Austria (all)

This year's bicycle tour was to take me roughly from where I had left off last year all the way to Slovenia and back, traversing Southern Tyrol, the Dolomites and the Carnic and Julian Alps on the way there, the Karawanken, Grossglockner- and Zillertaler-Alps on the way back.

Nur 10 Tage Urlaub könnten wir 1997 für eine Radtour zusammenkratzen. Dabei lernten wir ein touristisch noch recht unerschlossenes Stück Österreich kennen. Dieses Reisetagebuch schildert unsere Erlebnisse und Eindrücke.

The border to Slovenia is just a few km behind Gorizia. They still actually have border guards there even though Slovenia has recently become an EU member, but they just wave everybody through. Route 444 follows the freeway but is very quiet and pleasant, far more than the roads in Italy that led us here. At Ajdovscina we took route 207 and 621, which turned out to be more hilly than we thought - we gained 750 meters in one long and relentless climb, with little shadow. Very scenic though, with many views of the valleys. Near Podkraj a windy but exhilarating descent began, and after Logatec the second half of the descent was perfect, with safe long curves and no traffic. The last few km to Lubljana were busy though, as usual when entering a large city.

I used to have this mental image of Slovenia as one of those Socialist paradises, with gray people living in gray cities and trees growing in the potholes. Quite the opposite! Friendly clean cities, very good roads, and on a warm Saturday evening like this one the streets and cafes are bursting with people enjoying themselves. This country has definitely arrived in the 21st century. Ljubljana has a very pleasant old town, although much of the rest isn't very pretty.

This is the report of a one week bicycle tour in the Swiss Alps and parts of the Italian and Austrian Alps I undertook in the ``summer'' of 1997. Complete with plenty of useful practical information. The itinerary was Zürich - Tannen - Grimsel - Furka - Hospental - Oberalp - Splügen (village) - Splügen (pass) - Maloja - Bernina - Poschiavo - Aprica - Gavia - Bormio - Alpisella - Ofen - Umbrail - Stilfserjoch - Reschenscheideck - Arlberg - Braz - Wildhaus - Ricken - Zürich

3400km, 55337m, and 22 days on the road in rain, sun, and snow.

We set out toward Luzern and the central Alps in a cold rain, riding south across the Reuss valley to Merenschwand, in canton Aargau, with its slender church steeple and red tile roofed houses with window boxes of geraniums.

I looked out the window at first light and thought I was wearing red filters. After some more sleep and better daylight I checked again and it was true, it had snowed more than 15cm during the night. We got a good breakfast before heading up the hill on the freshly plowed road.

Only intermittent drops fell as my max speed record also fell, recording a speed that newscasters would have you believe occurs regularly in the TdF and on far gentler slopes. This is a 13% descent, perfectly straight into Ciapela (1450m) and smooth enough to reach terminal velocity. It was a gas.

Dieter flies back to Munich from South America, and jumps without waiting on his bike to conquer the Alps. It is not going to be easy...

Dieter flies back to Munich from South America, and jumps without waiting on his bike to conquer the Alps. It is not going to be easy...

One day: 26 July 1996 from 09:00 to 15:30 - Km 90.

26 July 1996 from 09:00 to 15:30 - Km 90.

This is the great report of a tour in the Alps that Jobst Brandt did in the summer of '96.

Dieter flies back to Munich from South America, and jumps without waiting on his bike to conquer the Alps. It is not going to be easy...

Dieter flies back to Munich from South America, and jumps without waiting on his bike to conquer the Alps. It is not going to be easy...

This is the great report of a tour in the Alps that Jobst Brandt did in the summer of '95.

This report details a van-supported, mostly camping, bicycle tour of Germany and Austria taken by 29 members of the Davis Bike Club (Davis, California) during 3 weeks in 1995. We were a varied group, aged from 9 to 70ish, and included families, couples, and singles, riding 7 tandems and 22 single bicycles.

A gorgeous trip through the Alps, over several passes: Simplon, Furka, Oberalp, Wolfgang, Fluela, Ofen, Stelvio, Mortirolo, Tonale, Mendola, Sella, Fedaia, Gardena, Campolongo and Pordoi. Don't miss this great story!

[...] I saw three bikes being loaded onto the conveyor...two of them were in boxes that looked different than the ones I had so carefully reinforced and packaged back home. Sure enough, my bike and Eric's had suffered terminal damage to our front wheels, and Eric's front pannier racks had been damaged badly. How were they able even to start this tour? Read on!

This is an older version without pictures; the main one is no longer available on the net.

This is the great report of a tour in the Alps that Jobst Brandt did in the summer of '94.

Kosice, Roznava, Miskolc, Eger, Tiszafüred, Hajdoszoboszlo, Szarvas, Csongrad, Kiskunhalas, Villany, Haromfa, Zalakaros, Heviz, Sarvar, Kapuvar, Breitenbrunn, Bratislava.

