Danube Cycle Tour, south shore: Passau-Vienna

Description:
Cycling along the southern bank of the Danube, is a pleasure for the whole family. Together with the river, the route leasds always slight downhill from Passau via Vienna to the border close to Hainburg. A tour with an unforgettable experience.

Directions:
The different scenic attractions, historical sites, quaint and historic towns and villages are the incomparable mixture that particularly makes the Danube Bike Tour what it is. In Passau, the Danube reaches - and with it, of course, the cycle path - Austria. Here the Danube valley is surrounded by wooded hills. Engelhartzell with the only Trappist monastery in Austria and the Schlögener Schlinge – along which the Danube changes twice its direction - are the first highlights of the tour.

 

East of Aschach the valley changes its character, the banks become flat. The wheels

roll on the characteristic towpaths that were once used to draw ships with horses upstream. Passing the Wilhering you go into the upper - Austria's capital Linz (Capital of Culture 2009), which invites you with its exciting blend of tradition and modernity to a journey of discovery.

Enns, the oldest city in Austria, and the High Baroque monastery of St. Florian invite you to a rewarding detour before cyclists maneuver into the fertile plain of the Machland. Shortly before Grein, the Danube valley becomes narrow again, while the banks rise steeply. The Strudengau with its current and vortexes was once feared by sailors.

 

The trade and the services of the loadsmen made Grein into the picturesque "golden town" of today. In Ybbs / Donau the Nibelungengau and with it the Lower Austrian part of the Danube Bike Tour begins. Shortly after Ybbs, the pilgrimage church of Maria Taferl greets from a hill. Very soon now the majestic Melk Abbey and marks the gateway to the Wachau, look down from a hill along the Danube. The gentle vineyard terraces, idyllic places with big names such as Spitz and Dürnstein dominating the river  banks 40 km downstream to Krems is known as the Wachau World Heritage Site and is an internationally renowned wine region.

 

 

Between the Roman city wall and Trai Klosterneuburg - also blessed with a beautiful pen – cyclists cross the Tulln Danube region. In the Wagram region near Krems excellent white wines thrive on fertile plains. And in Tulln itself, the Danube stage itself is home to culture itself - from folk music to cabaret to opera. Along the following route to the federal capital Vienna, the Danube Bike Tour passes through the Auland-Carnuntum. Here appear the cyclists in the world of the Baroque Age at the magnificent castles like Schloss Hof March Field and experience the time of the ancient Romans in the Archaeological Park Carnuntum. After the Roman city of Carnuntum is also a small, dynamic wine region south of the Danube. One of the last undeveloped, large floodplains of Europe extends here to the eastern border of Austria. It is protected by the National Park Donau-Auen.

Additional information:
DONAU OBERÖSTERREICH

4040 Linz, Lindengasse 9

Tel.: +43(0)732/7277-888

Fax: +43(0)732/7277-804

E-Mail: info@donauregion.at

http://www.donauregion.at 

 

DONAU NIEDERÖSTERREICH
3620 Spitz/Donau, Schlossgasse 3
Tel.: +43(0)2713/300 60-60
Fax: +43(0)2713/300 60-30
E-Mail: urlaub@donau.com 
http://www.donau.com