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.
450 km from Zeiselmauer to Zeiselmauer, about 5 h 33 of riding. It goes by way of Windstallgraben - Wachtturm, Semmering Railway and back through Windstallgraben - Wachtturm. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Before there was a Vienna, there was a frontier. For some four hundred years the Danube formed the northern boundary of the Roman empire in central Europe, and a chain of forts, watchtowers and harbours kept watch along the south bank. Zeiselmauer, about thirty kilometres upstream from the modern capital, was one of them, and a stretch of Roman wall with a tower still stands in the village, incorporated into later buildings. The Danube Limes in Austria, Germany and Slovakia was listed by UNESCO in 2021.
Read the complete Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell is where the day begins. Next is Windstallgraben - Wachtturm.
Between Dürnstein and Mautern, a small gully called the Windstallgraben cuts down toward the Danube, and somewhere along its edge stood a Roman watchtower. The Wachau valley was once the frontier of the empire, and the Danube was the line. The Romans built a chain of forts and watchtowers along the south bank, and Mautern, ancient Favianis, was one of the strongest. The Danube Limes in Austria and Germany is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage listing, and these modest remains are part of that long, thin story.
Read the complete Windstallgraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Windstallgraben - Wachtturm comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Semmering Railway.
Carl von Ghega's railway over the Semmering was a bold idea in the 1840s, when many engineers doubted that a conventional locomotive could haul a train over a mountain pass. Built between 1848 and 1854, the line climbs from Gloggnitz to the Semmering summit through fourteen tunnels and across sixteen viaducts, some with two tiers of stone arches, curving around the flanks of the mountains on ledges cut into the rock. It became the first mountain railway inscribed on the UNESCO list, in 1998, and it still carries trains between Vienna and the south, with the new Semmering Base Tunnel under construction beneath it to take over the heavy traffic.
Read the complete Semmering Railway write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 224 km into the recorded legs you reach Semmering Railway. Next is back through Windstallgraben - Wachtturm.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Windstallgraben - Wachtturm write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Windstallgraben - Wachtturm, late in the day. Next is Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell. That is the ride.
Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell → Windstallgraben - Wachtturm is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Windstallgraben - Wachtturm → Semmering Railway is 164 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Semmering Railway → back through Windstallgraben - Wachtturm is 166 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Windstallgraben - Wachtturm → Zeiselmauer - Kleinkastell is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.