Day 6 - Kötschach

Wednesday 28th June 2017

 We enjoy an excellent Austrian breakfast at the hotel Wieser after a good night's kip. The weather is undecided, not raining yet but looks like it may be on the way.

Our route takes us west through the Tyrolean mountains as the day brightens. It is a lovely day for a ride.

wonderful roads in the Italian Tyrol

We are heading for Staller Sattel, a narrow pass back over into Austria that is one-way and controlled by a traffic-lights system. The lights are green for 15 minutes at the top of the hour for travellers heading east into Italy and 15 minutes on the half hour when travelling west over into Austria. it is only open from May to October from dawn to dusk. I heard that a toll is planned for Staller Sattel but if so it isn't in operation just yet.
Traffic lights at the top of Staller Sattel
We hit the 11:30 slot neatly without having to stop and 10 minutes or so later we pull up at the summit on the Austrian side. it is 2,052 metres above sea level. It's time for Mick to add a new sticker to the panniers on the GS.

From the summit we head down the Defereggen valley on fast sweepers until we join the main road down to Lienz.

Going nowhere
It was all going so well. We are soon through Lienz and heading for the Plöckenpass when the traffic comes to a halt. We ride on up the outside until we come to a police bike blocking the road. 

There has been an accident up ahead and no-one is going anywhere for an hour or two. We chat to the bike cop and he not only recognises our boots (Altbergs) but pronounces them "the best English boots" wth a hint of envy. Cool!

 The cop reckons the hold up may be a few hours and suggests we head back into Lienz for an iced coffee. But we can do better than that. There is a very handy layby with a picnic table just in front of the queue. We scoot in and get the brew kit out.
Soon I have my coffee and Mick has his Yorkshire tea fix. We add some leftover 
cheese slices and half a kilo of cherries to the mix and sit down to wait it out.

Gravel escape road

After an hour or so all the waiting bikes are directed over a rail-line and down a gravel track. We follow the cloud of dust kicked up by the leading bikes and after a few miles we rejoin the Plöckenpass road. No sign of the accident that has caused the delay.

Next we ride over a small pass which takes us down into the town of Kötschach-Mautern. Plöckenpass looms up ahead but the clouds are gathering and it's getting very dark. Less than a mile up the pass and the rain starts, light at first but getting heavier. So it's decision time. Our intended stop-over for the night is up high on the next pass. We are going to be very wet by the time we get there, so a quick u-turn and we are flying back down to Kötschach. I'm tapping away at the satnav looking for a hotel. The first on the list is just two miles away and called Pension Edelweiss. That should do it.

There is a an odd paradox we have noticed when we are touring. It occurs with such regularity that Mick and I have a word to describe it; that word is serendipity.

There may be a correlation between how gloomy your outlook is and the quality of the circumstances that serendipity brings. The jury is still out on that one.
What happens here is that as the rain hammers down and our visors start to fog up we turn into a side road and arrive at the Pension Edelweiss. It is neat and tidy and seems to have had a name change. Now it is also the Bierhotel Loncium and incorporates a craft beer brewery along with comfortable rooms and a good restaurant. It's part of the Kärnten Motorbikers' Hotel chain so of course there is a big parking garage for the bikes and very friendly staff. Accomodation at €42 for B&B is not out of order for this quality.
That's serendipity for you. you wander off piste and find the most wonderful things. We have found some of our favourite hotels and roads by this maxim.

Click here for the Loncium website.

We are soon settled in and set about checking out all the different beers on offer. 
Two of the Loncium ales
They brew eleven very different craft ales here, six of them have won World Beer Awards. Not all are available today but I think we sample eight of them. There are wheat and barley based ales, dark beers and a stout, and a Rauchbier (smoke beer) that I have only come across in Czech Republic before. Lovely.
And so with slightly wobbly steps we cross the corridor and into the dining room. It's all a bit hazy now but I think we follow the recommendations of our waitress and eat a meaty stew of some description and neck a few more of the amazing beers.

 And so to bed. The weather may be lousy but we're feeling rather good and sleep the sleep of the righteous. Tomorrow will take care of itself!


The in-house brewery

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