Distance: 1.673,82 km Duration: 27 hour 0 min Top speed: 147 km/h Average speed: 61 km/h
The wife and I decided to take a longer vacation, you know, do the millennial thing and take a year off. Luckily my employer was understanding so I’m going for a sabbatical year. My friends threw me a farewell party at Lake Balaton.
Day 0 – the party
We left the office, as usual after work and headed to Balaton. As we didn’t want to take the highway we were going through the agglomeration on road #1 until we left the cities behind then turned towards Székesfehérvár on the small roads through Vértes mountains and took road #8 to go along the Balaton lake until we reached our destination almost in the middle of the northern side. We stayed there for two days with friends enjoying the lake, some beer and the good company.
Day 1 – Balatonfüred-Bled
We started the day early as we had a long ride ahead of us. Going to the Austrian border on road #8 was quite relaxing but we enjoyed the long curved road that goes parallel to the Beaches and then starts elevating once you are reaching the bottom of the Alps. At first we were going to Liebnitz then we climbed the mountain near Lavamünd. The Austrian roads are in perfect condition and we were amazed by the landscape and the serpentine leading there.
After a quick lunch we decided to have another lap there and proceeded towards Bad Vellach, that is a small village at the bottom of Paulitsch Pass. This road is truly amazing. Leading to the border with Slovenia you can enjoy each curve individually as the builders were kind enough to make the corkscrews fast paced and a little wider than usual.
In Slovenia we took the small mountain roads to Bled, in the last 10 minutes rain started to get down on us, but warm coffee was waiting us at the hotel, so we were lucky to evade it for so long.
Day 2 – Mangart and Sella Nevea
The morning greeted us with heavy fog and the clouds were promising heavy rain. Yet we quickly started our tour, after a refill at the nearest gas station, by going to Kranjska Gora then turned towards Trenta. Although this section was optional and not even shorter than going around, the road here is much more adventurous. It has 21 curves paved with cobble stones and even turning those that aren’t can surprise you with livestock standing in the middle of the road.
We started our descent from 1850m and ended up at 375m within 30 minutes.
We got our first taste of what’s waiting for us with a short rain. Through the mountains we reached Bovec and started climbing to Mangart. By this time the sun was out and we were looking at a nice ride up to Mangart.
The struggle started after we descended from the peak. It started raining lightly and we decided to go for Sella Nevea. This was our second time there and it was raining like hell. Again… I really don’t know why the Italian engineers decided to put a 90+° turn in virtually every tunnel. We had to stop right after the last one as ice was falling onto our bikes. We had planned to reach Grossglockner that day and touch Monte Zoncolan, but we had to give in to the weather so we checked in to a hotel at the top of Nassfeld Pass.
Day 3 – Grossglockner
The morning came too soon for our clothes to completely dry, so when we left the hotel at 9:30 in the 14°C we were shivering as we were descending on Nassfeld Pass to the gas station. Lucky for us, the sun came out, so by the time we finished planning the road they mostly dried. Chosen Road number 110 and it was a good one. As the weather was getting warmer, the asphalt was getting dryer, we were taken through this Forest through the mountains with not much traffic and we were able to ease into the curves as we were proceeding to Lienz. We started climbing the mountain but we both needed some mana so we stopped for a coffee and we were offered plum strudel as we were collecting sunshine for the road.
The Grossglockner
I had high hopes for this road, after all it’s the highest paved pass in Austria and costs quite the money to enter. My friend warned me not to hipe myself too much not to get disappointed, but it was unnecessary. This road lives up to it’s fame.We spent the whole day riding back and forth on it. First stop was the BikersPoint. The last 2 km is on cobbler stone as well, so it really pays off going through Trenta as I wrote the previous day. It was 6°C but the view was worth the discomfort.
We took the road down to the last parking spot and turned back up to the highest point.
After descending completely we stopped for a late lunch then drove around the Lake Zell am See. We booked our room for the night online and proceeded there, around 45 minutes in the afternoon traffic.
Day 4 – from Krimml to the land of Old Timers
The morning was like the next part of the Deadly Hollows. It was fog everywhere. You couldn’t see 10 meters. At 9:30 it was getting warmer and clearer and we headed to the Waterfall at Krimml, to ride through Gerlos. To be honest I enjoyed the toll-free part much more than the latter one although the cow in the middle of the road where you’re riding 80+ km/h was a nice touch.At the western end of the Gerlos Hochstrasse you are greeted by Zell am Ziller where we turned south and climbed up to ski slopes of Zillertal. The 5€ each bike fee was not entirely justified by the quality of the road as it was full with tar snakes and wasn’t wide enough everywhere for a bike and a car to pass each other. The view made up for the taxing struggle though.
After the not so relaxing descent from the top we payed our dues again by taking the main road from Aschau to Sankt Jochan. It was a terrible traffic even at the middle of the day on a Wednesday, so when finally we turned to the German border on road #176 I was again feeling better. Finally we reached Germany and everything changed as we got to road #305. It was the best part of the day. If you are in South-Germany by bike you should try this path. The curves are long and forgiving as you are riding along the valley giving you enough space to practice your throttle control or experiment with the different entry and exit points while turning. Or just enjoy the view. This road takes you to Königgsee. We be seen so old-timers, countless Porsche Carrera a couple BMW cabrios and we had the chance to ride along a Ferrari F40. The touristy lake offers great view and overpriced everything.
but if you are anything like me, who prefer a mountain road over a market packed with people head to parking 4 on the hill top, you’ll enjoy the ride much more. Finally you cannot go by road 999. It costs again to enter, but this actually worth every penny. Be careful though, you have to turn back before the barrier otherwise you’ll have to pay again. And believe me you’ll want to. After that it was again the heavy traffic to our hotel room in Werfen.
Day 5 – The Austrian Ski paradise
The sun came up slowly over the hills around Werfen, yet after a quick refill we were on our way looking at over 7 hours of riding that day. Road 99 followed by 166 was a breeze, there’s nothing more a rider can ask for. Long curves following the river between high rock walls occasional climbs and descents as the road is connecting the famous ski slopes. We had virtually no traffic until we reached Hallstatt.Going around the lake you are taken to a nice mountain road again without any car until you are on road 145. We had heavy traffic around Liezen, but if you push past it and take road 115 then 25 to Mariazell you are greatly rewarded for the effort. I had to dial in for a meeting so we stopped for lunch at Hotel Bergkristall(try the rindgoulash), next to the gas station, on the side of the road, but in an hour we were back in the road. We continued on road 23 to Semmering and I have to specially mention the area near Raxen that took us away from everything by its curves. Following the signs we ended up on this romantic forrest road leading up to the top with rocks both sides covered in miss, like in the Hobbit movie.We had 60 kms to go till Kőszeg and we pretty much thought that was it, but amazingly between the small villages we were able to find some great curves.
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