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 Spitz it runs 296 km to Spitz; allow about 4 h 02 of riding. It goes by way of Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm, Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube and back through Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 63 km this is Wachau Danube Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Above the Wachau, in the forested hills on the south bank, a watchtower stood in the Roman period, and its stones are a quiet reminder that this valley was once the border of an empire. The Danube was the northern frontier of the province of Noricum, and the Romans guarded it with forts and signal towers every few kilometres, a chain that now forms part of the UNESCO listing for the Danube Limes. The tower near St Johann im Mauerthale was one of these, placed to see along the river and warn of anyone crossing from the north. Not much remains but the foundations, and they sit in a place with a long view.
Read the complete St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm is where the day begins. Next is Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm.
Egon Schiele was born in Tulln in 1890, in the station building where his father was stationmaster, and the town that produced one of the most provocative painters of Viennese modernism is today a quiet, prosperous place on the Danube, known as Austria's garden town. Long before that, it was the Roman fort of Comagena, part of the frontier along the Danube that protected the Roman province of Noricum. One of the fort's towers has survived remarkably well: the so-called Salzturm, a horseshoe-shaped tower on the riverbank, one of the best-preserved Roman structures in Austria. It is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Danube Limes, listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm comes up about 63 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 148 km into the recorded legs you reach Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube. Next is back through Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm, late in the day. Next is St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm, 76 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm. That is the ride.
St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm → Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm → Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Frontiers of the Roman Empire - The Danube → back through Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Tulln - Kastell Hufeisenturm → St. Johann im Mauerthale - Wachtturm is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.