Styrian Wine Country Cycling Tour - Variant Lipizzanerheimat

From Stainz, this tour takes you to Ligist on the Schilcher Tour Nord, a beautiful circular tour through the north of Schilcherland. Here, you will also find the Schlosshof Ligist with an interesting local history museum and a beautiful arcaded courtyard. We cross Ligist and arrive at Krottendorf-Gaisfeld, where the next few kilometres to Piber is now identical with the Kainachtalradweg R14 and the Lipizzaner Tour. The route takes us past the leisure island of Piberstein with its beautiful bathing lake and the golf course of the GC Erzherzog Johann, to finally enter Maria Lankowitz with its pilgrimage church.

The route continues in the direction of Köflach with the Therme Nova, an ideal place of relaxation for the perhaps somewhat tired cyclists' calves. Then it's on to the Lipizzaner stud farm in Piber, which of course demands a stopover. From Piber, we head east to Bärnbach, where another inviting stop awaits us with the Barbara Church designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. We cycle through the centre of Bärnbach in a large loop and then head south to Voitsberg.

We now follow the Kainachtalradweg R14 to get back to the roundabout at Krottenfeld-Gaisfeld. For the next two kilometres we now cycle the same route as on our outward journey to Köflach/Bärnbach. In Krottendorf, our Kainachtal cycle path R14 branches off to the right and we reach Mosskirchen, where the Hochstrasser distillery awaits us. The rest of the route takes us to Lieboch, where we rejoin the main route of the Styrian Wine Country Cycling Tour.

Besuch des Lipizzanergestüt Piber, wo die älteste Kulturpferderasse Europas – die Lipizzaner – gezüchtet wird, deren Ursprung in die imperiale Zeit, auf das Jahr 1580, zurückgeht. Das Herz der Lipizzanerzucht in Piber sind die Mutterstuten und ihr Nachwuchs. Jährlich werden rund 40 Fohlen geboren – und zwar nicht mit ihrem berühmten weißen Haarkleid, sondern schwarz, grau oder braun. Erst in den nächsten Jahren bekommen sie das typische Weiß, für das die Lipizzaner bekannt sind.

Accessible by train and bus.

Detailed information about arriving by ÖBB (Austrian Federal Railways) can be found at www.oebb.at or on the Verbundlinie Steiermark website www.busbahnbim.at

With Verbundlinie’s BusBahnBim route planner app, planning your journey has never been easier: simply enter towns and/or addresses, stop names or points of interest to check all bus, train and tram connections in Austria. The app is available free of charge for smartphones – on Google Play and in the App Store

Steiermark Tourismus

Tel. +43 316 4003

info@steiermark.com

www.steiermark.com/en

If you would like to hire a  tour operator, simply book with Steiermark Touristik, the official travel agency of Steiermark Tourismus:

Tel. +43 316 4003 450

www.steiermark-touristik.com

The Steiermark Touren app, available free of charge on Google Play and the App Store  (Android, iOS), offers detailed first-hand information: brief facts (length, duration, difficulty, ascent and descent/elevation gain, ratings), map, route descriptions, altimeter, compass, peak finder, navigation along the tour. You can also create your own personal lists of favourite tours and sites, store tours and destinations offline, use social media channels, and much more.

Pocket Card "Radwege in der Steiermark" Tel. +43 316 4003 www.steiermark.com

Folder "Weinland Steiermark Radtour" mit Routenbeschreibung, Übersichts- und Detailkarten sowie Ausflugszieletipps und mehr: Steiermark Tourismus, Tel. +43 316 4003 www.steiermark.com

Weinland Steiermark Radtour 1:50.000, Verlag Esterbauer - bikeline Tel. +43 2983 28982 www.esterbauer.com