An excellent report, also from a technical point of view. Die ``Gardasee-Tour'' war meine erste größere 'Radwanderung', die ich mit Peter Steinlehner unternommen habe. Damals gingen wir in die 11. Klasse vom Gymnasium Vaterstetten und starteten uzu dieser Transalp-Tour, auf die wir uns schon lange gefreut hatten. [Diese] euphorische Tourenbeschreibung ist in den Tagen nach dieser Tour entstanden

[...] I rode past the emerald Lago di Carezza in whose glassy surface the myriad spires of the Latemar (2846m) were mirrored. Then after passing the huge magnificent hotels with massive 1920's architecture near the summit of the Costalunga (1753m), I descended to Pozza di Fassa (1220m) and on to Canazei and turned up the Pso Sella (2257m), the Gardena (2121m), and the Campolongo (1875m) and onward to the Giau (2236m). The view from the Giau was magnificent with the great Dolomites, the majestic Le Tofane, Monte Cristallo, Monte Cadini and the Marmorola above Cortina, clear and bright in the afternoon sun while to the southwest, the glacier glistened on the Marmolada.

This is the Pilsner tour, covering Germany, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The terrain is rolling hills and the routes traverse famous rivers and the towns and cities that formed along their banks.

The adventure of riding over Frut to Tannalp and Engsteln from Sarnen was out of the question because the snow level was about 1500 meters and I am not so hot on trails on cliffs in the snow. We rode over the Brunig (1008 m) and down to Meiringen, where we wolfed down some good bratwurst with potato(e) salad, hot soup, and good fresh whole-wheat bread.

The rain lifted in the morning as we rode up the Grosse Scheidegg (1961m), directly beneath the face of the Wetterhorn that was making artillery like sounds as enormous icefalls crashed down its walls before we broke out of the clouds. By the time we could see the mountain, the show was over. About 15 cm of new snow made a beautiful spring scene as we reached the summit where Eiger, Moench, and Jungfrau with their glacial appendages made a striking appearance in spite of grey skies.

The climb [up the Izoard] crosses a false summit from which the rest of the road is visible on the opposite side of the canyon. After stopping at the Coppi memorial for a picture I found mysterious power for the last two kilometers and rode like 30 years ago feeling no limits but the size of the carburetor bore as I breathed at max volume. Marc asked, ``what happened back there?'' when he arrived at the top. It was great!

In the morning we headed back up the hill in a light drizzle that turned to snow just below Gletsch. But wait there's more. As we entered the high valley below the Rhone Glacier and Furka Pass (2431m), we saw snow blowing about in brilliant sunshine on the summit. It was so cold and dry our clothes were completely dry as was the road where the snow just blew to the gutter. The drifts of powdery snow on the summit were so deep that my bicycle would stand alone in it. It was an exhilarating climb with storybook weather.

I passed the closed Lingotto FIAT plant, with test track on the roof, that is being refurbished as an automotive trade center. The modern streetcars with antique trolley poles and bronze trolley wheels wend their way between ancient buildings on narrow streets paved with 0.5x1.0m red and tan granite plates set at a 45 degrees. The rushing sound of the trolley wheel on the wire is truly a sound from the past for me, reminiscent of four trolley tracks on San Francisco's Market Street in my youth.

The Iseran probably earns the ``highest pass in France'' title, being actually higher and because it is steep, spectacular, and is surrounded by glaciers and snow. When you're there you know there's a There there. This is truly the haute Savoie, whose red and white emblem was the inspiration for the emigrants who took their red flag with the white cross along as they founded Switzerland.

The Stelvio may not be the hardest, longest or anything else, but it has a special place in my heart for its magnificent and exquisitely orchestrated landscape. It seems to have its own Wagnerian accompaniment, magnificent and grand. I have ridden it in every weather and it is always an emotional moment at the top with the ice caps of the Ortler and snowfields of the Gran Zebru as a backdrop to the road that drops 1000m into the canyon in the Shadows of this deep ravine. Forty nine numbered hairpin turns and 2000m below lies the valley.

This is the story of Marcus Endicott's solo bicycle journey from Yugoslavia to the Soviet Union in 1990. The adventure really began the year before, in 1989, but really hasn't ended yet today; though, there have been perhaps more than a few bumps in the road along the way...

This is a travel journal, and was originally intended to become a book. But, two great historical events occurred virtually one after another and changed the course of not only my personal history but that of the world as well; the first was what became known as the ``Gulf War'' and the second was the ``August Coup'', essentially the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Dem Hitzschlag nahe erreichen wir nach rasanter Fahrt Passau. Der erste Eindruck ist hervorragend, eine alte. schön gelegene Stadt am Zusammenfluß von Donau, Inn und Ilz. Wir fahren durch die Altstadt, um erst einmal ein Getränk zu bekommen, denn heute ist Maria Himmelfahrt, ein Feiertag in Bayern. Ein großes Spezi rinnt die Kehle hinunter.

