Table of contents
Daams
14th pictures
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Every meter of the alpine road is painstakingly punched into the field.
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Carinthia: Wonderful curves near clear mountain lakes.
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Nice excursion destination: Pressegger See lido near Hermagor.
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The subject of water also blossoms in art.
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When traveling through Carinthia, alpine roads such as the Grossglockner High Alpine Road are a must.
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Not only idyllic in the sun: the eastern shore of the Weibensee.
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Unfortunately, sometimes the water doesn’t just come from below.
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The Pasterze glacier is disappearing, the Kaiser is already gone.
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With a V8 boat you can set off into the Worthersee.
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The Porsche city of Gmund invites you to visit a museum.
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The Grobglockner High Alpine Road offers endless curves.
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The fascination of motorcycles on the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe.
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In addition to sports in the mountains, the lakes in Carinthia – like the Weissensee here in the picture – offer sports opportunities for water sports enthusiasts.
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Art on the asphalt: Ironman cheers at Ludmannsdorf.
to travel
Motorbike tour through Carinthia
On the way: Carinthia
Glaciers and lakes: motorcycle tour through Carinthia
From the glacier to the lake, by motorcycle, yeah! Yes, you can still be happy like a child in Carinthia. Over three thousand meter peaks as well as beautifully warm bathing lakes. Over grandiose mountain routes anyway.
Klaus H. Daams
06/24/2010
There are said to be 1270 lakes in Carinthia. Who counted them so precisely? And where on earth is there still room for all the mountains? Questions about questions that are perhaps the fastest with a robust (grainy?) Motorcycle like that KTM Have Super Duke clarified directly on site. Best while there is still eternal ice.
Austria’s majesty, the great Glockner, has a lot to offer. Before the motorized pilgrim starts to the famous mountain, he enjoys the summer, which gushes out of every pore of the landscape. The apples shine on the trees and signs point the way to the snack bar. Sometimes with kebab too. Even in Carinthia, once notorious for puffy family vacations, time doesn’t stand still. Of course, neither does the motorcycle. The Duke babbles her brisk song. First on the winding 87 to Greifenburg, then on the 100 to Lienz, where the 107 branches off to the Grobglockner.
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It’s like driving to the Nurburgring: Even if you’ve already been there, you’re not immune to anticipatory tingling. The senses process all the impressions here in the Hohe Tauern National Park with relish. At the Heiligenblut toll station you feel like you are at the Nordschleife ticket booth. The ticket costs 18 euros, a day pass for the 48-kilometer Grossglockner High Alpine Road. Is someone swallowing there? (The season ticket is available for a relatively inexpensive 60 euros.) The construction of the bold route that crosses the main Alpine ridge devoured almost 34 million euros. A mammoth project, laboriously punched into the rock by 3,200 workers in a five-year construction period and ceremoniously opened in 1935 by Federal Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg as “Expression of a new harmony of art and nature that technology succeeded in achieving”. At the moment we are only interested in how the 36 grandiose hairpin bends of the High Alpine Road succeed without completely losing the beautiful nature from the mostly sloping horizon. And should you first drive on the spur road to Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe and then the one to the Edelweibspitze – or vice versa? Long live the day pass.
Daams
The fascination of motorcycles on the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe.
The days of the Pasterze, Austria’s largest glacier, are possibly numbered. The icy tongue, which leaks from the 3798 meter high Grossglockner to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Hohe and has lost around half of its volume in the last 150 years, is still nine kilometers long, and the tendency is to continue melting rapidly.
This is anything but funny: drinking water reservoirs wither into pathetic remains, the statics of entire mountain ranges supported by permafrost become unpredictable. And if rain once lay as snow, today it rushes down to the valley as a deluge. What on a great summer’s day under a deep blue sky, the eye blinded by glistening snowfields, the heart enraptured by hundreds of motorbikes on the pass parking lot, is hard to imagine.
On to the Edelweibspitze, the second distinctive lookout and resting place. On the way, a RD 400 storming the mountains undaunted, as well as a 990 SM, pulling the front wheel briefly to give a friendly welcome – then finally apple strudel in the Edelweibhutte. With good visibility, 33 three-thousand-meter peaks and 19 glaciers can be seen from up here. It’s not only worth taking a look in bad weather “Bikers Nest”. There an exhibition revives the time of the glorious mountain races, shows, among other things. Anita Wachter on a 250cc Puch Sport from 1935.
