Austrian Ironman Cycle practice (European mountains cafe search day 1)

European mountains cafe search (2016)

Day 1

In my continuing quest to become a top cafe cycle ride reviewer I felt it was again time to head off to Europe to test out some more cafes in Slovenia, Austria and Italy. It would also be a chance to up my cycling training ready for next months Ironman Austria triathlon (which I may have mentioned). To help on both fronts I had packed Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) in my suitcase and now unpacked, we were ready to go on today's trip

For this ride I would be getting a metaphorical stone and aiming to throw it in such a way that two birds would end up dead. If you have ever tried to do this you will find it is very difficult as you have to hit the first bird and then get the stone to bounce off with enough force and at the right angle to take a second bird out. So for a saying about making things easy for yourself it's not a very good one as I proved today.

In my scenario the first bird is a lap of the Iornman Austria cycle route and the second bird is to track down some cafes to review. I think that makes my bike the stone although no one was actually killed on the ride.

As it was 40 miles to the start from our Slovenian base, I decided to put our bikes and cycling guest Andrew (who is notoriously hard to please) in the back of the hire car and drive to the start in Klagenfurt, Austria. From here we set out on the route which is clearly marked with Ironman signs for people wanting to have a practice the ride or pretend they are an Ironman.

Iornman sign

The route goes along by the lake for about 20 miles until coming to the first of two climbs. This one being only 1100m and max of 12%. From here you do a figure of 8 so when I spotted a cafe/cake shop on the way out we decided to stop at it on our return after about 30 miles.

A very pink cafe stop

As a Cafe/cake shop there was obviously a good cake selection but as most cafes in Europe don't sell cake, like back in the UK, the official EU cafe rating system only scores atmosphere and ambience (AAA), food and drink. This cafe scored well in all three categories but not good enough to depose my number 1 rated European cafe which I plan to revisit tomorrow.

Cakes, in the form of pastries, and drinks

Eagle eyed readers may have spotted a problem. Yes they had only gone and served my fresh fruit Danish pastry on its serviette. I believe I have nearly eradicated this practice in East Anglia if not the whole of Great Britain but have much work to do in Austria. I have therefore launched my campaign "die serviettn ghert oba ned unta den kuchn" ... the napkin does not belong under the cake! (Thanks Edith for translation) to hopefully have the same impact here and stamp it out.

die serviettn ghert oba ned unta den kuchn

After our break we set off again until we reached the second climb. This one was a bit longer meaning I had time to read a short novel as I waited for Andrew (who is not training for an ironman triathlon and kept reminding me) at the top.

View from top of longer climb which I would have had time to paint while I waited for Andrew

From here the last 15 miles are all down hill back to Klagenfurt when, if you were doing it for real, you would set off on a second lap, but we agreed that was unnecessary today and the first bird was dead..

Although it was now gone 2pm I was disappointed that only 1 cafe had been reviewed so I suggested we do a 'quick' 36 mile route I had downloaded from the Internet which started a few miles away. Andrew foolishly agreed and with only the name of the town where it started from we set off with the bikes in the car. I spotted a good parking space and I used a special feature on my cycling GPS to take us to the start of the route. Unfortunately my parking space was not that good as it turned out to be 2 miles from the start turning this into a 40 mile ride. When I admitted this to Andrew he was not best pleased and threw a bit of a wobbly.

Andrew was not pleased when I told him of the extra miles added to the ride

By now we were both desperate for some food so stopped at the first place we saw which was on the main road and next to a garage so not really the type of Alpine charm I was after.

Roadside style cafe

However the food hit the spot and although not a recommended cafe it did mean we were ready to tackle the ride.

Energy food for the ride

This ride was more like it featuring a couple of long climbs each 2-3 miles in length going up through the woods and offering stunning views.

A stunning view

The only problem with longer climbs is longer waits at the top and by now it was getting rather cold and I had finished my book. However when Andrew did catch up we were pleased to find the last few miles down hill although I found that Norfolk and Austria do have something in common, it may not be the landscape but what ever direction you go in it is always into the wind.

We eventually got back to the car with the light starting to fade and after a very long day returned to our base in Slovenia. In dead bird terms we had hit the first by doing the ironman course but the second was only stunned at best as our café search had not really been terribly successful. I aim to focus on that side of things tomorrow.

Iornman route


Other route