The Lonely Cyclist in the Alps - Cycling from Vienna to Nice

"Free hug." The first thing we see as we get out if the train is a student who ia waiting for arriving travellers to give free hugs. We both get a good hug. Welcome in Vienna!

Vienna is the start of a new cycle journey. I want to cycle from Vienna to Nice, a complete crossing of the Alps from east to west. Then I have to cycle a bit further to Avignon. About five weeks the cycle bus wil bring me back home. Jeroen will join me two weeks. In Landeck Jeroen will return home.

It is about two o'clock in the afternoon as we have loaded our bicycles. It is a sunny day, the first one in a long time. We are cycling through the streets and lanes of the center of the grand city along the Danube, the city where Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Mahler had lived. Vienna is a nice city for cyclists. Over the narrow cycle lanes we are zigzagging between the baroque houses. We pass Karlskirche and the Stephansdom. A brief visit to the Danube is not too inspiring. The river is led through a straight canal and the view is dominated by a huge industry complex. We go back west to find a camping. We cycle back to the city center and then up to the hills of the Wienerwald. The way up is not too steep but therefore also very long. We are climbing a few kilometers through the city now. The atmosphere in the outskirts of Vienna is still pleasant but we are hopelessly lost. Luckily a man gets out of his car to help us. He offers to drive before us so that we can follow him to the right direction. He leads us through the labyrinth. We are very lucky to have met him; maybe we would still be twisting and turning to find a way out. Within twenty minutes we are at the camping in Wienerwald, just out of the city.

The first kilometers we still ride along a regional road but soon we find ourselves on ever smaller winding roads. The region is only sparsely populated. So close to the big city of Vienna the green hills of Wienerwald are a delight of tranquillity. We cross several hill ranges. For the first ranges we have to climb between one hundred and three hundred meter. Sometimes there are very steep stretches of 18 to 20 %. Ever higher hills are looming up. The last ascent is the longest. From Hainfeld we go up to Kalte Kuchl, a big meeting point of motor cyclists. We climb a bit further to the Ochsattel, a pass of 864 meter. We descend to St Aegyd and ride in the direction of the next hill range. Or is this a mountain range? We feel tired in the meantime. We have climbed a lot for a first day and we have cycled hundred kilometer. Just as we discuss the issue, we ride along a camping. Five minutes later we lie in the grass of the campsite in Kernhof. I look at the hills around us. They seem to hold a promise. Today was a wonderful overture. I am looking forward to being more than a month between my beloved mountains.

I am the first to wake up. I cycle a kilometer back to the village of Kernhof to buy some fresh bread. After having breakfast we leave Kernhof for the ascent to the hill range that divide us from Mariazell. Unlike yesterday the sun is hiding behind the clouds. Soon it starts raining. As we arrive at the pass, it is raining heavily. We find shelter in a typical Austrian Stube. It is best to wait untill the rain is over. After an hour the rain is reduced to a dull drizzle; we decide to go on again. After a short descent we climb over an unpaved road to the Krombachsattel, a second pass. The descent is much longer. The road leads through scenic dark woods. By the time we reach the Hubertussee, the rain is more or less over. Mists are still hanging among the high hills around the lake. The grey cloud cover is still intact. The weather will not change for the better today.

Mariazell is the kind of place, that the Austrians are fond of. Restaurants have names like "Schwarzer Adler", every shop sells Mozartkugeln. The Pope has planned a pigrimage to the big church of Mariazell. A tourist trap of the first order. A place to love and to despise. We cycle further to the pretty Erlaufsee. A relatively long, steep ascent brings us to the Zeller Rain Pass. We go down to Lunz. Along the Salza river and the Enns river we go further southwest. We are surrounded by the huge limestone cliffs of the Hochschwab and the Ennstaler Alpen, the first mountains above 2.000 meter.

Another ascent and another descent bring us in the Gesäse National Park. New limestone cliffs are towering above our heads. As we climb the Buchauer Sattel it starts to rain heavily. Just as we arrive the pass the thunder is all around and very nearby. We have to find shelter. In a farm we find a place under a roof. It takes a long time before the thunderstorm is over. It is getting later and later but there is no chance to leave the place safely. As the thunderstorm is reduced to heavy rainfalls a permanemt grumble of thunderstrokes in the distance, I want to leave. Jeroen rather waits untill the rain is over. The rain does stop however. At eight o'clock we decide to go. It is still raining heavily as we float into the village of Admont. We are lucky to find a youth hostel.

It is raining still, the kind of rain that never seems to end. The mountains are hiding in clouds. It has no use to leave now. We stroll around in the village, waiting for good weather. Surprisingly at half pas twelve it stops raining. We decide to leave. My knee hurts a bit so I am riding slowly. We follow the river Enns so that we have no long ascents. Fifty kilometer further, at Stein a.d Enns, we reach the begin of the ascent to the 1.790 meter high Sölkpass. At that very time the sun effectively breaks through the cloud cover. We see that fresh snow has fallen on the peaks of the mountains along the Enns. The mountains around the Sölkpass are much higher. It could be very interesting to cycle a bit higher today. It is half past four now so it is quite late to start a thousand meter ascent, but we are too curious to wait untill tomorrow. Maybe the snow has melted away by then or maybe it will rain again. We pass through nice villages and superb alpine landscapes, gaining altitude effectively. We ride straight towards a wall of white mountains. The road winds up just before the white wall. The last four kilometer are very steep. On the pass we are surrounded by snow fields that are nearly melted away. Higher up the snow cover is still intact. A new rain shower reaches the pass at the same time as us. A cold wind is chasing over. We hurry down, leaving the icy rain behind. A long descent brings us into places with better temperatures. To reach the camping of Murau we have to climb a bit first. It is half past eight as we reach the camping.

