From Grein to Spitz on the Danube

Bike ferry Grein
Bike ferry Grein

From Grein we take the ferry d'Überfuhr, which runs from May to September, to Wiesen on the right bank of the Danube. Outside the season, we have to make a small detour via the Ing. Leopold Helbich Bridge, which is about two kilometers up the Danube from Grein, to get to the right bank. 

The Greinburg and Grein Parish Church seen from the right bank of the Danube
The Greinburg and Grein Parish Church seen from the right bank of the Danube

Before we start our ride on the Danube Cycle Path on the right bank through the Strudengau in the direction of Ybbs, we take a look at the other side of the Danube to Grein and take another look at the eye-catcher, the Greinburg and the parish church.

strudengau

The Strudengau is a deep, narrow, wooded valley of the Danube through the Bohemian Massif, beginning before Grein and reaching downstream to Persenbeug. The depths of the valley are now filled by the Danube, which is backed up by the Persenbeug power station. The once dangerous whirlpools and shoals have been eliminated by the damming of the Danube. The Danube in the Strudengau now appears like an elongated lake.

The Danube in the Strudengau
The Danube Cycle Path on the right at the beginning of the Strudengau

From the ferry landing stage in Wiesen, the Danube Cycle Path runs in an easterly direction on the Hößang supply road, which is a public road in this section for 2 km up to Hößgang. The Hößgang goods route runs directly along the Danube on the edge of the Brandstetterkogel slope, a foothill of the Bohemian Massif of the granite highlands of the Mühlviertel south of the Danube.

The island of Wörth in the Danube near the Hößgang
The island of Wörth in the Danube near the Hößgang

After a short distance along the Danube Cycle Path through the Strudengau, we pass an island in the Danube river bed near the village of Hößgang. The island of Wörth lies in the middle of the Strudengau, which was once wild and dangerous because of its whirlpools. At the highest point, the Wörthfelsen, there are still the remains of Wörth Castle, a fortification at a strategically important point, because the Danube used to be an important traffic route for ships and rafts and this traffic could be well controlled at the narrow point on the island of Wörth. There used to be agriculture on the island and before the damming of the Danube in the Strudengau by the Danube power plant Ybbs-Persenbeug, the island could be reached on foot from the right, southern bank of the river via the gravel banks when the water was low.

St Nikola

St Nikola on the Danube in the Strudengau, historic market town
St Nikola in the Strudengau. The historic market town is a combination of a former church hamlet around the elevated parish church and the bank settlement on the Danube.

A little further east of Grein im Strudengau you can see the historic market town of St. Nikola on the left bank of the Danube from the Danube Cycle Path on the right-hand side. St. Nikola owes its former economic importance and market rise in 1511 to the shipping on the Danube in the area of ​​the Danube whirlpool near the island of Wörth.

persenflex

The ride on the Danube Cycle Path through the Strudengau ends on the right-hand side in Ybbs. From Ybbs it goes over the bridge of the Danube power plant to Persenbeug on the north bank of the Danube. You have a nice view of Persenbeug Castle.

Persenbeug Castle
Persenbeug Castle, a multi-winged, 5-sided, 2- to 3-storey complex, the landmark of the municipality of Persenbeug is located on a high cliff above the Danube.

The landmark of the municipality of Persenbeug is the Persenbeug castle, a multi-winged, 5-sided, 2- to 3-storey complex with 2 towers and a distinctively projecting chapel to the west on a high rock above the Danube, which was first mentioned in 883 and was built by the Bavarian Count von Ebersberg as a fortress against the Magyars. Through his wife, the Margravine Agnes, daughter of Emperor Heinrich IV, Castle Persenbeug passed to Margrave Leopold III.

Nibelungengau

The area from Persenbeug to Melk is called the Nibelungengau because it plays an important role in the Nibelungenlied, after Rüdiger von Bechelaren, a vassal of King Etzel, is said to have had his seat as margrave there. The Austrian sculptor Oskar Thiede created the relief, the Nibelungenzug, the legendary procession of the Nibelungen and Burgundians at Etzel's court, on the pillar of the locks in Persenbeug in a German-heroic style.

Persenbeug Castle
Persenbeug Castle, a multi-winged, 5-sided, 2- to 3-storey complex, the landmark of the municipality of Persenbeug is located on a high cliff above the Danube.

The Danube Cycle Path runs past Persenbeug Castle and on to the Gottsdorfer Scheibe, an alluvial plain on the northern bank of the Danube between Persenbeug and Gottsdorf, around which the Danube flows in a U-shape. The dangerous rocks and whirlpools of the Danube around the Gottsdorfer Scheibe were a difficult spot for navigation on the Danube. The Gottsdorfer Scheibe is also called Ybbser Scheibe because the Ybbs flows into the Danube in the south of this Danube loop and the town of Ybbs is located directly on the south-western bank of the loop.

