Mariazell Alpine Loop
A 240 km loop
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Why this ride
A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. 240 km round from Vienna - plan on about 4 h 22 of riding. The highest point is about 1,050 m.
Roadbook
- Vienna
start
Vienna rewards the rider who parks the bike and walks. The Innere Stadt, the old centre, sits inside the line of the Ringstrasse, the great boulevard laid out in the nineteenth century where the medieval walls once stood, and it is lined with the opera house, the parliament, the university and a procession of grand museums. At the heart is Stephansdom, the cathedral with a roof of coloured tiles and a tall south tower that has been a landmark for centuries. The Hofburg, once the imperial palace, takes up a sizable chunk of the neighbourhood.
The city's culture is a culture of tables. Coffeehouses, with marble tabletops, newspapers on wooden holders and waiters in black, are recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible heritage, and a single coffee can buy you an afternoon. Wiener schnitzel, thin and crisp and served with potato salad, is the standard meal, and Sachertorte, a dense chocolate cake with apricot jam, is the standard sweet, though locals disagree about where to eat the best one. The Naschmarkt has stalls of olives, spices and fresh produce, and the Prater, with its giant Ferris wheel from 1897, is a cheerful reminder that Vienna once led the world in amusements.
Riding out of Vienna is easier than riding in. The Höhenstrasse climbs through the Vienna Woods to the viewpoint at Kahlenberg, a good road for an evening run with views over the Danube and the city. East of town, the land flattens and opens into the Pannonian plain, where roads run straight through vineyards and fields, and where the shallow, reed-fringed Neusiedlersee waits in the heat, a steppe lake that feels like an entirely different country. Trams, taxis and cyclists make the centre a place for patience, and parking rules are strict, so ask at your hotel.
Fuel is easy at stations around the ring roads and on the main exits, though there are few in the centre. Summer can be hot and humid, winter is cold and grey, and the best months are May, June and September, when the evening light lingers. Be gentle with the cobbles, and mind the tram tracks in wet weather, because they are slick and can catch a wheel.
- Mariazell
food
According to legend, in 1157 a Benedictine monk named Magnus was travelling through these forests with a small wooden statue of the Virgin when a rock blocked his path; he prayed, the rock split, and he settled on the spot, placing the statue on a tree stump and building a cell around it. That cell became Mariazell, Austria's most important place of pilgrimage. The great basilica that now dominates the little town, with its Gothic tower flanked by two Baroque ones, still houses the statue, and every year hundreds of thousands of pilgrims come, many on foot from Vienna.
Pilgrims need sustenance, and Mariazell has a long tradition of making gingerbread and honey-based liqueurs, sold in shops around the basilica square. A slice of gingerbread with a coffee on the square, under the towers, is a good way to spend half an hour. The narrow-gauge Mariazell Railway, one of the earliest electrified mountain lines in Austria, climbs up from St. Pölten through tunnels and over viaducts, and if you see one of its trains on the way in, you will understand why rail enthusiasts love it.
The roads to Mariazell are what bring riders here. From the north, the route over the Annaberg and the Josefsberg winds through dense forests and over modest passes, with tight bends and long views of the Ötscher massif. To the south, the Seeberg Saddle leads into Styria, with another series of curves through forests and meadows. The roads are generally well surfaced, but there can be gravel, wet patches and cattle grids, and on summer weekends they are popular with motorcyclists, so expect company and occasional speed checks.
Mariazell is small, with around 1,200 inhabitants, but it has restaurants, cafés and hotels catering to pilgrims and tourists. For fuel, it is worth planning ahead, as the surrounding area is sparsely populated and the larger towns lie a good distance away. Nearby, the Erlaufsee is a lovely mountain lake for a short break or, in summer, a cold swim. The weather in the mountains can change quickly, with afternoon thunderstorms common in summer, so keep an eye on the sky.
- Vienna finish