Pleasure tour by motorcycle

There’s plenty to experience on this motorcycle tour. Along the 180-km route, you’ll pass by many interesting places. The oldest Protestant house of worship in Arriach is particularly worth seeing, as is the monastery complex in the village of Ossiach. The highlight of this tour is probably the marble quarry located in Krastal. Along this valley route, you can admire beautiful marble sculptures.

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Hopefully, we stopped often enough to take our time admiring all the beautiful sights and taking in the scenery. Then even this short stretch, with all its sights and sounds, turned into a great day trip.

We drive from Tröpolach to Hermagor and continue toward Villach until we reach the town of St. Stefan. Here, we turn left toward Windische Höhe (1,110 m above sea level). We follow the winding road through Windische Höhe and Kreuzen for about 15 km until we reach the town of Feistritz in the Drau Valley. In the village, at the first cross street, we turn left, continue for about 200 m, and then turn right.

After the Drau Bridge, we turn left and, after passing the train station (on the left), take a slight right turn uphill. We drive up the hill, through the village of Laas (sharp right-hand curve), and soon after that we come to a fork in the road, where we turn left toward Döbriach on Lake Millstatt. After the village of Glanz, the road descends in sweeping curves toward Lake Millstatt. We drive straight through the village of Döbriach, heading toward Radenthein. We continue to the right along the federal highway. After a few kilometers, we reach Radenthein. This town has become wealthy and famous thanks to magnesite processing. It is home to the main plant of Radex, a company that operates worldwide.

At the eastern end of town, we cross the roundabout and ride through the Gegendtal valley toward Villach. We pass Lake Brenn and Lake Afritz on our way to Afritz. Shortly after Afritz, we turn left across the stream toward Arriach. Arriach is home to the oldest Protestant house of worship in Carinthia. In this secluded landscape, Protestants were able to hold their ground very well during the Counter-Reformation.

We drive through Arriach, Innerteuchen, and Ausserteuchen to Himmelberg through a rustic valley with very little traffic. This route is about 24 km long. Once we arrive in Himmelberg, we turn right toward Feldkirchen. After about 7 km on an interesting road, we reach the town of Feldkirchen via Waiern. At the first traffic light, we turn right, and immediately after the next traffic light, we turn left toward the southern shore of Lake Ossiach. Here, we’re back on a quiet side road. The town of Ossiach, with its monastery complex, is a great place to stop and explore. We continue along the shore to Gratschach.

Now we turn right to the north to get back to the main road. Here we turn left towards Villach. At the traffic circle, turn right into the Gegendtal valley towards Treffen. About one kilometer after the village of Treffen, we turn left into the Krastal. This romantic connecting valley with its well-maintained road and many bends simply has to be ridden. In the very first section of the valley, you can see the marble quarry on the right and sculptures made of this marble all along the route.

After about 7 km, we reach the town of Puch in the Drau Valley. At the first cross street in town, we turn left and continue until we reach a railroad crossing with barriers. Here, we turn right, cross the railroad crossing and the subsequent Drau Bridge, and continue on to the B100 highway. We then go through the underpass and, immediately afterward, turn left onto the B100 highway toward Villach. We cross the roundabout for the highway on-ramp, and after about one kilometer, we take the first right turn toward Villach.

Shortly afterwards we come to another traffic circle, where we keep right in the direction of Villach. At the second set of traffic lights, we turn right towards Bad Bleiberg. Here we cycle uphill via Fellach, Mittewald and Heiligengeist to Bad Bleiberg. We are now north of the Villach Alps, the Dobratsch. Lead and other metals were mined in the Bleiberg valley until a few years ago. Huge heaps still bear witness to this activity. Today, some of the tunnels are used for tourism and the thermal water is also used for medicinal purposes.

After Bad Bleiberg we descend again in the direction of Nötsch into the Gailtal valley. Before we reach the village of Nötsch, we turn left in Labientschach and cycle via St. Georgen, Kerschdorf, Tratten to the road that leads to the Windische Höhe and turn left here to soon reach the Gailtal main road (B111) at St. Stefan. Our excursion has now come full circle. Now we turn right onto the main road and cycle back past Lake Presseggersee via Hermagor to Tröpolach.