From Passau to Vienna

From Mühlviertel to Waldviertel:

Highlights along the route:

Schlägl:
Premonstratensian abbey (13th century), baroque church, Roman crypt, abbey brewery

Haslach:
On the "Mühlviertel Waving Road"; textile factories, waving and merchants' museum

Freistadt:
Close to the Czech border, old trade route to Bohemia, beautiful old town with painted patrician houses, remains of the ancient town wall and towers, Freistadt castle (14th century).

Kefermarkt:
Parish church with sumptuously carved Gothic altarpiece, 13 m high, (15th century)

Sandl:
In the 19th century center of glass painting; glass painting museum, exhibitions, courses
Rosendorf ponds - of particular scenic beauty

Weitra:
Kuenring town, center with 16th century facades surrounded by a well kept town wall.
Castle; owned by the Fürstenberg dynasty, with marvellous arcaded courtyard and renaissance-style castle theater.

Gmünd:
Town at the Czech border, two 16th-century Sgraffito houses on the main square, glass museum with artistically processed glass from the 17th - 20th centuries and a depiction of the history of Boehemian glass manufacturing.
Blockheide Nature Park with huge granite blocks and strange stone formations, the "rocking" stones".

Heidenreichstein:
One of Austria's most beautiful medieval moated castles, peat and moor museum (unique in Europe)

Drosendorf:
Border town in the northernmost region of the Waldviertel with medieval town center and Gothic "Roland Column", surrounded by a completely preserved town wall.

Geras:
Premonstratensian abbey with frescoes by Paul Troger and baroque abbey church with three naves. Annual art courses.
Located next to a nature park with game preserve.


From Waldviertel to Weinviertel and Vienna:

Highlights along to route:

Retz:
Wine town with large market square, remarkable renaissance facades, Sgraffito house and "Verderber Haus"; the town center circles around the town hall from where a grid of subterranean wine-cellars spreads. Picturesque windmill outside the town.

Laa an der Thaya:
Town in the Weinviertel with brewery right (dating from 1454), known for its numerous lanes of wine cellars and wine pressing buildings in its environs

Weinviertel:
East of the Waldviertel, fertile grounds ideal for viticulture, numerous lanes of typical wine-cellars characterize the landscape

Wien:
Federal capital. City of music, former imperial residence, Austria's cultural and spiritual center.