Wir fahren durch die ganze Stadt zurück zur Jugendherberge. Unten steht ein Schild: 22%ige Steigung, Autos kommen kaum hinauf, ich probiere etwa 10 Meter, Torsten vielleicht 30, dann geben wir auf.

Schieben, schieben in der Hitze bis ganz nach oben auf die Burg. Die Rezeption liegt nochmals 20 Meter höher und schließlich unser Zimmer im vierten Stock des Burgturmes - kann es schlimmer kommen? Wir schleppen alles hoch, das Zimmer hat zwanzig Betten und bietet als Entschädigung ein toll es Panorama.

Mountain pass pictures and information.

The Alps have long been a summer and winter playground for vacationers around the world. They ski, they hike, they ride bikes. What better venue for the Tour de France than the Alps? After many years of reading, seeing, and dreaming, I had an opportunity to see Europe by bike. As a free-lance writer working part-time at Palo Alto Bicycles, I had no commitments. It was 1985. Greg LeMond had nearly won the Tour de France and was competing in the World Championships in Italy. I decided to go see him race. A friend who was familiar with riding in Europe gave valuable advice.

These were our initial worries: the trip was too easy, it was too crowded, and the scenery would be monotonously the same for the length of the river.

As it turned out, there was some small truth in each of these worries, but none was nearly as bad as we had anticipated. [...] I had read that the Danube bike path is very crowded in the summer months, and that since all riders start from the same intermediary points (the same hotels) at about the same time, there are traffic jams on the path. As it turned out, this worry was greatly exaggerated. The path was reasonably crowded, particularly near the towns on the weekends, but there were other long stretches when we wouldn't see another cyclist for perhaps ten minutes. We did get in ``synch'' with certain other small groups that we would encounter from time to time, but we never saw any of our own tour group after the first morning. About once an hour we would be passed, or would pass, a ``peloton'' of perhaps 20 to 30 cyclists, and every fifteen minutes or so a solitary biker, looking like he was doing the Tour de France, would pass us at great speed. On balance, I wouldn't have called the path particularly crowded.

La pista ciclabile dei Tauri, dal nome della catena montuosa austriaca, si snoda lungo le valli dei fiumi Salzach e Inn partendo dalle cascate di Krimml, attraversando la città di Salisburgo fino a giungere a Passau (D), dove si congiunge con la pista del Danubio. L'itinerario di circa 400 km è stato da noi percorso in una settimana (AGOSTO 1999), dedicando un po' di tempo alla visita di cittadine e altri luoghi interessanti. Il materiale utilizzato per organizzare l'itinerario (in italiano) ci è stato fornito dall'Ente Austriaco per il Turismo.

Nice pictures but not a lot about bicyles: ``On this summer sunday, after months of travel, I was riding my bicycle through lush, green, central Austrian farm country. The narrow unmarked country roads carried little traffic and provided enough space and quiet for me to stop whenever I wished to play my penny whistle or take pictures of poppy fields. As I was riding along, letting my mind wander across open fields, the steady spinning of my legs and feet, the rotating wheels and the rhythm of my own breath all fused together into a meditative gestalt - with me at the center.''

This is the Pilsner tour, covering Germany, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic. The terrain is rolling hills and the routes traverse famous rivers and the towns and cities that formed along their banks.

Ogni descrizione, parola, aggettivo sulla bellezza dell' itinerario sarebbe superflua, essendo questi paesaggi alpini i più fotografati al mondo; mi limiterò solamente a consigliarlo ad un cicloturista allenato!

On these pages we will show you the cycling pursuits of John and Daniel Gould (from Australia) and our friend Peter (from Japan).Our challenge will be to ride from London to Istanbul through 12 countries in 2 months while having a great time and seeing the sights. Peter should be there to Italy and then its just 2 unless anyone else wants to join us. For father and son John and Daniel the quest will also try to raise money for Odyssey House.

Il giro è molto bello e non eccessivamente faticoso. Si trovano delle ottime cartine fino a Maribor (Da Dobbiaco è tutta ciclabile, la Drauweg), un po' meno in Slovenia e Croazia, dove ciclabili praticamente non ce ne sono, ma ci sono parecchie strade secondarie senza traffico. In Slovenia agli uffici turistici si possono trovare cartine della zona decenti (noi ci siamo accontentati di quelle, ma consigliamo caldamente di procurarvi una carta almeno al 200.000, possibilmente con le curve di livello?) e un paio di pubblicazioni interessanti, anche in Italiano, su ``Slovenia in bicicletta'' e ``Le strade secondarie sono più accattivanti di quelle principali''. Aiutano molto. Non fate troppo affidamento sui cartelli segnaletici delle presunte piste ciclabili (``kolesarska pot'', in sloveno) che a volte mancano. Sulla strada che abbiamo scelto noi abbiamo incontrato traffico solo in alcuni punti che non avevano alternative, andando a ficcarci in strade impossibili solo un paio di volte, evitabili.

Tabular data and altitude profiles of mountain passes all over Europe.

A photo album of mountain passes in the Alps