July | Mia Schmid, 5th grade, and Christian Matyszok, Assistant Head of the Boarding School
The community weekend at Attersee, held from July 3 to 5, 2026, was the final community weekend on the 2025–26 school calendar. Together with their educators, our boarding school students spent three eventful days at Lake Attersee in Austria. Whether swimming, kayaking, paddle boating, riding the fun tube, or enjoying cozy evenings around the campfire—the weekend offered plenty of opportunities to spend time together, deepen friendships, and create unforgettable memories.
It’s no surprise that the community weekend has been one of the most popular events of the school year for many years—among children and teens as well as among teachers. For some particularly enthusiastic participants, the adventure even began on Friday morning with a roughly 100-kilometer bike ride from Stein to Lake Attersee, led by Christian Matyszok.
The following two accounts describe how the weekend was experienced from the perspective of a 5th-grade student and how the bike ride was experienced from the perspective of the assistant head of the boarding school.
In early July, we went on a school trip to Lake Attersee. I’d been looking forward to this weekend for a very long time because there were so many great activities planned.
On Friday, we took the bus to Nussdorf. Some students had already set out earlier by bike to ride to Lake Attersee. After we arrived, we were able to settle into our cabins, and then we headed straight to the lake and jumped into the clear water. That was very refreshing. Later, we had dinner together and played some games. At the kiosk, we were able to buy ice cream, chips, and soda.
On Saturday, after breakfast, we walked to the swimming area. There, we were divided into two groups. The “big kids” went to the motorboat and fun tube, and the “little ones” got to rent pedal boats. There was also a climbing pyramid with slides and a trampoline in the water. After lunch, we got to try kayaking and canoeing. I really enjoyed it, but it wasn’t that easy to steer the canoe. After dinner, we built a campfire and roasted marshmallows. We laughed a lot and had a wonderful evening.
On Sunday, we went back to the sailing school and switched groups. That way, everyone got to try everything. Unfortunately, the weekend was over way too quickly.
I really enjoyed the community weekend. It was a lot of fun, and I’ll remember it for a long time. Hopefully we’ll go there again next school year.
Mia Schmid, 5th grade
Let’s set off by bike for Lake Attersee. This year, seven motivated students and I set out to cover the nearly 100 km. We left Stein at 10:45 a.m., with our usual 15-minute delay. After just a few kilometers, it became clear that we needed to better coordinate our pace. From Stein, we headed toward Waging am See, then on to Schönram, and finally to Freilassing to the “Goldene Möve” restaurant, where we took our first longer break to refuel. Once there, I realized that we’d never reached this stop so quickly before. Refreshed, we continued on toward Salzburg.
We took back roads to bypass the city so that, once we’d left Salzburg, we could focus on the climb. It isn’t particularly steep, but it’s a continuous uphill stretch for about 30 km. This climb is usually where riders first experience unpleasant feelings of exhaustion and frustration. But Philippa, Carlota, Patricia, Jonny, Alexander, Fujun, and Aaron fought their way up the mountain together, supporting one another when things got tough. We stopped at a supermarket, ate ice cream, rested for a moment, and congratulated ourselves on the kilometers we’d covered so far. As we continued, the students battled their way up the rest of the climb, and I’m always filled with great respect for their achievements, because very few of those accompanying me on this trip ride bikes regularly, let alone 100 km in one go.
We continued on to Eugendorf, and from there it got easier. We passed the Drachenwand and Lake Mondsee. Finally, we reached Unterach on Lake Attersee. I find that the last 10 kilometers to the camp are always the hardest. The road is bumpy; my butt, shoulders, and arms protest at every little jolt from the asphalt, while my legs just keep pedaling. This year it was particularly challenging, because the town of Unterach had decided to ban cyclists from the main road and reroute them over the mountain. Although this detour—or rather, the new bike path—saved us a good two kilometers, it still had quite a bit of elevation gain in store for us. It was the first time that some of us got off our bikes and pushed them. You couldn’t blame anyone for that, and we showed the necessary patience—even though our stomachs were growling and we just wanted to get there. Finally, after about 5 hours of pure riding time, we reached our destination.
On Sunday, Ms. Koch, our intern Isabel, the P-seminar class—which had crossed the Alps to Attersee the week before—and I headed back toward Stein.
The P-Seminar was very lucky to be at the train station, while for us, the world came crashing down immediately after we left Salzburg. With this downpour, which came crashing down on us like a torrent, we were lucky that we were passing through Freilassing and were able to take shelter.
While it was raining, we converted our bikes into the Ark and then continued on our way, under bright sunshine. In Schönram, we stopped at the Bräustüberl for a small snack; no one drank the competitor’s “awful beer.” Then we rode on toward home. After we’d left Waging behind and had even almost reached Traunreut, an incredible thunderstorm broke out; we then pedaled the Arche back to Stein despite all the adversity and were soaked to the bone. You can cover 203 km with a total of 1,600 meters of elevation gain in 72 hours, but you’d better be able to explain that to your butt. It was still a lot of fun, though!
Christian Matyszok, Assistant Head of the Boarding School
