Touring and Biking in Upper Austria

Saturday, August 30 was a non-biking day, which we spent as "regular" tourists hosted by an old friend Karl-Heinz Lumpi and a new friend Brigitte Lumpi (Karl's wife). They took us to the town of Hallstatt, home of the world's oldest salt mine, which began operations 7000 years ago. The four of us went on a guided tour of the mine, which was both educational and fun. The tour includes information provided by the guide as well as via a number of brief movies. Together, these explain how the salt-containing mountains formed (partly as a result of continental drift), how the early residents of the area came to realize that there was salt to be mined, and how the technologies have evolved over time to extract the salt. The tour also includes two long, steep, wooden slides that provide exhilarating rides down into the depths of the mine. An interesting fact about salt is that the word salary originates from the Latin word "salarium", which referred to the money paid to the Roman Army's soldiers as an allowance to buy salt, a valuable substance since salting was an important method of food preservation.

We also toured the picturesque town of Hallstatt (so picturesque, in fact, that a full-size version of the town has been replicated in China). An attraction in the town is the Beinhaus -- bone house -- that dates back to the twelfth century and contains over 1200 skulls neatly stacked in rows along with next of kin. Since the town's cemetery is so small, without room to expand, graves were opened 10 - 15 years after burial and the skulls were removed (sometimes with other bones). The skull was cleaned and exposed to the sun and moon light for weeks until they were bleached ivory white, and then placed in the Beinhaus. The last skull placed into the Beinhaus was in 1995.

Our day ended with a marvelous dinner with the Lumpi's, together with Omar Ishrak (CEO and president of GE Healthcare until 2011, currently Chairman and CEO of the medical technology company Medtronics). We were also joined by the Lumpi's son Daniel and his wife and 8-month-old baby. The food and company were wonderful.

Today's bike ride was intended to be a 64-mile ride to Mauthausen, Austria. The town has a gruesome history, since the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp was a group of camps built around Mauthausen, located 12 miles east of Linz on the Danube River. Mauthausen became the largest labor camp in Nazi-held territory during World War II and had a reputation for being the toughest, with its goal of exterminating inmates through hard labor. Inmates worked in quarries and factories on a starvation diet of less than 1000 calories per day. Weak, emaciated prisoners were forced to carry heavy stones up steep stairs at the quarry. If one fell backwards, a series of prisoners would be carried down with the fall, like an avalanche. Besides deaths from these dangerous work conditions, prisoners were killed from beatings, ice showers, shootings, medical experiments, electrical shock, and, later, a gas chamber built at the camp.  The Mauthausen camp was the last of the concentration camps to be liberated. By the time the Allies came, approximately 240,000 of the 320,000 prisoners had died. One of the survivors of this camp was Simon Wiesenthal, an engineer who has devoted his life to hunting Nazi war criminals.

When we arrived at Mauthausen and went to the guesthouse we'd booked, we immediately had bad vibes about it. Laundry and shoes were blocking the hallway, rooms were tiny, and WiFi was spotty. Contributing to our aversion to the Mathausen guesthouse was the horrible history of the town, which we had read about at breakfast this morning before hopping on our bikes.  We left Mauthausen and biked back 4 miles to stay at a hotel in the adjoining town Enns.

With the Karl-Heinz and Brigitte Lumpi, dressed in what looks like prison garb. It's what's provided to wear during the tour of the Hallstatt salt mine.

Hurtling down into the mine

Town square in Hallstatt

Some of the 1200 skulls, together with femurs and humeri, in the Beinhaus


Scenes from our ride today:

Crossing the Danube

They apparently have some pretty strict rules in Austria. [Actually, "Windpassing" is the name of a town.]

Biking With an Austrian Friend: The Day Began with Doppler and Ended With Ultrasound, With Mountains, Lakes, and Bulls in Between

We biked today (Friday 8/29) with Karl-Heinz Lumpi, head of General Electric's Women's Health Ultrasound division, a maker of high-end ultrasound equipment used mainly for imaging obstetrical and gynecological patients. We began the day with a relaxed breakfast in Salzburg at the Café Classic Mozart, in the building where Mozart spent his early years. We then went down the road about 50 feet for picture-taking at the birthplace of Christian Doppler, who discovered that sound emanating from an object moving towards you is higher in pitch than when the object is moving away from you, a phenomenon known as the Doppler principle, which has important application in medical ultrasound.

We then had an amazingly beautiful ride over mountains and past several lakes. Partway through our route, we stopped briefly at the headquarters of Red Bull (which we had previously mistakenly thought to be in Colorado) to see its strikingly modern building and sculptures of bulls. We ended our ride at our hotel alongside Attersee, a large lake.

In the afternoon, we went to GE Women's Health Ultrasound headquarters with Karl-Heinz, where engineers watched intently as Carol scanned a pregnant woman. They took careful note of her suggestions about how the machine could be improved.

Leaving Salzburg

At the Red Bull headquarters (statues of bulls in the background)

Cycling From Germany into Austria -- Our Most Scenic Ride on the Trip So Far

Our ride today (Thursday 8/28) was a spectacular 55-mile trip that began in Bad Aibling, Germany and ended in Salzburg, just over the border into Austria. We traveled over rolling Bavarian hills just north of the Alps, cycled past beautiful lakes, and passed through lovely towns. The scenery was the most beautiful and varied of our trip so far. For our morning break, we stopped at a café on the Chiemsee, the lake on which crazy Bavarian King Ludwig II built an island palace, the Herrenchiemsee, modeled after Versailles as a tribute to his idol King Louis XIV of France. While we didn't see the palace, we were able to admire the beautiful views of the Alps while we snacked on the Chiemsee.