The Danube cycle path in the area of ​​the Gottsdorf disc
The Danube cycle path in the area of ​​the Gottsdorf disc runs from Persenbeug at the edge of the disc around the disc to Gottsdorf

Maria Tafel

The Danube Cycle Path in the Nibelungengau runs from Gottsdorf amtreppelweg, between Wachaustraße and the Danube, in the direction of Marbach an der Donau. Long before the Danube was dammed by the Melk power plant in the Nibelungengau, there were Danube crossings in Marbach. Marbach was an important loading place for salt, grain and wood. The Griesteig, also called "Bohemian Strasse" or "Böhmsteig" went from Marbach in the direction of Bohemia and Moravia. Marbach is also located at the foot of the Maria Taferl pilgrimage site.

The Danube Cycle Path in the Nibelungengau near Marbach an der Donau at the foot of the Maria Taferl mountain.
The Danube Cycle Path in the Nibelungengau near Marbach an der Donau at the foot of the Maria Taferl mountain.

Maria Taferl, 233 m high above the Danube valley, is a place on the Taferlberg above Marbach an der Donau that can be seen from afar from the south thanks to its parish church with 2 towers. The Maria Taferl pilgrimage church is a baroque building by Jakob Prandtauer with frescoes by Antonio Beduzzi and the side altar painting “Die hl. Family as protector of the place of grace Maria Taferl” (1775) from Kremser Schmidt. The radiant center of the picture is Maria with the child, wrapped in her typical blue cloak. The Kremser Schmidt used a modern, synthetically produced blue, the so-called Prussian blue or Berlin blue.

The Maria Taferl pilgrimage church
The Maria Taferl pilgrimage church

From the Maria Taferl, located 233 m above the Danube valley, you have a beautiful view of the Danube, Krummnußbaum on the southern bank of the Danube, the foothills of the Alps and the Alps with the 1893 meter high Ötscher as the outstanding, highest elevation in south-western Lower Austria, which leads to the Belongs to the Northern Limestone Alps.

The crooked nut tree on the southern bank of the Danube was inhabited as early as the Neolithic Age.

The Danube Cycle Path continues at the foot of the Taferlberg in the direction of Melk. The Danube is dammed up by a power plant in the immediate vicinity of the famous Melk Abbey, which cyclists can use to reach the southern bank. The south bank of the Danube to the east of the Melk power plant is formed by a wide strip of floodplain formed by the Melk to the south-east and the Danube to the north-west.

The dammed Danube in front of the Melk power plant
Fishermen at the dammed Danube in front of the Melk power plant.

Dairy

After driving through the floodplain landscape, you end up on the banks of the Melk at the foot of the rock on which the golden yellow Benedictine monastery, which can be seen from afar, is enthroned. Already in the time of Margrave Leopold I there was a community of priests in Melk and Margrave Leopold II had a monastery built on the rock above the town. Melk was a regional center of the Counter-Reformation. In 1700, Berthold Dietmayr was elected abbot of Melk Abbey, whose goal was to emphasize the religious, political and spiritual importance of the monastery through a new building of the monastery complex by the Baroque master builder Jakob Prandtauer. Presented to this day Melk Abbey than the construction completed in 1746.

Melk Abbey
Melk Abbey

Schoenbuehel

We continue our journey on the 4th stage of the Danube Cycle Path from Grein to Spitz an der Donau after a short break in Melk from the Nibelungenlände in Melk. The cycle path initially follows the course of the Wachauerstraße next to an arm of the Danube before it turns into thetreppenweg and then runs directly on the bank of the Danube in a north-easterly direction parallel to the Wachauer Straße towards Schönbühel. In Schönbühel, which was owned by the Diocese of Passau, a castle was built directly on the Danube in the Middle Ages on a level terrace above steep granite rocks. Large parts of the fortifications with Haslgraben, bastions, round tower and outwork have been preserved. The massive main building, newly erected in the 19th and 20th centuries, with its formative, steep hipped roof and integrated high facade tower, dominates the entrance to the Danube Gorge Valley of the Wachau, the most beautiful section of the Danube Cycle Path Passau Vienna.

Schönbühel Castle at the entrance to the Wachau valley
Schönbühel Castle on a terrace above steep rocks marks the entrance to the Wachau Valley

In 1619 the castle, which was owned by the Starhemberg family at the time, served as a retreat for Protestant troops. After Konrad Balthasar von Starhemberg converted to Catholicism in 1639, he had an early baroque monastery and church built on the Klosterberg. The Danube Cycle Path runs in a large curve along Wachauer Straße from the Burguntersiedlung to the Klosterberg. There are about 30 vertical meters to overcome. Then it goes downhill again into the ecologically sensitive Danube floodplain landscape before Aggsbach-Dorf.

