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.
From Mörbisch am See it runs 380 km to Mörbisch am See; allow about 5 h 48 of riding. It goes by way of Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube, Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich, Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich and Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did. Water arrives beside the road and stays for 61 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go.
The Neusiedler See, Fertő in Hungarian, is a strange lake. It is huge, over three hundred square kilometres of water stretching from Austria across the border into Hungary, but almost nowhere is it deeper than a couple of metres, and a vast belt of reeds surrounds much of it, so that from many places you cannot actually see the water. It has no natural outflow, its level depends on rain and evaporation, and in the 1860s it dried out completely for several years, with farmers ploughing the lakebed. The lake and the villages around it were listed by UNESCO in 2001 as a cultural landscape shaped by thousands of years of human life on the border between Alpine and steppe worlds.
Read the complete Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube.
Marcus Aurelius, emperor and philosopher, spent several years at Carnuntum during his wars against the Germanic tribes north of the Danube, and he is thought to have written part of his Meditations here; the third book carries the note that it was written at Carnuntum. In the second century, this was one of the most important places on the Roman frontier: a legionary fortress, an auxiliary fort and a civil town that grew into the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia, with tens of thousands of inhabitants. Today, the archaeological park at Petronell-Carnuntum and Bad Deutsch-Altenburg shows reconstructed houses, a bath and streets built using Roman methods, two amphitheatres, and the Heidentor, a great ruined triumphal arch standing alone in the fields. The Danube Limes became a World Heritage site in 2021.
Read the complete Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube comes up about 56 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich.
Under the Hoher Markt, one of the oldest squares in Vienna, lie the foundations of the Roman legionary fortress of Vindobona. The Tenth Legion was stationed here for centuries, guarding the Danube frontier, and the camp covered much of what is now the inner city. Its outline can still be traced in the pattern of streets: the curve of the Graben follows the line of the fortress moat, and the old Roman road toward the west became today's Herrengasse. A small museum on the Hoher Markt displays the remains of officers' houses, with their heating systems, and finds from the camp.
Read the complete Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 99 km into the recorded legs you reach Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich. Next is Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich.
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.
Read the complete Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich, about halfway. Next is Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn.
Schönbrunn was the summer residence of the Habsburgs, the dynasty that ruled a large part of Europe for centuries. The palace, on the western edge of Vienna, was rebuilt in the Baroque style in the eighteenth century under Empress Maria Theresa, and it has more than a thousand rooms. It began as a hunting lodge on land where, legend says, Emperor Matthias found a beautiful spring, the schöner Brunnen that gave the place its name. The gardens are vast and formal, with avenues of trees, fountains, statues, a maze, and the Gloriette, a colonnaded structure on the hill above the palace with views over Vienna. The palace and gardens were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 1996.
Read the complete Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn sits at 183 km, about halfway. Next is back through Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich comes up about 237 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 280 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich. Next is back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube, late in the day. Next is Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 380 km.
Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape → Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube → Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich → Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich → Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn → back through Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Tulln - Kastell Zentralbereich → back through Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wien - Legionslager Zentralbereich → back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube → Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.