Today we meandered along the river Inn, from Salzburg to Hochburg, a trip that should have taken around 40km. We stretched it out to 54km. The river is the border between Germany in Austria, so we rode in both countries today.

We had a treat in the morning when our friends from Hamburg, Andreas and Silvia, turned up with Andreas’ grandmother, a charming 87 year old lady. They were returning home from a trip to the Alps and still had to drive back to Hamburg, so we just had a short chat and visit together.
Andreas and Silvia left us with a gift of some strong little bottles of hazelnut and herb liqueur, which came in handy later.

We bought some food from the good local supermarket before we left, as our destination town is so small and we thought there may not be good grocery shopping there. All in all it was a late start to begin cycling at around 10am.

We started out finding the nice cycle path along the river again, but it soon petered out a bit and we crossed the border to Germany. There were no border posts or guards, just a road sign indicating the crossing.
We attempted to follow the river again, and there were nice river roads in places, but they kept on coming to dead ends.

This stretch of river path was not so bad

Obscure path next to river – maybe not an official bike path?

Definitive dead end – no way to cross the water

By the time we reached Laufen, we had travelled twice the distance planned, on a combination of good bicycle tracks, unsealed tracks and walking paths.

Laufen had a very impressive bridge crossing over into Austria again. The traffic was quite congested coming off the bridge and we criss crossed through the town again trying to find the right road. The problem being a big hill that we had to make our way around.

Laufen Border post – back in Austria

At one point we traveled on a very nice path alongside a field with cows, up a hill and into some woods – this also came to a dead end and we had to back track to take a steep road going down to the river.

Dead end in woods

Finally we found a good straight bicycle track alongside the river and began to make up some distance. Only for Kris to get a puncture – in his back tire this time. Jenny actually rode on for quite a while before realising Kris was not following and back tracking. It was difficult to get the back tire off, so the tire change took a while. It threatened to rain while we were working but luckily never quite got there. Jenny opened the nut liqueur at this point.

When we reached Ostermiething, we left the river to cut across country to our destination at Hochburg. We passed through a number of small but prosperous looking villages. Many of the houses had immaculate gardens. One had a covered swimming pool. We rode on a busy road for a while, with a bit of a hill climb, before turning off onto a forest road, mostly downhill, that lead to Hochburg.

Hochburg is a small village and you first see the church spire as we approach.

Approach to Hochburg

The Stiftsgasthof Hochburg (where we stayed) is in an historic building next to the church. Alongside is a memorial to Franz Xaver Gruber, the composer of “Silent Night” – who was born in this town. There is also a historic 18th century house alongside. A very enthusiastic guide to the house greeted us and took us through, showing us all the artifacts from life at that time. Including a piano that belonged to Gruber and a loom (for making sisal cloth), that he used.

Silent night memorial

Memorial house

Gruber’s piano