The Nibelungenlied, the great medieval German epic, sends Kriemhild down the Danube to marry Etzel, king of the Huns, and has her meet him at Tulln, which says something about the town's importance on the river for centuries. Long before that, the Romans built a cavalry fort here called Comagena, and its walls still lurk beneath the town centre. The best survival is the Salzturm, a tower by the river whose lower parts are Roman, among the best preserved Roman structures in Austria. The fort is part of the Danube Limes World Heritage listing.
Tulln's more recent fame comes from art and gardens. The painter Egon Schiele was born here in 1890, in the station building where his father was stationmaster, and the town has a museum dedicated to him in a former prison by the river, as well as a reconstruction of his birth room at the station. Tulln also calls itself a garden town, with a large permanent garden exhibition and flowers everywhere in summer. The Tullnerfeld, the plain around the town, is flat, fertile farmland, with the Wagram, a long terrace of vineyards, rising to the north.
For riders, the Tullnerfeld itself is flat and straightforward, with long straight roads through fields, but it is a convenient base for exploring the Danube valley. West, the Wachau with its vineyards and castles is less than an hour away; south, the Vienna Woods offer winding roads through forests and over hills; and north, across the river, the Wagram and the Weinviertel have quiet roads through vineyards and villages. Traffic is heavier near Vienna, but the side roads are quiet.
As a town of over ten thousand people, Tulln deals easily with fuel, food and a bed for the night, and its riverside promenade is made for an evening stroll with an ice cream. The Schiele museum in the old prison building is small but moving, and if you have time, the garden show grounds are a colourful contrast to a day on the road. The Wagram vineyards to the north produce excellent Grüner Veltliner and the rare red Roter Veltliner, so pick up a bottle for later rather than tasting before you ride.