Day 20 - A Loop around Carinthia

Friday 26 July 2019

The Bierhotel Loncium is just great. It is a very friendly family-run enterprise with its own micro brewery. Bikers are actively encouraged with a spacious garage to park the bikes. A haven for bikers and beer lovers from all over the world.

And the pricing is brilliant too. We have a big twin room for two nights B&B for €165 all in. Well excluding the copious amounts of beer we get through of course.

This year a brand new bar has been built opening out onto the garden. Last time the award winning beers were all in bottles. This year there are six or seven brews on tap as well. There are Lagers, IPAs with European and American hops, and a dunkel (dark) beer that is Mick’s favourite. Oh and Weißbier too. All the beers have a healthy alcohol percentage.

The bierhotel Loncium in Mauthen, Carinthia

On-site micro brewery

Bikes cosseted for the night in the spacious bike-only garage

The selection of beers on tap in the new bar is encouraging

Dining in the garden at Bierhotel Loncium
Specially brewed for us Brits here is the 6.2% Brexit IPA
But back to the biking now. We have a short round tour planned for today. First stop is the busy and very touristic Weißensee for coffee and then up and over the Nassfeldpass / Passo di Pramolo with a lunch stop at the cafe in the caldera at the top.

Passo di Pramolo for lunch

Sadly the road surfaces on both sides of the Naßfeld have deteriorated a lot since our last visit. Five years ago I remember tearing up this pass from Pontebba, riding with Mick and Clivio. A rain storm hit us as we neared the top but even that did not reduce my confidence in the excellent asphalt.
Today it is all wrecked and we trundle down carefully to Pontebba.

One of the better stretches of road on the way down to Pontebba

Next we ride up the SS13 from Pontebba to Tarvisio and on up to the Austrian border.
Then the fast 111 road back west to Kötschach-Mauthen and the welcome embrace of the Bierhotel to sample more of their excellent brews.

15 bikes in the garage tonight

Tomorrow we leave Austria and head south into Slovenia. We will be sorry to go , but have no doubt we will we back.
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Comments

  1. Knut Meyn29 July 2019 at 02:42

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  2. Knut Meyn29 July 2019 at 02:44

    Great post! Naßfeld was a bit rough when I went over there last year but I kinda like it rough :) Smooth compared to some of the roads I've done since.

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