Wednesday 20.8.2008
After many days of wandering in Czech Republic, we started to ride the last kilometers on the provincial road, with direction west to Germany so that we can move across Autobahn south towards Austria with final destination, Salzburg.
Entering the national road of Germany, we started to swallow km with fast pace, keeping in mind to stop at the first gas station for refuelling. In vain… After many km I got out on an exit with fuel reserve and at 500 meters I pulled off on a gas station I found as I had figured that if I went on at autobahn I wouldn’t see a gas station not even pictured! At the highway, there were only parking’s for emergency! Not gas stations neither restaurants! In other words, Autobahn is a highway in a strict (German) sense…
With this opportunity, we entered the first village we found in order to draw money from a bank and we took a small taste of German province. We also put on the waterproofs cause as we headed south the cloudiness became denser and led in a heavy darkness, so if it started to rain it wouldn’t just be a small rain…
We then continued riding in autobahn with the fast pace being interrupted at the exits to Nuremberg as we fell on intense traffic for a few km. After we passed that spot, we came back to our usual pace and in combination with the fact that the weather started to get better providing better brightness, our trip became more pleasant.
Reaching Regensburg we went out on the exit to Straubing and there we turned right following the signs to Burghausen. The initial thought was to go down all Autostrada so that we crossed Munich and maybe make a stop there before we ended up in Salzburg. The intense traffic that we met though at the previous big city we passed by, troubled me and so I decided we move on a provincial road for a few kilometers.
Reaching Burghausen we stopped at a central street and sat down to eat as we had completed many hours on the bike. The lovely smiling German waitress was trying to explain in broken English what every dish had as the catalog was only in German…
After we took the necessary breaths we went on the last part of our route going out of the city and crossing the bridge over the Salzach river which is the physical frontier between Germany and Austria. Next to the river, there is a hill on the top of which there is the homonym with the town castle. It’s a very beautiful place, but having no time for another stop, we rode along and took off to cross the Austrian meadows with direction to Salzburg.
From the very first km in Austria the picture changed totally with the dominant colour on the landscape being green! The provincial road with perfect asphalt and beautiful turns beckoned you to enter a little more aggressively , the meadow though right next to you with the beautiful houses didn’t let you stop the oblique glimpses and focus on riding… After a while we were entering the birthplace of Mozart and were reaching our hotel*.
After a 2-hour relaxation after many kilometres we went out for our first walk in the city. After about ten minutes, we reached the centre and parked on the pavement at a place where there were other motorcycles parked. It was late at the evening and there was much cloudiness and strong cool breeze.
After we took a walk next to the river as well as the central pedestrian way with lots of cafeterias and stores, we sat down at a cafeteria to drink sth hot as we had the sense of a cool autumn night. As we were enjoying our hot chocolate it drew our attention that the square slowly begun to fill with people nicely dressed with particular traditional costumes. Later we figured out that they were waiting for the entrance of the opera there aside to open and go have fun in there own way!
* Ibis Salzburg Nord: At Salzburg the fact is that I had problem finding a hotel because they were a little expensive. Maybe, the Austrians forgot to readjust the inflated, due to Euro, price catalog after its ending… I finally booked a very good offer after Stergiani’s suggestion who was organizing a trip with George at that period which included Salzburg. 64 euros the double room with booking through the hotel’s website, with the only difference that the specific price was provided with prepayment without the ability of cancellation or change of booking… Breakfast was not included in the price. (+9.50 euros per person! We didn’t honored it…)
