In Spring of 2018 Markus and I stuffed our partially dismantled touring bikes into the back of his mom's tiny, rattly old Hyundai and headed on the autobahn to Salzburg, Austria, where the radweg starts. (Radweg ("rahd-veyg") means "cycling way" in German.)
Driving the autobahn in a wheezy old tin can was the first harrowing part of our adventure. Sleek, quiet new Mercedes, Audis, and BMWs would zoom suddenly into view in our rear view mirror, like flying saucers out of nowhere. They were going about 160+ km/hr. Flooring it, we were lucky to hit 80 in the Getz, our faces vibrating as if we were jackhammering concrete.
Nonetheless, we arrived safely at the Salzburg airport a few hours later, parked in long-term parking, put the bikes together, loaded them down with our panniers, took a deep breath (and a long pee) and started on our journey!
Luckily, as at many European airports, there's a designated cycling path directly from the airport into the city center. To get to the start of the cycling path at the Salzach River, we relied on a classic, tried-and-true GPS, one which requires no batteries, no satellite signal, and no monthly fee. We simply asked random passersby: "How do you get to the river?"
It was a beautiful sunny Tuesday afternoon in Salzburg, and it seemed like everyone in the city was walking, cycling, or lazing along the banks of the Salzach!
We soon found the cycling trail and off we went, heading south down the Alpine river valley.
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