Cycling-wise not a very special ride on the Saturday we would call Easter Eve, but when the Austrians celebrate with an Osterjause (heavily pork-based cold platter) in the afternoon. Just the road up to the inlaws’. The two ladies in my life had headed up in the car and were helping get things ready, and I pootled up on my bike a little later.

Crossing the Mur from east to west at the southern end of Gratkorn is handy because the way out of Graz is much more direct on the east side but from there on, the route is more scenic on the west bank. If I have time and I’m in the mood for riding, I take this route.

The route goes around the rear of the paper mill in Gratkorn, then through the fields to Stübing, then through Deutschfeistritz, then past the hydro power station, around the Kugelstein, past the Murhof golf club, and then it comes to the weir in Adriach. This diverts a pretty large proportion of the water in the Mur into a long straight canal, which continues through the Kugelstein and feeds the power station; this setup was originally built in 1908.

The special thing about this ride was that I was out in this spring landscape with everything blooming like crazy and liking it for more or less the first time for as long as I could remember – thanks to allergen immunotherapy of my hay fever.

So, in the end I arrived just in time to make my contribution to the Easter feast: a large bowl of coleslaw with freshly-made mayonnaise, to lighten up the pile of meat.

A Styrian farmhouse with a red tiled roof, among brifght green blooming trees, in the background forest slopes streak with green of new growth, and dramatic but not threatening clouds
The Heumannhof; building dates from the 16th century. Nice Sgraffito design on the big house.
A road with strips of shadow and light from trees
The road by the Heumannhof
Road almost overarched by trees, sunlit grass and ploughed field beyond
A little bit further
A blooming apple tree in a steep meadow dotted with flowers
A tree blooming
A rustic fencepost; behind it a green meadow, then trees in different sdes of spring green, then a hill with dark green forest; then blue-grey hills, above, dramatic clouds but with a warm glow over the horizon
Sky over Frohnleiten
Landscape with some houses and trees, mountains behind, dramatic sky
Mur valley at Frohnleiten with Burg Rabenstein on the left
Towering backlit grey clouds over a castle on a steep rock, seen from below
Burg Rabenstein from below

On Easter Sunday we went for a walk up a hill on the west side of the valley, and coming down we had this excellent view of the Pfannberg on the other side. That’s the hill I come down at the end of my hilly Trösch route – The descent goes from the red V on the right to the one on the left.

A wide green valley with hills behiund and a town. Two red V's mark positions on the hill at the back.