The southwestern edge of Roman Enns is the part that faces the way to Linz, and it is a good place to think about what a frontier town was actually like. The civilian settlement around the legionary fortress spread out along roads in every direction, and the western side held a mix of workshops, houses and burial grounds. Roman law kept the dead outside settlements, so the tombs lined the roads leading out, which is where later farmers kept turning up stone coffins and funerary inscriptions with the plough.
Daily life in a place like this was a mixture of the military and the commercial. Soldiers needed boots, belts, pottery, wine and entertainment, and the canabae supplied all of it. Families formed, since legionaries were not allowed to marry officially but often did anyway, and many children grew up in the shadow of the barracks. When the empire collapsed in the west, the settlement shrank but never wholly vanished, and a church dedicated to Saint Laurence continued the Christian tradition. The modern town grew up around the medieval centre rather than the Roman one, which explains why the traces lie in odd corners.
You can ride this edge of town easily. A mixture of quiet roads, main roads and cycle paths lead west toward the Danube and Linz, and the land is largely flat and agricultural. Close to the river, there is a good chance of wind, and in autumn mist lies along the water for hours after dawn. This ride later heads toward the great bend of the Danube at Schlögen, where another Roman fort once watched the river, and the scenery becomes more dramatic with wooded slopes and narrow roads.
Fuel and food are easy in Enns, which has just under ten thousand people. Several petrol stations are on the main roads, and the town centre has bakeries, cafés and inns serving schnitzel, dumplings and Danube fish. The Ennshafen port area nearby is industrial, with silos, cranes and barges, a reminder that the river is still a working one. Spring brings blossom on the orchards, early summer is warm with long evenings, and autumn is the best time for a slow ride with clear light.