Today’s hike of 13.2 miles (21.1 km) should have been one mile less had I known the lodging’s entrance. I arrived at the rear, but could have made it a shorter route heading straight to the front of Kapellerhof Hotel, which incidentally has an interesting relationship to the nursing home it adjoins.
It was the most rustic path yet (anywhere from a foot to three feet wide) that I’ve taken as any segment of the Austrian Camino—absolutely wonderful—this was true Camino. Once I left my Wels Hotel and made it back down to the Traun River (a tributary to the Danube) the path followed the Traun very closely coming within feet of the water in a few places. At three or four places my pace came down to a crawl for fear of slipping down the embankment into the water (balance isn’t what it used to be).
Near the end, I chose to walk up the hill in the neighboring town of Lambach to tour the Benedictine Abbey founded in 1056. Just so hard to imagine any institution dating that far back. Interestingly, in 1897/98, Hitler lived in this town with his parents and attended the monastery school, where he saw the swastika used in decorative carving on the stone and woodwork of the building. He later used it as the NAZI symbol—and the rest is history.
Knowing there would be no dinner (Monday is Ruhetag—rest day—for most establishments), I elected to have a smoked mackerel and a Radler (popular beer/Limonade combo) at what turned out to be a popular cyclist stop—yummy!
