Off-Road to the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum
Graz, Austria · Oct 24, 2023
A loop that explores the hills just outside Graz and finishes at one of the more unexpected landmarks in cycling, the house where Arnold Schwarzenegger was born. It strings together a short steep climb at Seiersberg, an off-road circuit of the Buchkogel with taverns and skywalk views, and a gravel-and-forest run to the Thalersee. Nothing here is too hard for a gravel bike, and the payoff is a string of fine lookouts over the city.
This loop heads west out of Graz to explore the wooded hills above the city and ends at a landmark that catches most riders off guard, the Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum in the house where he was born. It opens on a short stretch of the Murradweg R2 and a mix of street and cycle path before the first real test, a short but steep climb at the Gedersberg above Seiersberg. From there a small road through the woods reaches a shady lookout, a good place to settle the legs under the trees. The ride returns to its start, so it works as a tidy half-day out without any train or shuttle to plan.
The middle of the route gets pleasantly off-road as it circles the Buchkogel, with several viewpoints back over Graz. Two taverns sit along this section, Gasthaus St. Johann und Paul and Gasthaus Orthacker, in case you need food or a drink, and above the second one a small chapel comes with a skywalk and another wide view over the city. None of the surfaces here ask for more than a gravel bike can give.
This route is one of Gerald Haueisen's picks from his Graz gravel guide, where he frames it as an unassuming tour that delivers far more views and dirt than the map suggests.
From the Buchkogel the route runs on a mix of gravel and forest road toward the Thalersee, with about a quarter of the day spent off pavement. Riders looking for more climbing can detour up to the Fürstenstand and descend to the lake from above. Only a few metres from the water sits the Schwarzenegger Museum, set inside the modest house where the actor and former governor was born, a quirky high point of the day, before the closing kilometres thread through the outskirts of Graz back to the start.
A gravel bike with easy gearing is the right tool here, since the steep paved pitches early on bite harder than the gentle off-road sections that follow. It rides well from spring to autumn, and the two Buchkogel taverns make handy refuel stops, so there is no need to carry much beyond water. The whole thing starts and finishes in the city, which makes it simple to fit around the rest of a day in Graz.
