Trail of the unexpected: Lake Worthersee: A Carinthian encounter with Mahler, GEM?Tlichkeit and, er, Ticks

If you are ever invited to watch an episode of Ein Schloss am Wörthersee, one of the most popular German soap operas ever, politely decline. Soulless, unengaging, uninspiring – it's everything the lake called Wörthersee is not. And from next Thursday, you can fly to the real thing from Stansted.

On a cloudless spring morning and a whim, I jumped on a friend's bicycle with the sole intention of circumnavigating the 10-mile-long and one-mile-wide "Austrian Riviera" in the southern province of Carinthia.

Ten minutes after leaving the Klagenfurt Strandbad lido – a glorious throwback to the days of beach huts, deckchairs, long wooden piers and naturism – I arrived at Maiernigg, a beautiful resort where Gustav Mahler had a summer residence.

Mahler's lakeside villa is privately owned, but walk through dense woods for 15 minutes and you'll (hopefully) find his "composing cabin" (00 43 463 537 587; open daily 10am-4pm, May-Oct). Other composers attracted by the lake's calming and inspirational qualities include Johannes Brahms and Alban Berg.

Inspired, I headed west, aiming for the end of the lake, but got only a mile before gatecrashing a village barbecue. Within seconds, the patriarchal chef hailed me over and produced a family-sized portion of sausages, sauerkraut and beer. It was 10.30am. We began chatting about the importance of community and Gemütlichkeit – that indefinable state of social pleasure bordering on nirvana – but although I can speak competent German, I was struggling with his industrial Kärntnerisch (the dialect of the Carinthian region of Austria).

This became most apparent when I asked about recommended walks and he promptly gestured as if injecting himself in the arm. No, no, I said, confused and concerned, a coffee would be fine, before a third party, even more confused, explained that he was asking whether I'd had a tick jab. Ah. Tick-borne encephalitis is a risk in the lowland forests of south-east Austria, and although not all ticks carry the virus, the vaccination is recommended if you're planning an extended stay involving outdoor activities. Fortunately, I'd had one.

I thanked my hosts for their considerable generosity and left again for Maria Wörth. An hour later, the acute indigestion was worth it. The Marienkirche, a medieval church built on a promontory, is apparently the most photographed attraction in Austria and is postcard-pretty without being twee (unlike Neuschwanstein and the other Bavarian fairy-tale castles).

I was now a quarter of the way round the lake. The snow-capped mountain scenery took my breath away; sadly so did the bicycling, so I jumped on the more-or-less-hourly ferry (www.stw.at/Schiffahrt.htm), which whisked me across the bizarrely turquoise (and allegedly drinkable) water to Pörtschach, the lake's most exclusive resort.

Preferring a couple of deceptively strong Pils along the flowery promenade to the lake water, I found the six-mile ride back to Klagenfurt slightly longer than I had expected, but I eventually made it back and, slumped on the bench at the end of the main Klagenfurt pier, I looked back at the bustling lido.

Suddenly Mahler was with me again: all I could hear was the adagietto from his Symphony No 5, used so strikingly in Visconti's Death in Venice; but instead of Dirk Bogarde, mascara and decay, there was just me, suncream and Gemütlichkeit.

Ryanair (www.ryanair.com; 0871 246 0000) flights to Klagenfurt will begin on 27 June 2002