CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
283 km from Enns to Enns, about 4 h 31 of riding. It goes by way of Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm, Schlögen - Kastell, Passau Haibach - Burgus and Künzing - Amphitheater und Vicus. It crosses from Austria into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 43 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
There is almost nothing to see at Albing, and that is exactly what makes it a good story. Under these fields near the confluence of the Enns and the Danube lay one of the largest Roman military bases ever built in what is now Austria, a full legionary fortress raised in the later second century, around the time of the Marcomannic Wars, when Rome was fighting hard to hold the Danube against peoples from the north. It was planned on a grand scale and then, it seems, given up very soon after, probably because the site was too exposed to floods. The legion moved a few kilometres south to Lauriacum, the camp at today's Enns.
Read the complete Albing - Legionslager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Albing - Legionslager is where the day begins. Next is Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm.
Just west of Linz, the Danube narrows and the steep, wooded slopes of the Kürnberger Wald rise from its southern bank. In the Roman period this river was the frontier of the empire, and the soldiers who guarded it built a chain of forts and watchtowers along the bank to watch for raiders crossing from the north. The Hirschleitengraben watchtower is one of these, a small Roman tower in a side ravine of the forest, part of the Danube Limes, which UNESCO listed in 2021 as one of the great frontiers of the Roman Empire. Its remains are modest, but the position, looking over the river toward Puchenau and the hills of the Mühlviertel, makes the purpose clear.
Read the complete Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Schlögen - Kastell.
The Danube here performs one of its most famous tricks. Forced by hard granite, the river makes two tight hairpin turns, the Schlögener Schlinge, doubling back on itself in a loop so neat it looks drawn with a compass. From the viewpoint on the wooded slope above, a short walk from the road, you look down on the river curling around a forested spur, and it is one of the classic images of Upper Austria.
Read the complete Schlögen - Kastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Schlögen - Kastell. Next is Passau Haibach - Burgus.
Passau sits where three rivers meet, the Danube, the Inn and the Ilz, and from the high point of the Oberhaus fortress you can see their colours run side by side before mixing: green from the Inn, blue-grey from the Danube, and dark from the Ilz, which flows down from the Bavarian Forest stained by peat. The Romans knew this spot well. They had a fort here called Batavis, named after a unit of Batavian soldiers from the Rhine delta, and another at Boiotro across the Inn, and along the Danube downstream they built small fortified towers called burgi to watch the river and signal to each other. One of these late Roman burgi stood near Haibach, and its remains are part of the Danube Limes, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Passau Haibach - Burgus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Passau Haibach - Burgus, about halfway. Next is Künzing - Amphitheater und Vicus.
Künzing sits on the Danube in Lower Bavaria, in a broad, fertile plain known as the Gäuboden, and in Roman times it was a place with a name, Quintana. The Romans built a fort here in the second century, one of the posts on the river frontier of the province of Raetia, and a civilian settlement, a vicus, grew up beside it, with houses, workshops and even an amphitheatre. The Danube Limes in Germany, Austria and Slovakia was listed by UNESCO in 2021, and Künzing is one of the places where it is easiest to grasp what daily life along the frontier was like.
Read the complete Künzing - Amphitheater und Vicus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Künzing - Amphitheater und Vicus sits at 161 km, about halfway. Next is back through Passau Haibach - Burgus.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Passau Haibach - Burgus write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Passau Haibach - Burgus comes up about 177 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Schlögen - Kastell.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Schlögen - Kastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 214 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Schlögen - Kastell. Next is back through Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm, late in the day. Next is Albing - Legionslager.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Albing - Legionslager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 283 km.
Albing - Legionslager → Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm → Schlögen - Kastell is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Schlögen - Kastell → Passau Haibach - Burgus is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Passau Haibach - Burgus → Künzing - Amphitheater und Vicus is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Künzing - Amphitheater und Vicus → back through Passau Haibach - Burgus is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Passau Haibach - Burgus → back through Schlögen - Kastell is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Schlögen - Kastell → back through Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hirschleitengraben - Wachtturm → Albing - Legionslager is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.