We ended the day by crossing the border from Germany into Salzburg on a small bicycle bridge across the Saalach River. Salzburg, the fourth largest city in Austria, has a very well preserved city center that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Salzburg is the birthplace of Mozart, and the city has a major square as well as a museum in honor of the composer, who produced more than 600 works before his early death at 35 years of age. We had dinner in the building next door to Mozart's birthplace, and our hotel is around the corner from where he spent his early years.

Scenes from our ride today:

Crossing from Germany into Austria

Mozart's birthplace in Salzburg

A Bad Place in Bavaria

We have spent the past three days in Bavaria, the largest of the German states by area and the second largest by population. It is located in the southeastern corner of the country and is proud of its unique local culture and traditions. Traditional costumes are worn on special occasions, including lederhosen (leather breeches) for men and dirndl (bodice, blouse, full skirt and apron) for women. Bavarians are among the highest beer-drinking people in the world, with an average annual consumption of 170 liters per person. At the Oktoberfest, the world's largest beer festival, which attracts around six million visitors every year, and in the numerous beer gardens (including the famous Hofbrauhaus in Munich), beer is traditionally served by the liter. Bavaria is also unique in Germany as the only state that is majority Catholic.

The capital of Bavaria is Munich, the third largest city in Germany with a population of 1.4 million and 2.65 million in its urban area. It was thronged with tourists when we were there yesterday. A major tourist attraction is the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, a display high on the town hall consisting of 43 musical bells and 32 life size figures that spring to life for 15 minutes every day at 11 am, as well as at noon and 5 pm in the summer. It chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century, to the delight of huge crowds of people, many of whom (including us) stand with their cameras capturing video snippets of the show.

Our bicycle ride today (Wednesday 8/27) was a short trip to Bad Aibling, a spa town about 30 miles west of Munich. Germany has nearly 900 spa towns, which are resorts situated at the location of mineral springs that have purported health benefits. At least 2000 years ago, Romans appreciated the hot mineral springs at Baden-Baden, and beginning in the 18th and 19th centuries Europe's royalty and other aristocrats would meet at the great German spa resort towns.

Spa towns that meet special criteria receive the official designation of "Bad", which is used as the prefix for the town name. There are over 160 Bad towns in Germany. Bad Aibling is known for its "moor mud", also known as "therapeutic peat moss". There are several centers in town offering peat moss treatments, which they claim have beneficial effects for arthritis and rheumatic diseases as well as for hormonal imbalance and "female problems" (??). Also in town are the cancer treatment center Klinik St. Georg, which offers (according to its website) "both conventional and alternative cancer therapies, including heat treatment and herbal supplements, that are not sanctioned by the American medical establishment", and the Schön Klinik Bad Aibling for neurological disorders. [As an aside, some of the claims and treatment methods sound to us like quackery.]

Famous beer hall in Munich

Munich Rathaus (town hall). The glockenspiel is halfway up the tower.

Closeup of the glockenspiel

Click to play videos of the glockenspiel:

Our sampling of Bavarian wursts with sauerkraut for dinner

On our route to Bad Aibling, a busy guy heading towards Munich

Entering Bad Aibling

In the town of Bad Aibling

We Reached the Danube River and Will be Travelling Close to it for the Next Several Days

On Sunday 8/24, we biked from Stuttgart to Ulm, the birthplace of Albert Einstein and the location of Ulm Minster, a Lutheran church notable for its great height. With a steeple measuring 530 feet and containing 768 steps, it is the tallest church in the world and the 4th tallest structure built before the 20th century.

Ulm is located on the Danube River, and much our ride on Monday followed the river. For the next 9 days, in Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Hungary, we will stay fairly close to the Danube until we leave it when we leave Budapest. We will see the river again several days later, when we spend a night in Ruse, Bulgaria. Ruse is just south of the Romania-Bulgaria border, and that border is formed largely by the Danube.

The Danube is the European Union’s longest river. It begins in the Black Forest in the southwestern corner of Germany and travels east to the Black Sea. It is a major Pan-European transport corridor. At its eastern end, large ocean ships can navigate from the Black Sea up the river into Romania, while river transport boats can travel upriver to Germany. With the opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube canal in 1992, river transport boats can now travel all the way from the Ukraine and Romania on the Black Sea to Rotterdam, on the North Sea. A popular bicycle path runs along the river in Germany, Austria, and part of Hungary, which we will be on at times.

The Ulm Minster 

Our first view of the Danube on this trip

Views from our ride on Sunday and Monday, 8/24-25:

Everyone Loves a Parade

Today, the seventh biking day, was once again near-ideal for cycling: great roads, wonderful small towns and countryside, a slight tailwind, and cool temperature. Partway through the ride we had a long, very steep uphill climb, and when we got to the top we found ourselves in the middle of a town with a parade going on. Numerous colorful floats went by, with people in various traditional dress. We found out that it was a parade in celebration of shepherding, as we were in the middle of sheep country.

After the parade ended, we continued on to our destination city of Stuttgart. The city has a population of just under 600,000, with 5.3 million in the metropolitan area (both numbers similar to Boston). It is sometimes referred to as the "cradle of the automobile", since the claim is made that the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine was invented here by Karl Benz around 1880. Mercedes Benz and Porsche are both headquartered in Stuttgart, and it has the highest prosperity level of any city in Germany.

Photos from our ride today:

Leaving Karlsruhe

He'll get there more quickly, we'll be in better shape

With such a fine, quiet road, who needs the bike path

Postcard-pretty town

From the Shepherd Parade

More from the parade