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The Danube

So it isn’t blue. The Danube remains the loveliest, most fabled river of Europe. Its former tow path now gives bicyclists one of the rides of a lifetime, combining river views and forested by-ways with appealing villages, architectural pleasures, some of the world’s best pastry shops, and whatever amount of history you care to absorb. All this is mostly on the flat as the river slips gently toward the Black Sea. 

The tour begins in Deggendorf and continues to Passau, on the German-Austrian border, where pretty squares, narrow streets and small shops reward exploration. Just beyond the city, the Inn and the Ilz rivers join the Danube in its eastward flow. We will stay in other centuries-old towns, among them Linz, where buildings are baroque and the steepest mountain railway in the world gives a grand view of the city, and Grein. The border between Germany and Austria, which you will cross two times in one day, is casual and usually unguarded.

One splendid view follows another. The sight of a Benedictine Abbey, located on a generous bend of the river and visible long before the town is reached, marks the approach to Melk. Onion-domed churches are sighted across fields as well as in towns and are filled with baroque glories. We learn their decoration plan: plain and simple below, indicating life is hard, and expansive above, because heaven is glorious. Castle ruins can be seen high on hillsides, and vineyards border the river the closer we come to Krems. We’ll have a day in Vienna, where psychiatry was invented but music and pastry are the stuff of life. 

You will take home memories of picnic lunches, ferry crossings of the Danube, visits to grand and simple churches, sightings of castles and a blessed absence, most of the time, of automobiles. We often stay in small, family-run hotels where travelers have been served for generations, and our meals will remind us that the cuisine of Germany and Austria is at its best on home ground.