee before heading across the pass separating int from Attersee, our destination for the night. It added only an additional 16 kilometres in distance but 350 metres in elevation. Luckily quite a lot of it was at a moderate gradient. Along the way I was delighted to see a goat dairy, and these pretty happy-looking ewes queueing up to get into the barn …

The descent to the Attersee’s eastern shore was very nice but I did pause long enough to get a photo of the lake spread out below …

When I reached the lake I was low on water so I started looking for a watering hole. A little detour out onto a jetty just  for fun …

… allowed me to spot a little bar set up right next door on the water’s edge. After getting my water bottle filled I thought, with only about 20 kilometres of flat riding left and my insides as dry as the Simpson Desert, I deserved a radler so that’s what I had!

A very pleasant cruise along the lake shore brought me to the hotel just as some big fat drops were starting to fall thus bringing to a conclusion another brilliant day on the bike.