Vienna sits on top of an older city, and Vindobona was it. In the first century AD, the Romans built a legionary fortress here, on a bluff above the Danube, to guard the northern frontier of the empire. A civilian settlement, the canabae, grew up beside it, with taverns, workshops and homes for the families of soldiers, and the area to the southwest of the fortress was part of that sprawl. Today the streets of the inner city still follow the lines of the Roman camp, and fragments of walls and baths lie beneath cellars and basements.
The Hoher Markt, a square in the old town, has the exposed foundations of two Roman houses, displayed in a small underground museum. Tradition says that the emperor Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-ruler, died at Vindobona in AD 180 while campaigning on the frontier. The Danube limes, as the line of forts and watchtowers is known, was added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2021, and the Wien sites are part of that long chain. Another small fort at Ybbs, further upriver, belongs to the same ride.
Riding in Vienna is a matter of trams, one-way streets and cobbled lanes, with strict parking rules in the centre. The Ringstrasse, the grand boulevard circling the old town, is a pleasure to ride on a quiet morning, passing the opera house, the parliament and the museums. Outside the city, the Danube valley and the Wachau, a wine and apricot region west of the capital, offer excellent riding. Be careful of tram tracks, which are slippery in rain. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons.
Vienna has plenty of fuel stations, particularly on the outskirts, and the central districts are packed with cafes serving coffee and cake, wine taverns known as Heuriger on the city edges, and traditional restaurants where Wiener Schnitzel is the standard order. Leave the bike at a hotel garage and explore the centre on foot, with a stop in a coffee house to read the paper.