Former monastery church Schönbühel
The former Schönbühel monastery church is a simple, single-nave, elongated early Baroque building on a steep cliff directly above the Danube.

Danube floodplains landscape

Natural river meadows are landscapes along the banks of rivers whose terrain is shaped by changing water levels. The free-flowing stretch of the Danube in the Wachau is characterized by numerous gravel islands, gravel banks, backwaters and remnants of alluvial forest. Due to the changing living conditions, there is a great diversity of species in floodplains. In floodplains, the humidity is higher and usually a bit cooler due to the high evaporation rate, which makes floodplain landscapes a relaxing retreat on hot days. From the eastern foot of the Klosterberg, the Danube Cycle Path runs through a piece of sensitive Danube floodplain landscape to Aggsbach-Dorf.

Side arm of the Danube on the Danube Cycle Path Passau Vienna
Backwater of the Danube in the Wachau on the Danube Cycle Path Passau Vienna

aggstein

After riding through a section of natural Danube floodplain landscape near Aggsbach-Dorf, the Danube Cycle Path continues to Aggstein. Aggstein is a small row village on an alluvial terrace of the Danube at the foot of the Aggstein castle ruins. The ruins of Aggstein Castle are enthroned on a rock towering 300 m from the Danube. It was owned by the Kuenringers, an Austrian ministerial family, before it was destroyed and given to Georg Scheck, who was entrusted with the reconstruction of the castle by Duke Albrecht V. the Aggstein ruins has a lot of preserved medieval buildings, from which one has a very nice view of the Danube in the Wachau.

The north-eastern front of the stronghold of the Aggstein ruins to the west on the vertically cut "stone" towering approx. 6 m above the level of the castle courtyard shows a wooden staircase to the high entrance with a pointed arch portal in a rectangular panel made of stone. Above it a turret. On the north-east front you can also see: stone jamb windows and slits and on the left side the truncated gable with an outdoor fireplace on consoles and to the north the former Romanesque-Gothic chapel with a recessed apse and gabled roof with a bell rider.
The north-eastern front of the stronghold of the Aggstein ruins to the west on the vertically cut "stone" towering approx. 6 m above the level of the castle courtyard shows a wooden staircase to the high entrance with a pointed arch portal in a rectangular panel made of stone. Above it a turret. On the north-east front you can also see: stone jamb windows and slits and on the left side the truncated gable with an outdoor fireplace on consoles and to the north the former Romanesque-Gothic chapel with a recessed apse and gabled roof with a bell rider.

Darkstone Forest

The alluvial terrace of Aggstein is followed by a section to St. Johann im Mauerthale, where the Dunkelsteinerwald rises steeply from the Danube. The Dunkelsteinerwald is the ridge along the south bank of the Danube in the Wachau. The Dunkelsteinerwald is the continuation of the Bohemian Massif across the Danube in the Wachau. The Dunkelsteinerwald is mainly made up of granulite. In the south of the Dunkelsteinerwald there are also other metamorphites, such as various gneisses, mica slate and amphibolite. The dark stone forest owes its name to the dark tint of amphibolite.

At 671 m above sea level, the Seekopf is the highest elevation in the Dunkelsteinerwald in the Wachau
At 671 m above sea level, the Seekopf is the highest elevation in the Dunkelsteinerwald in the Wachau

St. Johann im Mauerthale

The Wachau wine-growing region begins in St. Johann im Mauerthale with the terraced Johannserberg vineyards facing west and south-west above the church of St. Johann im Mauerthale. The church of St. Johann im Mauerthale, documented in 1240, an elongated, essentially Romanesque building with a Gothic north choir. The delicate, late-Gothic, square tower with a gable wreath, octagonal in the sound zone, has a weather vane pierced by an arrow on the pointed helmet, of which there is a legend in connection with the Teufelsmauer on the north bank of the Danube.

St Johann im Mauerthale
The church of St Johann im Mauerthale and the Johannserberg vineyard, which marks the beginning of the Wachau wine-growing region.

The Arns villages

In St. Johann, an alluvial zone begins again, on which the Arns villages are settled. The Arnsdörfer developed over time from an estate that Ludwig II the German gave to the Salzburg Church in 860. Over time, the villages of Oberarnsdorf, Hofarnsdorf, Mitterarnsdorf and Bacharnsdorf have developed from the richly endowed estate in the Wachau. The Arns villages were named after the first Archbishop Arn of the Archdiocese of Salzburg, who ruled around 800. The importance of the Arns villages was in wine production. In addition to wine production, the Arns villages have also been known for apricot production since the end of the 19th century. The Danube Cycle Path runs from St. Johann im Mauerthale along the stairway between the Danube and orchards and vineyards to Oberarnsdorf.

