Danube - Sailing Tour - From Passau to Linz

As the Danube winds by the straggling little town of Aschach (267m/876ft), with a row of 16th-18th C. gabled houses, the hills draw away from the river and open up a view of the chain of the Alps. A bridge crosses the Danube near Aschach.

A little south of Aschach lies the small town of Eferding (271m/890ft; mentioned in the "Nibelungenlied"), with several old churches, including the Late Gothic parish church, and the Starhembergsche Schloss (13th. C. with many additions and an 18th C. Neo-Classical facade).

As the boat sailing the Danube from Passau to Linz passes Engelhartszell (on the right; 307m/1,007ft), with the Roccoco church (pulpit and stucco sculpture by Übelherr, frescos by Bartolomeo Altomonte) of the former Engelszell Cistercian Abbey, Schloss Rannariedl and Schloss Marsbach are seen on the ridges of hills on the left.

As boats leave Passau for a sail on the Danube toward Linz, the first castle on the (Upper) Austrian side is Krempelstein. On the right, high above the river, stands Schloss Vichtenstein. Then comes the Jochenstein hydroelectric station.

Beyond Wilhering comes a narrower stretch of valley. On the right of the Danube is the Kürnberger Wald, with an old pagan place of assembly and a later Saxon castle. On the left stands the little tower of Schloss Puchenau and behind it, on the Pöstlingberg, an imposing Baroque church.

After a wide turn, the boat traveling the Danube from Passau to Linz arrives at the Upper Austrian capital of Linz. Its beautiful setting can be appreciated much more easily from the river than from road or railroad. To the left rises the Pöstlingberg (537m/1,762ft), a popular viewpoint from which in clear weather there is a superb view of the Alps; an electric mountain railroad runs to the top. As the vessel continues on its way there is a fine view, looking backwards, of Linz in its setting of hills.

Schloss Ottensheim (267m/876ft; old keep) is situated on the left bank of the Danube, obliquely across from Wilhering Abbey (see Linz, Surroundings), a large complex of buildings with a church, externally plain, which has one of the most exquisite Roccoco interiors in Austria.

After the boat sailing the Danube from Passau to Linz passes Engelhartszell, the valley now becomes still narrower and with little human habitation. Then, after the great loop known as the Schlögener Schlinge, the scene changes, and the boat sails past a series of friendly little holiday villages such as Obermühl and Neuhaus, the latter with an old castle looming over it, a conspicuous landmark.

Next to Engelszell Monastery in St Agidi is a highly entertaining Trout Circus.