Seven narrow hairpin bends, cobblestone and unchanged since it was built, bring us back from the Edelweibspitze to the main route on the Fuscher Torl. Motorbike country Carinthia. The slogan can not only be found on maps and brochures in an effective advertising manner, it is evidently lived out in tourism in the tourism industry. Charly, Guzzi California III traveling landlord of the Panoramahotel Hauserhof above Hermagor on the Pressegger See, offers himself as a tour guide for a 300-kilometer day trip. So always following the roar of the Guzzi through the narrow Liesertal, to Gmund and then on the Malta-Hochalm-Strabe to the Kolnbreinsperre, a 1900 meter high reservoir in a class of its own.
Even the journey is tough: from the flanks of steep three-thousand-meter peaks, water gushes into the depths, the road tunnels bravely through dark, damp rock, gaining a height of a thousand meters in sharp bends. In the parking lot of the Kolnbreinsperre the thermometer shows only 12 degrees, the imposing water basin with its mighty, 200 meter high dam wall is covered in clouds.
Daams
Carinthia: Wonderful curves near clear mountain lakes.
Welcome opportunity to take a break in the mountain restaurant. Instead of gasoline, they talk about water. The technical data of the Malta power plant group is absolutely suitable for originals: Its turbine and pump output is around 1.4 million kilowatts – which corresponds to the potential of almost 16,000 Super Dukes. Together with the electricity from Austria’s other power plants in the mountains and on rivers, water covers half of the domestic energy requirement.
We cover further pass road requirements with the Nockalmstrabe (7 euro toll). A motorcycle heaven, 34 kilometers long, 52 hairpin bends. The landscape is very different from before. Sometimes bare humps, covered with lichen and moss, sometimes larch and stone pine as nowhere else in the Eastern Alps in such abundance. “We can stay here two more days”, the Duke pilot grins.
But we can’t get rid of the water and dedicate ourselves to Carinthia’s lakes, which have bathing temperatures averaging 25 degrees in summer due to intense solar radiation, little wind and consequently less water mixing. In addition, reed belts and plants ensure drinking water quality.
On the way to the south bank of the Pressegger See, a well-preserved BMW R 25/3 team purrs through the fields, at the cute Oswald lido, information on the air temperatures is provided on a blue-framed board: air is pleasant, water is also pleasant. Understatement like Rolls-Royce. A perfect summer break that it would be better not to describe enthusiastically. Via Feistritz an der Gail on to the turquoise Faaker See, which during the European Bike Week at the beginning of September is the scene of the exuberant Harley hype.
Then the Worthersee, the largest lake in Carinthia, which also likes to look chic and luxurious. However, that is of less interest today, and so we are already leaving the Maria Worth “Austrian Riviera”, turn to the Pyramidenkogel and dive into the hilly world of the Karawanken. Here on the Drau is the settlement area of the Carinthian Slovenes, the signs are bilingual, for example: Kindergarten / Otroski vrtec.
Daams
Not only idyllic in the sun: the eastern shore of the Weibensee.
It melts together what doesn’t necessarily belong together. With every stop, no matter how short, the boots stick to the asphalt. But we don’t complain and prefer to perspire through Klagenfurt in order to find an idyllic bathing spot afterwards. It will be the Tigringer See – quite small, but with crystal clear water just right for sweaty asphalt cowboys. That the swim shorts shouldn’t have been packed in the morning, we only buckle blind fish when an Adam and Eve couple yells: “No photos, this is nudism here!”
The next lake, the next surprise. Seductive and not to be overlooked on the map, the Gerlitzen Alpine Road meanders uphill on the north shore of Lake Ossiach. Twelve kilometers with fox and rabbit through the darkening forest. Suddenly an automatic barrier like in a parking garage: seven euros. But there is noble seclusion and sublime views of the lake and the meanwhile deep black Carinthia at 1800 meters. Here the lowlands of everyday life can be forgotten – if it weren’t for the return trip to the waiting host on Lake Pressegger See.
