Sunday 18 August 2013

Flower power on the balcony




After a glorious few weeks of summer, the balcony flowers in Embach are a real picture.



Back in spring, the garden centres were, as always, thronged with buyers sorting through rack after rack of nascent blooms to find just the right colours and varieties. Hours of planting, watering, feeding, dead-heading and nurturing have now paid off as a crescendo of colour cascades from many of the village homes.



Here, you can see a selection. If you are visiting Embach in the next week or two, see if you can spot where each picture was taken.



Unlike some villages, there is no single house in Embach where every visitor must photograph the display and, where every coach pauses to astound the travellers. Here, there is no one extreme example, just a large proportion of the homes blossoming with vivid colour. And there is no competition among residents to have the most exotic balcony.



Back in England, a rural village like Embach might have an annual fête where flowers, jams and cakes are entered in a local competition and judged by the local squire, vicar and bigwig. In Austria, though many have wonderful vegetable gardens, there is no battle to produce the biggest pumpkin, the reddest tomatoes and weirdest carrots. So it is up to you to decide which balcony you like most.



Austrian village festivals follow set traditions that everyone is used to and enjoys. But it would be interesting to see if the idea of a village fête would take off in Embach and what balcony flower display competition might win the prize.


Saturday 17 August 2013

Tauern Radweg 2 – sign of the times


The new sign with Embach
The power of the blog!

Within a week of this blog pointing out that Embach didn’t exist as far as the Tauern Radweg was concerned (see Tauern ), a new sign replaced the old one at the junction where the road to this higher plane begins, and this sign includes Embach in bold letters.

Now, the powers that be need to look at the sign on the opposite of the junction for those perverse people who insist on riding the Tauern Radweg uphill and in the face of dozens of others cruising down.
The old sign didn't mention Embach


From the other direction, Embach isn't mentioned

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Tauernradweg: ride up to a new level

The Tauern Radweg, second most-popular long-distance bike route in Austria, passes within a whisker of Embach…but nowhere is there a sign pointing our way.

Every summer, thousands of cyclists, loaded to varying degrees with what they need for a week or so on the road, ride from the Krimml waterfall to Salzburg and beyond, following the course of the Salzach river.
Turn right here for Embach -the old sign

At one point they reach a crossroads. The bike route maps and signs point them straight ahead, though the green cycle route signs also point left to Dienten and right on the Golddiggers’ route towards Rauris.

Within a week of this blog going live, the sign was changed and Embach was put on the Radweg map.

Although the road to Rauris passes through Embach, not many bike tourists make it here. While they are busy riding along, deep in the valley, they miss a whole new level of enjoyment on this sunny plateau. And if they stay the night, they have the most wonderful start to the following day.

What, then, is the problem? Well, the road to Embach from the crossroads, climbs a bit. There are two hairpin bends and three ramps to climb before the road steadies to a gentler ascent into the village. Total climb about 350m over 5km.
The new sign
Cyclists who are up to the challenge, will find a little bit of non-touristy Alpine Austria and get away from the stream of other riders who flock down the river. The climb is reasonable if you aren’t too burdened with luggage – or riding one of the new electro-bikes.

Embach is a down-to-earth, unpretentious farming village with a few small hotels and guest-houses. Freed from the confines of the valley, it lies amid sunny meadows, with wonderful mountain views, where the weary cyclist can bed down to the sleepy clonk of cow bells.

Next morning, just the thrill of swooping back down the hill would make the climb worthwhile, even if the pleasure of having made it to this higher plane wasn’t enough reward.

Riders inspired by the view of the Hochkönig mountain as they descend, should go straight over the bridge at the crossroads, ride up to Dienten and beyond, via the Dientner Sattel before the long, exciting ride down to Bischofshofen where less adventurous riders on the Tauern Radweg are still plodding along the valley bottom.


A bit of non-touristy alpine Austria, Embach is worth the climb, the descent is a bonus


The campsite overlooks the valley