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.
304 km from Mörbisch am See to Mörbisch am See, about 5 h 12 of riding. The stops in between: Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube, Rusovce - Gerulata, Carnuntum - Legionslager and back through Carnuntum - Legionslager. It crosses from Austria into Slovakia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. 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 Rusovce - Gerulata.
Three countries meet in the fields south of Bratislava, and the Romans had a fort here long before anybody drew those borders. Gerulata was an auxiliary fort on the Danube frontier, in what is now Rusovce, a district at the southern edge of the Slovak capital. Its remains have been excavated, and a small museum displays foundations and finds, from coins to pottery and gravestones. The site is part of the Danube Limes listed by UNESCO, a frontier that ran from Germany to the Black Sea.
Read the complete Rusovce - Gerulata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Rusovce - Gerulata. Next is Carnuntum - Legionslager.
Carnuntum was a Roman city, a legionary base and, for a time, a capital. The Fourteenth Legion, the Gemina, was stationed here from the first century, and the camp, with its great barracks and parade ground, guarded a crossing of the Danube where the Amber Road from the Baltic met the river. By the second century it was the capital of the province of Upper Pannonia, with an amphitheatre, baths and a population of tens of thousands. The emperor Marcus Aurelius is said to have spent part of the German wars here, and tradition holds that he wrote some of his Meditations in the camp.
Read the complete Carnuntum - Legionslager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Carnuntum - Legionslager, about halfway.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rusovce - Gerulata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rusovce - Gerulata sits at 151 km, about halfway. Next is back through Carnuntum - Legionslager.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Carnuntum - Legionslager write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Carnuntum - Legionslager comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Rusovce - Gerulata.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rusovce - Gerulata write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 216 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Rusovce - Gerulata. 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 304 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 → Rusovce - Gerulata is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rusovce - Gerulata → Carnuntum - Legionslager is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Carnuntum - Legionslager → Rusovce - Gerulata is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rusovce - Gerulata → back through Carnuntum - Legionslager is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Carnuntum - Legionslager → back through Rusovce - Gerulata is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rusovce - Gerulata → back through Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube is 32 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 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.