From Hobart, Australia to Lienz, Austria

By Car, By Plane, By Bus and By Train

Somewhat of a slog getting here, but just check this out!

Getting There

It's a bit of journey from home to here. We started with a short drive to the airport via lunch in the Coal River Valley wine region with our friends David and Margot. Three flights later - adding up to 21 hours in the air - plus a bus shuttle in the Hammad Airport of Doha then another bus from Venice's Marco Polo airport to Mestre and we were checked into our hotel by 2:30 in the afternoon. What a relief! It's always good to get all that mechanical moving about done and dusted.

Glad to have all that behind us!

An Interlude in Mestre

Piazza Ferreto

With about 5 hours of train travel and an hour in transit at Villach ahead we thought it best to have a layover when we landed rather than trying to make a train connection directly in Lienz. (Hmmm. Yes, that probably is a bit of an understatement.) As it turned out once we settled into our hotel, wandered out for a cold drink and then an early evening meal we were in bed and dead to the world by 7:30. The Hotel Aaron, recommended by our excellent travel agent Gillian, was a short walk from the stazione but, just as usefully, was wonderfully quiet and we both slept really well. 

With our train not leaving until after 10 we had plenty of time for a morning stroll to find breakfast - especially as we were both wide awake at 5 o'clock.

Di strolling along via Dante

It turned out that we had a very enjoyable wander, discovering some delightful sights quite by accident. We stumbled across the via Dante, which is a street that has had a major section blocked off to motorised transport and now consists of a wide footpath and a super bike path. Many other streets had clearly marked bike paths alongside them ...

... and even a bike icon added to street lights in places ...

The quietude of via Dante must be wonderful for students who go to the scuola elementare and provides for pretty relaxed cycling ...

The most rewarding part of our walk was our discovery of the Piazza Ferreto, which looks like it is the centre of the old city of Mestre. There are lots of great buildings scattered around the piazza including the Duomo di San Lorenzo ...

There was a bookshop with an interesting mix of books in the window ... 

... and nearby we were surprised - but probably shouldn't have been - to come across a canal ...

The best part of our walk though was finding the market ...

Lots of wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables

Whatever this was, it looked delicious 

Squid in abundance

What a great paella I could make with these ingredients!

Loving it in Lienz

Arriving in Lienz, we again had just a short walk to our accommodation. We're staying in the CitySuite Lienz apartments. It's a good thing too, because we had a bit of luggage to move ...

We checked in at four o'clock, got the bikes assembled and thought that was enough for the day - except of course for getting something to eat. Luckily there was a pizza and pasta joint just a few steps from our accommodation. A meal, a bit of crossword puzzling (me) and some reading (Di) and we were ready for sleep by 8:30. Not bad: an hour later than the previous day in Mestre. We must be acclimatising.

With the bikes put together we were keen to go for a ride this morning. The weather looked promising ...

The view from our apartment at 5:30 this morning

We're keeping it moderate for the next few days before we set off, hopefully for a traverse of the famous Grossglockner Road. Di liked the look of a ride to Mastrei I mapped out before we left home.  Here's an image showing our starting point in Lienz and the turnaround at Mastrei ...

I happened to notice as we went into Matrei and then back out again that there was a sign next to a cable car advertising the Grossglockner resort, so I guess it must have got up to the top, or at least nearby. If you look at the image closely (click on it and you can see it full size) you will see the Grossglockner to the east. The Grossglockner Road goes up through another valley system to the east of the ride Di and I did today.

It was fabulous riding, almost entirely on bike paths and secondary roads with virtually no motorised traffic. But there was plenty of human-powered activity happening. People on all sorts of bikes, people roller blading, lots of walkers - many of them using poles. There was even a guy doing the dry land cross-country skiing think.

Here are some images from along the route, mostly taken by Di ...

A very good bridge for human-powered traffic

Some sort of dam on a side stream, perhaps for hydro-electric power generation?

A ruined castle alongside the route

Significant barn: the farmer must be very successful!

An icon along the way

Teepees at a campground

The valley in front of us

We had to do some shopping when we got home, so here are a few images from around the town ...

Bread and pretzels: lots of variety in shapes and sizes

It looks like Lienz rocks to an old-time beat

Downtown in the historic quarter

Finally, an panorama from our balcony ...

Bright afternoon sunshine after it looked like a thunderstorm

It looks like being another good day tomorrow so we will try to get in another fun ride. After all, we are in the mountains and it could change any time. Right now I need to get some cleaning and lubing done on our drivetrains so I better get to it. I hope you've enjoyed the blog!