# 3: Bad Gastein, Austria

After breakfast, Markus picked up a hazelnut-filled pastry from the konditorei, stuffed it in the panniers, and off we went on our second day of cycling on the Alpe-Adria.

Another beautiful day of cycling. Sometimes, we had to open gated areas to share the trail with livestock, swerving around manure and making sure to close the gates on the way out!

After about 80 km, we approached the town of Bad Gastein. The approach to town was steep! I'm walking my bike to prevent hernia and/or cardiac arrest.

There's a spectacular waterfall that pummels down the mountainside right through the center of the town.

Bad Gastein is an old spa town--where those suffering from extremely noxious bouts of flatulence  come to sample the healing waters, in hopes of finding a cure.

OK, couldn't resist the juvenile fart joke. But the healing waters part is true. And the whole truth is even weirder. In the 19th century, the town's thermal spring water was discovered by Marie Curie to contain radon. Since that time, people with autoimmune disorders, arthritis, etc have been coming to Bad Gastein for "radon inhalation therapy".  (A bit controversial... radon being a potent carcinogen, after all.)

Anyway, the town has been a resort destination for centuries--frequented by Mozart, Schubert, Somerset Maugham, the Shah of Iran, among others.

Many of its grand hotels were built in the 20s and 30s, in what's called the French "Belle Epoch" ("good times") style. The hotel we stayed at, the Bellevue, was an example of this. It was huge, and pretty much empty (only about 100 euros a night in off-season--for a suite with 2 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms). The hotel had a bowling alley and thermal pool--but few using them. Its vast, deserted grandeur made us feel like we were in the movie "Grand Budapest Hotel".

Markus took this shot of the Grand Hotel/Casino of Europe, another belle epoch hotel, from one side our hotel room balcony.

 This was the view from our balcony in the other direction:

 

In hindsight, we wished we would have stayed another day in Bad Gastein. But at that point, most of the road was still ahead of us.