The world will end overnight. Lightning flashes in the sky as bright as day, unbelievable amounts of rain cause mountain slopes to slide down and transform lovely streams into raging waters. 900 firefighters complete 200 missions in Upper Carinthia alone. Hello Charly and Ahoi. Accompanied by Tief Friederike, we leave the dripping field. We come through Seeboden. The special exhibition provided information here last year “H2Over?” on the precious resource water as a global phenomenon. Before the tires leave fountains on our blue planet again, to sum up, not just the question “Why are people drawn to water??”, but also “Why is water drawn to people??”
Info
Drawing: archive
Travel time: 3-4 days – Distance covered: 800 kilometers – Capital: Klagenfurt – Area: 9535.97 km2 – Highest point: 3798 m – Lowest point: 348 m – Population: 559019.
Whether in the many warm bathing lakes with drinking water quality or on the smooth connecting stages over winding alpine roads – in Carinthia no eye stays dry.
Getting there:
The fastest way from Munich is via the A8 to Salzburg and from there on the A10 toll road towards Villach; Depending on the destination and route, you usually have to pass through the Tauern and Katschberg tunnels (also subject to a toll). An alternative for northern lights is the car train (www.autozug.de) to Villach.
Travel time:
The south with its milder temperatures makes a tour through Carinthia enjoyable from the end of April until well into October. However, some passes are still or already closed in spring or autumn. The bathing temperatures of many lakes appear almost unbelievable in summer; in protected locations they can reach up to 28 degrees.
Accommodation:
As a classic holiday destination, Carinthia offers all kinds of accommodation. Regardless of whether you like it simple or comfortable, or prefer to bed your tired head near a mountain peak or a beach – there are suitable accommodations for all tastes. Many of them have also especially adapted to motorcycling guests. The author was well accommodated in the following motorcycle country Carinthia businesses: Kraners Alpenhof, Mosslacher family, Oberdorf 13, A-9762 Weissensee, phone 0043-47132062, fax 0043-471320622, www.hotel-am-weissensee.at, DZ 62- 80 euro. Panoramahotel Hauserhof, the Wassertheurer family, A-9620 Hermagor Kreuth 1, phone 0043-42822286, fax 0043-4282228640, www.panoramahotel.at, double room 90-104 euros.
Motorcycling:
The area between Austria’s highest mountain, the Grobglockner, and the Karawanken mountains further south is of course made for motorcycling. But some of the most attractive routes are toll roads. Bargain hunters can at least comfort themselves with the Tour 4 ticket. It cuts the toll on four of the most spectacular panoramic roads – Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Nockalm Road, Gerlos Alpine Road and Villacher Alpine Road – to 27 euros (with a single solution, 36 euros would be due). The cost-kilometer calculation is even cheaper when buying 30-day tickets, which then offer a month of panoramic fun on the above streets for 75 euros. Just for comparison: At the Nurburgring there are four laps of the Nordschleife for the same price.
Worth seeing:
If you want to see something other than lakes, maybe when it rains, you can quickly visit a museum. The Porsche Automuseum Helmut Pfeifhofer, Riesertratte 4a, A-9853 Gmund, phone 0043-47322471, info@auto-museum.at, www.auto-museum.at could be just the thing. The Karnten Card grants free entry not only to this museum, but also to over a hundred other excursion destinations; for two weeks it costs 36 euros. With the open sesame card you can also drive as often as you like on Nockalm Strasse, Gerlos Alpine Road and Villacher Alpine Road. Interest group Karnten Card companies, Kohldorfer Strabe 98, A-9020 Klagenfuhrt, phone 0043-463908888, office@kaerntencard.at, www.kaerntencard.at.
Literature:
The travel paperback “Carinthia” von DuMont offers all the necessary information as well as background information on culture and history for 12 euros.
Cards:
Falk’s road map is clear and detailed “Carinthia” on a scale of 1: 150000 for 6.50 euros.
Addresses:
The first address for all questions about the region is the Karnten-Information, Casinoplatz 1, A-9220 Velden, phone 0043-427452100, www.kaernten.at. The free brochure is also available here “Grossglockner motorcycle heaven with dream roads in Carinthia”. More can be found at www.motorrad.kaernten.at. Www.wasserreich.at provides information about water, not just Carinthia’s most valuable element.
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