The Danube Cycle Path along the Weinriede Altenweg in Oberarnsdorf in der Wachau
The Danube Cycle Path along the Weinriede Altenweg in Oberarnsdorf in der Wachau

Ruin back house

In Oberarnsdorf, the Danube Cycle Path widens to a place that invites you to take a look at the Hinterhaus ruins on the opposite bank of Spitz. The Hinterhaus castle ruins are a hilltop castle dominating high above the south-western end of the market town of Spitz an der Donau, on a rocky outcrop that drops steeply to the south-east and north-west to the Danube. The rear building was the upper castle of the Spitz dominion, which was also called the upper house to distinguish it from the lower castle located in the village. The Formbacher, an old Bavarian count family, are likely to be the builders of the rear building. In 1242 the fief was passed on to the Bavarian dukes by the Niederaltaich Abbey, who handed it over to the Kuenringers a little later as a sub-fief. Hinterhaus served as the administrative center and to control the Danube valley. The partially Romanesque complex of the Hinterhaus Castle from the 12th and 13th centuries was expanded mainly in the 15th century. Access to the castle is via a steep path from the north. the Ruin back house is freely accessible to visitors. The highlight of each year is the solstice celebration, when the ruins of the rear building are bathed in fireworks.

Castle ruins rear building
Castle ruins Hinterhaus seen from the Radler-Rast in Oberarnsdorf

Wachau wine

You can also take a look at the Hinterhaus ruins with a glass of Wachau wine from the Radler-Rast at Donauplatz in Oberarnsdorf. White wine is mainly grown in the Wachau. The most common variety is Grüner Veltliner. There are also very good Riesling vineyards in the Wachau, such as the Singerriedl in Spitz or the Achleiten in Weißenkirchen in the Wachau. During the Wachau Wine Spring you can taste the wines in over 100 Wachau wineries every year on the first weekend in May.

Cyclists rest on the Danube Cycle Path in the Wachau
Cyclists rest on the Danube Cycle Path in the Wachau

From the cyclist rest stop in Oberarnsdorf it is only a short distance along the Danube Cycle Path to the ferry to Spitz an der Donau. The Danube Cycle Path runs on this section along the stairway between the Danube and orchards and vineyards. If you take a look at the other side of the Danube during your trip to the ferry, then you can see the thousand bucket mountain and the Singerriedl in Spitz. Farmers offer their products along the way.

The Danube Cycle Path from Oberarnsdorf to the ferry to Spitz an der Donau
The Danube Cycle Path from Oberarnsdorf to the ferry to Spitz an der Donau

Roller ferry Spitz-Arnsdorf

The Spitz-Arnsdorf ferry consists of two interconnected hulls. The ferry is held by a 485 m long suspension cable stretched across the Danube. The ferry moves through the river current over the Danube. An art object, a camera obscura, by the Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson is installed on the ferry. The transfer takes between 5-7 minutes. Registration for the transfer is not required.

The roller ferry from Spitz to Arnsdorf
The rolling ferry from Spitz an der Donau to Arnsdorf runs all day without a timetable, as required

From the Spitz-Arnsdorf ferry, you can see the eastern slope of the thousand bucket mountain and the Spitz parish church with the western tower. The Spitz parish church is a late Gothic hall church dedicated to Saint Mauritius and is located in the eastern part of the village on the church square. From 1238 to 1803 the Spitz parish church was incorporated into the Niederaltaich monastery on the Danube in Lower Bavaria. The possessions of the Niederaltaich monastery in the Wachau go back to Charlemagne and were used for missionary work in the east of the Frankish Empire.

Spitz on the Danube with the mountain of thousands of buckets and the parish church
Spitz on the Danube with the mountain of thousands of buckets and the parish church

The Red Gate

The Red Gate is a popular destination for a short walk from the church square in Spitz. The Red Gate is to the north-east, above the church settlement and represents a remnant of the former market fortifications of Spitz. From the Red Gate, the line of defense ran north into the forest and south over the ridge of the Singerriedel. When Swedish troops marched through Bohemia towards Vienna in the last years of the Thirty Years' War, they advanced to the Red Gate, which commemorates that time. In addition, the Red Gate is eponymous for the wine of a Spitzer winemaker.

Red gate in Spitz with wayside shrine
The Red Gate in Spitz with wayside shrine and view of Spitz on the Danube