Gesäuse National Park Weekend

A 620 km loop

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Why this ride

Built for flow, views and useful stops rather than navigation busywork. A 620 km loop that starts and ends near Neusiedl am See, about 11 h 29 of riding. On the way it passes Scenic stretch near Gutenstein, near Spitz and near Čejkovice. in Wiesmath is the high point. It tops out at about 800 m. It crosses Austria, Czechia and Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Neusiedl am See fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. High point in Wiesmath pass

   You top out here; the road stops climbing.

3. Scenic stretch near Gutenstein scenic
4. Photo stop near Spitz photo

   Spitz stands at the western end of the Wachau, where the Danube bends and the valley opens out a little. It is a small town in name and in size, about thirteen hundred people, but it carries itself like a place that has always known its worth. Painted houses front the main street, a medieval gate called the Rotes Tor stands at one end, and above the town the ruin of the Hinterhaus castle looks down from a wooded crag.

   Behind the town, a vineyard called the Tausendeimerberg, the thousand-bucket hill, rises in a spectacular set of terraces. It is said to be the largest single vineyard terrace in Austria, and the name refers to the harvest it could produce in a good year, a thousand Eimer, an old measure of wine. Walking among the vines in September, with the grapes heavy and the wasps lazy, is a quiet pleasure. The wines from Spitz have a reputation for crisp, mineral Rieslings, and local cooperatives and family estates are happy to pour a glass.

   A small passenger ferry crosses the river here, linking Spitz with the village of Arnsdorf on the south bank, and it is a delightful way to see the Danube at water level. The river is wide, slow and brown, and the barges and cruise ships pass at a stately pace. On the south side, the road runs through orchards and small villages, so a loop crossing the river by ferry and returning over a bridge makes a good short ride.

   The riding on the B3 is calm and agreeable. It is a road to be enjoyed at an unhurried pace, with slow, wide bends and views of terraced slopes above the river, and in spring the apricot blossom adds a touch of pink. Weekend traffic is heavy, with convoys of cyclists and tour coaches, so a weekday is better, and a morning start gives you cool air and good light.

   For fuel, Spitz may have limited options, so Krems, about fourteen kilometres away, is the more certain stop. In the town, a small bakery or cafe will serve you a Marillenkuchen, apricot cake, made with the local fruit, which is exactly what a rider needs before the long run back down the river.

5. Food stop near Čejkovice food

   Food at 354 km, roughly 7 hours into the riding.

6. Skalica, on the way back swim

   The border here is the Morava river, which runs through flat meadows and woods, and it forms part of the frontier of the Záhorie, a region of sandy plains and pine forests between the Small Carpathians and Moravia. Until 1993 this was not an international border at all, since Czechs and Slovaks lived in a single state, and the crossing is now invisible, a bridge and a sign.

   The town is known for a sweet, a spiral pastry called trdelník, baked over an open fire and rolled in sugar and walnuts, which has become famous across central Europe as a tourist treat. The version made in Skalica has protected status in the European Union, and bakeries around the main square sell it hot. The square itself is pleasant, with a Baroque church, a plague column and a Romanesque rotunda dedicated to Saint George, one of the oldest buildings in the region.

   The land around is wine country too, and Skalica has its own small vineyard area, though it is better known for its Moravian neighbours across the river. The Baťa Canal, a navigable waterway built in the twentieth century by the Czech shoe magnate, runs close by on the other side, and boats and cyclists use it. For a swim, small lakes and gravel pits around the town offer bathing in summer, and the water is mild.

   Riding here is easy, with flat roads through farmland and forest, mostly in good condition. Slovakia uses the euro, and fuel is generally priced a little lower than in Austria. Motorways require an electronic vignette, so buy one online before using them. The towns are well supplied with stations and shops, and Skalica has several. The nearest big city is Bratislava, about eighty kilometres south. Late summer is the best season, when the vineyards are heavy with grapes and the evenings are warm.

7. Near Perchtoldsdorf finish

   Perchtoldsdorf lies on the very edge of Vienna, where the city's southern suburbs meet the first hills of the Vienna Woods, and it has the relaxed atmosphere of a wine village rather than a suburb. The hills behind the town are covered in vineyards, and the old streets are lined with Heurigen, the traditional wine taverns where producers serve their own new wine with simple cold food. When a Heuriger is open, it hangs a bunch of pine branches over the door, a sign that has been used for centuries.

   The town's history has a darker side. Its massive defensive tower, the Wehrturm, rising next to the parish church, was built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to protect against Ottoman raids. In 1683, during the second Ottoman siege of Vienna, the people of Perchtoldsdorf were massacred after surrendering to Ottoman troops, an event still remembered in the town. In more peaceful times, the composer Hugo Wolf lived and worked here, and his house is now a small memorial.

   As a starting point for rides south and east, Perchtoldsdorf is excellent. It sits right at the start of the Thermenlinie, the line of wine villages and spa towns that runs south along the edge of the Vienna Woods towards Baden, and the roads through the vineyards and into the woods are pleasant, with gentle curves and views over the Vienna basin. Further afield, the rides head east to the Neusiedler See, a vast, shallow steppe lake on the Hungarian border, or west to the lakes and mountains of the Salzkammergut.

   There is fuel and food in Perchtoldsdorf and the neighbouring towns, and the coffee houses in the centre are a civilised place to start the day. Traffic in the Vienna area can be heavy, especially on weekday mornings, so it pays to leave early. At the end of a long ride, sitting in a Heuriger garden with a glass of local white wine, under the chestnut trees, watching the sun set over the vineyards, is a very Viennese way to finish.

8. Back to Gesäuse finish

   This one is on the western shore of the Neusiedler See, the great steppe lake on the Austrian-Hungarian border, which is about as far in character from the Gesäuse's limestone walls as you can get without leaving Austria. Where the Gesäuse is vertical, the Neusiedler See is horizontal: a shallow lake, rarely more than a couple of metres deep, fringed by one of the largest reed beds in Europe, with the Hungarian plain vanishing into haze on the far side.

   The villages along the western shore, Breitenbrunn, Purbach and Winden, are wine villages in the shelter of the Leithagebirge hills. Blaufränkisch and sweet dessert wines are the speciality, and the local growers have been working this sunny slope since Roman times. Purbach in particular has a charming street of low whitewashed houses and cellar lanes, the Kellergassen, where the wine was traditionally stored away from the village houses to reduce fire risk. Many are open for tasting in season, with a bench, a plate and a view of the vines.

   Riding here is a different pleasure. The roads are flat, quiet and wide-open, with little traffic outside summer weekends, and the lake often produces strong wind: this is a famous windsurfing and kitesurfing water for a reason. A crosswind on an exposed section can push a lightly loaded bike around, so keep your grip relaxed. The lake itself is a UNESCO cultural landscape, shared with Hungary, and a national park protects the saline pans and shallow ponds of the Seewinkel to the east. In spring and autumn the sky fills with geese, cranes and waders on migration, and the reed edges hold herons and, if you are patient, the bearded tit.

   For fuel and larger shops, Neusiedl am See at the north end is the sensible option, about seven kilometres away and with over eight thousand people. The smaller villages have bakeries and cafés but fewer petrol pumps.

   If the weather is warm, plan for a late afternoon stop. The light off the water and reeds goes copper in the last hour before sunset, and the Heurigen come alive. A beer, a plate of bread and smoked pork, and the long straight road home make for an easy end to a hard day in the mountains.

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