From Murau we are heading south. The long ascent of the Paalgraben brings us in Flattnitz. The village is spread over a wide valley. The sidevalleys are also wide and open. A few great peaks rise up. The Eisenhut and other peaks still have snow on the higher slopes. We reach the pass. There are great sights southwards. In the distance we already see the steep, dark Karawanken mountain chain, the border mountains with Slovenia. Jeroen and I will be there soon. It could be possible to reach the Slovenian border tomorrow afternoon. First we will visit the lakes of Kärnten.

We pass Feldkirchen and reach the Ossiacher See. Our map shows a small road from Ossiach across the hills. It proves to be a very small unpaved road indeed and very steep. The road is nearly too steep to cycle. "The Wall of Ossiach" winds through a dense forest. In only a few kilometers the road leads to the top of the ridge. We have lost a lot of sweat on the road , but the scenic chapel on the top of the ridge is a good reward. A steep descent brings us on asphalt again. The tiny road winds up for another hill range. From there we descend to Velden along the Wörthersee. A few kilomter further we find a camping.

After a few kilometer we pass Maria Wörth. The tiny village is not much more than two churches on a peninsula in the lake. To reach the churches we pass a bunch of hotels and restaurants. The sight of the churches against the blue lake surely is one of a poetic beauty that is recognized by a lot of tourists.

We continue along the lake and reach Klagenfurt, where we buy new brakes for Jeroen. Through ever changing landscapes of farmlands, woods, hillslopes and wide river valleys, we reach Bad Eisenkapell, the begin of the ascent to the Slovenian border. To reach Slovenia, we have to cross the Karawanken mountain chain at the Seebergsattel. Despite the clouds we have good views of cliffs of the Karawanken. The ascent is relatively easy.

We are in Slovenia! The descent offers great views of the huge towering cliffs all around us. A very long descent brings us in the wide Sava Valley. We find a beautiful camping in Duplje.

After a few cloudy days the weather is sunny again. We cycle through the hills over Lipnica to Bled. The turquoise waters of Lake Bled reflect the green hills and mountains. A church is mirrored on the water surface. The serenity of the view is not supported by a deep silence. Boom-boom music escape from passing cars. A few men in grey suits and wealthy bling bling on neck, wrist and nose are talking loudly before the casino. Big men, big gestures. They do not seem to discuss the music of Beethoven. We escape the mafia atmosphere and leave Bled.

It takes only a few minutes to reach the tranquillity of the grand countryside around Bled. We are heading west in the Radovna Valley. After we have passed the rural villages, we enter the Narodni Park. The road is unpaved now but not too steep and the surface is very regular. Through the green, narrow, valley we climb slowly towards the mighty mountains of the Triglav. Just before we reach the pass, a magnificent view unfolds. The mountains of Slovenia are all below 3.000 meter but they certainly seem higher.

The big ascent of the day is not the Radovna Valley however but the climb to the Vršič Pass. From Kransjka Gora the road goes up along the triglav mountain range. The pass is 1.611 meter high. The road twists its way up in 25 hairpins. The ascent is highly irregular and gets ever steeper. The last seven kilometer has got a steepness of 10 % average. In the hairpins there is a highly irregular surface of stones, which adds up to the difficulty. The grandiose sights of the rock faces of the Triglav makes this one of the most beautiful ascents of the Alps. I am having a great time. After reaching the pass a steep descent of 26 hairpins bring us in the camping of Trenta along the Soča River, a truly great place to spend the night.

Along the Soča Valley we are heading towards Bovec. The early morning light is magnificent. The rock walls all around do not fail to impress. Jeroen is cycling far before me while I am taking picture after picture. These are the excellent moments why I undertake these journeys.

As we leave the Soča Valley to climb up to the Predil Pass, the magic spell is not broken. The wild harmony of the landscape is shown in ever new views, in ever new colors. The ascent is not steep. Within two hours we reach the pass and the Italian border. A short descent brings us to a pretty lake near nevea, where we have a lunch.

After a short ascent to the Nevea Pass and a long way down to the Fella River finally the magic spell is broken. We are in the last foothills of the Alps now. The valley is filled with a highway and a big secondary road. No small roads in lovely sidevalleys, just a busy valley with big roads and the filthy, polluted, humid air of the lowlands of North Italy. The sky is not blue but white but still the sun is burning. Hot. This is something we just have to go through. We both have the spirit to go through this as fast as possible. We pass the industrial plains around Carnia and Tolmezzo. Nearly sixty flat kilometers to reach the first promising sidevally in Villa Santina. We cycle into the green valley and find a camping in the friendly village of Ovaro. The ugliness is definitely behind us.