CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Graz it runs 357 km to Graz; allow about 4 h 40 of riding. It goes by way of Semmering Railway, Baden bei Wien and back through Semmering Railway. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Graz has a hill in the middle of it, which tells you something about the town. The Schlossberg rises steeply out of the old centre, topped by a clock tower whose big hour hand and small minute hand were swapped, by tradition, so that the time could be read from far away. The fortress that once crowned the hill was dismantled by Napoleon's armies, but the tower was bought back by the citizens, and that act of stubbornness is part of the town's character.
Read the complete City of Graz - Historic Centre - write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
City of Graz - Historic Centre - is where the day begins. Next is Semmering Railway.
Carl von Ghega's railway over the Semmering was a bold idea in the 1840s, when many engineers doubted that a conventional locomotive could haul a train over a mountain pass. Built between 1848 and 1854, the line climbs from Gloggnitz to the Semmering summit through fourteen tunnels and across sixteen viaducts, some with two tiers of stone arches, curving around the flanks of the mountains on ledges cut into the rock. It became the first mountain railway inscribed on the UNESCO list, in 1998, and it still carries trains between Vienna and the south, with the new Semmering Base Tunnel under construction beneath it to take over the heavy traffic.
Read the complete Semmering Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Semmering Railway comes up about 109 km into the recorded legs. Next is Baden bei Wien.
The Romans already knew about the hot sulphur springs at Baden, just south of Vienna, but it was in the early nineteenth century that the town became the summer playground of the Habsburg court. Emperor Franz I spent his summers here, and the aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie followed, building elegant villas, parks and bathhouses in the Biedermeier style. Beethoven came to take the waters too, staying many times and working on his Ninth Symphony in a house that is now a museum. In 2021, Baden was listed by UNESCO as one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe, alongside Bath, Baden-Baden, Karlovy Vary and others.
Read the complete Baden bei Wien write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 178 km into the recorded legs you reach Baden bei Wien. Next is back through Semmering Railway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Semmering Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Semmering Railway, late in the day. Next is City of Graz - Historic Centre -.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete City of Graz - Historic Centre - write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at City of Graz - Historic Centre -. That is the ride.
City of Graz - Historic Centre - → Semmering Railway is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Semmering Railway → Baden bei Wien is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Baden bei Wien → back through Semmering Railway is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Semmering Railway → City of Graz - Historic Centre - is 110 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.