Danube Cycle Route Stage 5 South Bank: Melk - Mautern

Description

This stage takes you along the Dunkelstein Forest, one of the largest contiguous forest areas in Central Europe. The advantage of the route on the south bank is the wide view - of the magnificent landscape of the Wachau World Heritage Site with its lovely, rocky forest slopes, hill terraces and vineyards as well as the charming villages on the banks opposite. Before you leave Melk, the "gateway to the Wachau", behind you, you should definitely visit the abbey founded by the Benedictines in 1089. The magnificent library with its 85,000 volumes and a ceiling fresco by Paul Troger houses, among other things, a fragment of the Song of the Nibelungs.

Perhaps this ancient epic will remind you on the way of the historic landscape you are traversing. Incidentally, prehistoric finds near Schönbühel also bear witness to this. You pass through this village with its charming castle on the banks of the Danube on the way to Aggstein, where 300 meters above the Danube the legendary castle ruins of the same name (12th century) beckon. This was once the home of "Ritter Schreckenwald" (Jörg Schenk), who extorted tolls from Danube boatmen. Those who did not want to pay had to starve to death on a balcony-like rocky outcrop, the "Rosengärtlein".

Leisurely enjoyment of the countryside is the order of the day as far as Mautern. Along the way, you will come across small villages with charming little churches and pretty old cottages and farmhouses and, near Bacharnsdorf, the remains of the old Roman Danube Limes fortifications, which have been incorporated into buildings and gardens here.