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 425 km to Spitz; allow about 6 h 27 of riding. The stops in between: Ybbs - Kleinkastell, Wallsee - Kleinkastell, Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg and Historic Centre of Český Krumlov. It crosses from Austria into Czechia - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
For about 45 km this is Wachau Danube Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
This part of the ride is 42 km of Ybbs - Kleinkastell → Wallsee - Kleinkastell.
Between Melk and Krems, the Danube runs through a valley of steep terraced vineyards, apricot orchards and tiny medieval towns, and the whole stretch is a UNESCO cultural landscape. The Wachau is one of the most beautiful river valleys in Europe, and it has been shaped by human hands for two thousand years. Walls of dry stone hold the terraces in place, and above them, forests climb to the plateau. The vineyards produce some of Austria's best white wines, mostly Gruner Veltliner and Riesling, and the orchards produce the Marille, the apricot, which blossoms in April and is made into jam, schnapps and dumplings in July.
Read the complete Wachau Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wachau Cultural Landscape is where the day begins. Next is Ybbs - Kleinkastell.
Ybbs an der Donau and Persenbeug face each other across the Danube in Lower Austria, connected by a hydroelectric dam that was one of the first built on the Austrian Danube after the war. Persenbeug is dominated by its castle, perched on a rock above the river, which belonged to the Habsburgs and was the birthplace of Emperor Charles I, the last emperor of Austria-Hungary. On the Ybbs side, the remains of a small Roman fort have been found, part of the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire.
Read the complete Ybbs - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ybbs - Kleinkastell comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wallsee - Kleinkastell.
Wallsee is the kind of Danube town you only notice if you slow down: a market square, a big castle on a rock above the river, and a long, quiet waterfront where the cycle path runs past willows and moored boats. Beneath the streets lie the remains of a small Roman fort, one of the posts that lined the river frontier of the province of Noricum, and archaeologists have also traced a larger fort nearby. Both are part of the Danube Limes World Heritage listing inscribed in 2021, though above ground the medieval and Baroque town has long since taken over.
Read the complete Wallsee - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Wallsee - Kleinkastell. Next is Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg.
Linz is a city that has reinvented itself. For much of the twentieth century it was known mainly for its steelworks and its uncomfortable links with the Nazi period; today it markets itself as a city of culture and technology, with the Ars Electronica centre glowing on the Danube bank at night, the Lentos art museum opposite, and a lively music scene. The Schlossberg, the castle hill above the old town, is where it all began: the Romans had a fort here called Lentia, part of the Danube frontier of the empire, and the Danube Limes is now on the World Heritage list. The castle that stands there now dates largely from the Renaissance, built for Emperor Frederick III, who spent his last years in Linz and died here in 1493. It houses a branch of the Upper Austrian state museum.
Read the complete Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg, about halfway. Next is Historic Centre of Český Krumlov.
Český Krumlov is shaped by a river. The Vltava makes a series of tight S-bends in a rocky valley in south Bohemia, and the old town sits in one of the loops, with a castle on a cliff above it, so that the whole place feels like a stage set. The castle is the second largest in the Czech Republic, with a round tower painted in Renaissance style, a bridge across the moat where brown bears live, and a Baroque theatre from the seventeenth century that still has its original stage machinery. The town was owned by the Rožmberk family and later the Schwarzenbergs, and the painter Egon Schiele lived here for a time in 1911. UNESCO listed the historic centre in 1992.
Read the complete Historic Centre of Český Krumlov write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Historic Centre of Český Krumlov sits at 206 km, about halfway. Next is back through Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg comes up about 283 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Wallsee - Kleinkastell.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wallsee - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 339 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Wallsee - Kleinkastell. Next is back through Ybbs - Kleinkastell.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ybbs - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ybbs - Kleinkastell, late in the day. Next is Wachau Cultural Landscape.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wachau Cultural Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 425 km.
Wachau Cultural Landscape → Ybbs - Kleinkastell is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ybbs - Kleinkastell → Wallsee - Kleinkastell is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Wallsee - Kleinkastell → Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg → Historic Centre of Český Krumlov is 71 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Historic Centre of Český Krumlov → back through Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg is 70 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Linz - Befestigung Schlossberg → back through Wallsee - Kleinkastell is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Wallsee - Kleinkastell → back through Ybbs - Kleinkastell is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ybbs - Kleinkastell → Wachau Cultural Landscape is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.