Bike Trip: Wolfsthal - Hainburg

After our short break refreshed we continued on bike trail called Bratislava Tour. The bike trail was asphalt along all its length and it went through wheat and oat fields. The well-known "Hainburg Hills" were visible from the fields together with their landmarks such as Hainburg Castle, or Röthelstein, an older castle by Danube, or a Celtic oppidium on the top of limestone rock. Our attention caught a monumental stone and gravel quarry. 10 minutes later we got back on the road which was accompanied by a one-rail railway. All of the sudden we found ourselves in Hainburg (Hainburg an der Donau), a town with rich history.

  
Medieval Hainburg
Via the bike trail we got into the heart of the town and its information boards with detail of other trails, elevations or historical landmarks we shouldn’t miss. Together with my girlfriend we decided we explore Hainburg, a town on the Danube  more in detail. From the first moment the town’s architecture charmed us; modern houses followed medieval ones. Main street was full of various shops, restaurants and boutiques. A renowned ruin of Hainburg Castle built in the 11th century is situated on a hill above the town. Down the Danube dominated the riverbank as well as railroad anti-flood dike and the entrance to the Donau – Auen National Park; there a unique association of bottomland forests is located above which tower limestone rocks and caves. On secluded place, shy 2 kilometers from Hainburg, there is the ruin of Röthelstein Castle. First notes mentioning the castle date back to the year 1180. When we learned enough about history we stopped by in local market where the food prices were almost the same as in Slovakia. Refreshed we gave us a short break and enjoyed town’s atmosphere by medieval fortification and surrounded with hills and nature.

Notable monuments
When we regained our stamina we continued in our planned journey, however, we chose wrong direction and kept getting further from the official bike trail. Fortunately, we found out that we headed in wrong direction soon and rode back to the infoboards, from there we continued on. This time the asphalt road was covered with mud as remains of recent floods. Even today people were getting out water and demolished stuff. At the end of the town, we observed demolished fields, well, they know why they say that “water is good servant, but terrible lord”. Despite all that water caused nature was beautiful. Again, we enjoyed amazin views of the landscape. Our next destination was unbelievably long bridgedlouhý most,  across Danube and neverending bottomland forests. Soon, we overcame this elegant bridge and just we did so we came to crossroads, a quarry and unbelievably beautiful Romanesque church with cemetery. Right when we left we learned it was a church above the town of Bad Deutsch Altenburg, which is located 2 kilometers from Haiburg.

Since there was a fence from our side, we decided not to visit this interesting church and rather continue on on a bridge. How our bike journey continued you may read next week. For now I can tell you it will be in royal atmosphere.

Text and photo: Oskár Mažgút