Lipiec 2022
We spent all Saturday in Trento, walking around and looking for the shade. We planned to return on Sunday by car, and the idea began to cross my mind that since I hadn’t completed the entire Villach – Trento route by bike, why not make up the missing part on the way back? Well, okay, I’ll admit that I even took a second set of clothes for the occasion beforehand, because the first clothes set one might be a but radioactive after 10 hours of riding.
So I got off again in Lienz, took the bike out, quickly changed clothes and smoothly got into the summer smells of the bike paths.
This time, of course, the direction was east.
The well-marked R1 route is one of the most important bicycle thoroughfares in the area. You can probably take it all the way to Croatia. It is not demanding in the sense of climbs, although it is obvious that there must be some. Just great fit two days after my trip to Trento.
It was a very sunny and hot afternoon. One can only go on a bike to cool down;)
I must admit that this route surprised me a lot. It is perfect. Mostly vacant, scenic, interesting. It twists and winds, rises and falls. It can be challenging if you speed, it can be relaxing if you practice so-called romantic cycling.
Lots of woods, groves and space. I would put this route on a par with the route to Venzone, but just for the pleasure of the journey more than the views, although those are not bad after all.
Again, this is where the advantages of gravel show up, as you can enjoy both gravel and asphalt surface. Of course, everyone has its own preferences but the versatility of gravels is really helpful; you don’t have to worry about the type of surface, for that you can fly everywhere faster.
There a lot here for bicycle travelers. Accommodations inform you: where they are whether they are free, with a phone number; you can make an ad hoc decision about overnight stay. There’s plenty of inns, bars or even self-service vending machines with drinks.
I was charmed by this one in particular – Gasthaus Wulz. Nice service, reasonable prices (usually they charge €5.50 for my favorite wheat beer, but here it was decent €3.80).
And I liked it best when I walked in with empty water bottles and asked about the restroom to refill them there (in Austria, tap water is drinkable everywhere), to which the barmaid kindly poured cold water from the dispenser. That’s how we like it!
A store with thousands kinds of beers is located nearby well, and you can also spend the night at Wulz. Cool place!
R1 for quite a large part carries on the public road, but it feels like no one knows about it. For 2 hours I was passed by maybe two cars. The road was winding and climbing again, just a little, because it was mostly downhill – pure pleasure.
Initially, I wanted to make it to Villach, but I set off too late from Lienz, and would have had to rush before dark without taking a rest, which, after all, after such a weekend, could have ended in unnecessary injury.
Once I reached Spittal an der Drau, I made the manly decision to shorten the route and took the train again. I did a lot of spinning anyhowm as the Lienz – Spittal section is 80km. Gorgeous 80km.
Austrionauta 