 Julianna and CJ's ~ Follow Your Bliss
Bicycling across Austria - Eurovelo 6
468 km
Austria
Romania
Passau to Inzell - 49 km
Inzell to Linz - 57 km
Coming Soon
Coming Soon
Linz - Mauthausen Concentration Camp - Wallsee Sommerau - 55 km
 We had to go up a steep steep hill to reach Mauthausen's concentration camp grounds |  Entrance of the camp |  The main buildings |
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 |  |  The inside cells |
 |  One of the 2 Crematoriums |  Gas Chamber |
 |  Names of thousands that died there |  |
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 |  |  Back down by the Danube |
Sommereau to Melk ~ 62 km
 Packed up and ready to go! |  Riding through the valley along the Danube |  |
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 Perfect to watch the boats and take pictu |  DSC04523.JPG |  Taking a br |
 |  Making friends as always |  Crossing the bridge |
 Arriving to Linz |  |
 Our last look at Passau from over the bridge and we set our sails for Austria |  We take lunch along the Danube on our private beach |  |
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 AustriaCrossing over from Germany to Austria in Jochenstein |  |  Linz at 68 km along the Donauweg |
 |  Beautiful landscapes along the valley |  |
 Crossing the river to get to our campsite for the night |  |  From one bank to another |
 The view on the boat |  Our campsite in Inzell.... |  Right along the Danube. Perfect night and view! One of the best sites of the whole EV6 |
 Big cargo and tourist boats passing along |
After spending a couple days in our last German town Passau, enjoying the city, and our nice little hotel room right in the center of town, it is time to ride again, now in direction of Vienna, Austria. This is the most popular part of the whole Eurovelo 6 route and therefore, the most traveled. As we left Passau across the bridge and said our last goodbyes, we rode on the EV6 bicycle path along a fairly busy road and right along the beautiful Danube. The path was nice and flat. We stopped for a nice sandwich break on a nice quiet tiny sand beach. We crossed the border, at Jochenstein and into Austria. The path is quite easy and beautiful. As we rode along, we started winding back and forth and we found ourselves getting deeper and deeper into the valley. Our bike path came to an end, so we took a little ferry boat across the Danube to reach the other bank and pedaled a few more kilometers to one of the most lovely and quiet campgrounds along the EV6 in Inzell. We set our tent right off the river and enjoyed watching the cruise and cargo ships coasting through the Danube quietly throughout the night.
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 Our lunch spot |  |  |
 |  2222 km....woohooo!!! |
 Melk Abbey from afar |  On our way up to the Abbey |  |
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~ Melk Abbey ~
We chose to ride up to the Abbey early morning on our way to Zwentendorf. We spent about a couple hours total, riding through the village from our camping spot, parking the bikes, and visiting the free parts of the Abbey. At the entrance of the Abbey there is a nice parking spot for the bicycles, with wooden lockers to put valuables. The ride through the village and the Abbey itself is definitely worth the time and stop.
Melk to Zwentendorf ~ 69 km
Zwentendorf to Vienna ~ 55 km
Vienna to Hainburg ~ 52 km
 Getting closer to Vienna |  Vienna center in the far distance |  Bicycle path into Vienna center is full of these art pieces |
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 |  |  Mozart |
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Getting into Vienna after 5 days of biking through lovely Austria is truely a reward in itself and the icing and cherry on the cake. Vienna is awesome, charming and it's got all you would ever want. Great bicycling paths throughout the city, great monuments, great museums, awesome parks, tons of restaurants, bars, and tons of shopping if you wish to do so... After biking over 2,400 km on the Eurovelo 6, we took 3 days off in this incredible city full of life, and enjoyed relaxing in a nice little affordable pension, Suzanne Pension, located right in the middle of town and breakfast was included. Getting into Vienna from the Eurovelo 6 path is very easy. The path follows the Danube the whole way into town. Getting into the center is easy as well, bicycle paths throughout the center are abundants and easily navigatable. The bicycles and pedestrians share the same sidewalks, and these sidewalks are divided in 2, one side bicycles and the other pedestrians. Also, be aware that the bicycle paths have traffic lights. We enjoyed riding our bicycles throughout while visiting the city, which made it very easy for us to see so many areas without spending a euro on public transport.
 |  Bratislava will be next |  |
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 ...and over the bridge we go... |
Getting out of Vienna was fairly easy and all the way to Hainburg, the cycling is straightforward. We followed the north bank of the Danube for 50 km passed Petronell-Canumtum campsites, and kept on pedaling to Hainburg where we crossed the river. There we found a home pension for the night keeping Slovakia, Bratislava and Hungary for the next day
...next Bratislava, Slovakia on the Eurovelo 6 route
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We leave our campground early as usual and today, we have a big day, we decide to pedal up to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp. The way up there is quite demanding, 1 to 1.5 km uphill. There are two ways to get there, one short and super steep and one long and less steep. We choose to go the long way around thinking it would be easier, but loaded as we are, it wasn't. So half way up, we go into a hotel and ask them if they can keep our bags for us while we go up to the Concentration camp, visit and come back down. They direct us the farmer across the road, they say he can keep our bags. So, we go talk to him and he gladly accepts to keep our bags in his farmhouse til we come back. Even, without the bags, it is still quite a strenuous climb and finally we get there. It seems that many bikers make the climb as we see lots of touring bikes locked and parked fully loaded with bags. The Mauthausen concentration camp grounds are vast and there is quite a lot to see and be with once there. It is very touching, and in some way gruesome. The crematoriums, the disinfection room, the gaz chamber...everything can be visited and seen and all of it grasp the heart and make one feel very disturbed about what has happened there. There are movies, pictures, museum, memorials, chapel and books of names that can be looked at. We spent about 2 hours, paid our respects and went on our way. The views from the area are quite excellent, and the downhill was quite pleasant and a breath of fresh air. We picked up our bags safe and sound, stopped for lunch and ice cream, bicycled passed Wallsee and headed 2 km down to Sommerau, where we camped for the night. We would suggest all people to take the time and go visit Mauthausen as it is one of the biggest concentration camp left exactly as is. It was classified to be category 3 camp, the fiercest catefory for the prisoner, extermination by work, return not desired and that says it all. It is very impressive, revealing and heart breaking. In a few words, it is to experience and seen for yourself, the pictures cannot give it justice.
The Austrian Danube bicycle path which runs from Passau, Germany to Bratislava, Slovakia is one of the most popular and most beautiful path in Europe. It runs around 450 km and passes through Linz, Melk Abbey, Mauthausen Concentration Camp, Krems, the Wachau Valley and Vienna.
The Wachau valley with its castles, abbeys and vineyards is one of the most picturesque parts of the Austrian Danube cycle path. You can cycle on both parts of the Danube, we chose the South side. We bicycled with ease through the valley passing from small villages to small villages. We got lured into one of them for lunch as the firefighters were having a fundtraiser and plenty of homemade food was being sold. We enjoyed a nice time with the local and went on our way to more beautiful views.
Serbia
