In the morning our legs and body hurt after this challenging stage the day before. We needed time to regain energy so we had our breakfast at 9. After this we got the bikes ready. We also had a friendly chat with our host who was born in Poland. So of course we talked about our beautiful stages in Poland and he also had visited the countries we want to visit next on our tour. Also we could use our very little Polish knowledge and said “do widzenia” as goodbye.

Leaving in the direction of Fürstenfeld

Good for our tired bodies was, that we started with a long downhill segment. We had wonderful views of the surrounding mountain ranges. For some time we had to cycle on main roads but soon we changed to minor roads. Sometimes we had 15% and more incline, so it was hard work for our brakes and you could hear it. After around 10 km we came to Pinggau and an unexpected climbing segment suprised us. But we beat the steep ramps and after this our road was a bit easier to cycle.

After some more kilometers on minor roads we turned on a major road. For the next few hours we turned from this road on minor roads again and back again. The area altered between farmland and forest. It was getting very hilly again so there were short segments we had to climb. Also the sun started shining stronger and stronger.

When we came to a bench at a forest we made a rest. We checked our options for the next days. There should be rain and bad weather for the next two days, so we decided to book an apartment for three nights. Also we were getting closer to the Slovenian border and we needed a Covid Test to get into the country. So we decided to cycle to Früstenfeld on that day because it was easy to get a test there and we properly will cycle from there to Slovenia in one stage.

Delicious lunch in Hartberg

When we continued our tour we passed some small villages and when we came to Hartberg we used the chance to have our lunch at a restaurant. The staff was friendly and interested in our bikes and the tour we made, so we even got a delicious free dessert which should give us the power for the next kilometers. And we needed this, because there were a lot of ups and downs in that area. Due to the steep ramps we did not make fast progress. Of course, we still had stunning views of the mountains but it was also hard work.

“i will hoam nach” Fürstenfeld

When we came to Burgau around 20 km before our goal we made our last break in front of a church in a shadow place. It was again a challenging part Some minutes later we stopped at a giant quiz wheel at the “Thermenpark Bad Blumau”. But the questions were to hard for us and we got zero points😭. After this we passed another few smaller villages (Alex found “Kleinsteinbach” and had some home feelings), had to do some last hard climbs in a forest on gravel, and came finally to our goal Fürstenfeld (having the famous austrian song in our minds). Check-in was fast and easy and we had everything we needed. After a shower and some dinner we watched a few shows on our notebook and fell asleep early.

Route

The total distance can be viewed on the “Sabbatical 2021 – Europe” page.

Download file: Sabbatical2021_038_Monichkirchen_to_Furstenfeld.gpx