Danube - Sailing Tour - Nibelungengau

The park is situated south of Waidhofen/Ybbs, between 400 - 790m above sea level, in the western Alpine foothills.

The Eisenwurzen Nature Park is a good place for hikes.

Boats on the Danube pass the market town of Weitenegg on the left bank, and then the splendid Baroque buildings of the Benedictine Melk Abbey come into view on the right (exhibitions all the year round in the nearby Schalla castle).

The local museum in Ybbs has information on the history and culture of the town.

Just past Ybbs, the Danube rounds a projecting tongue of land, the Gottsdorfer Scheibe, in a great loop known as the Böse Beuge (Wicked Bend), and the River Ybbs enters from the right. At Sarling the railroad line from Linz to Vienna comes close to the river on the right. Beyond this stands the ruined castle of Säusenstein. From high up on a hill to the left the pilgrimage church of Maria Taferl (443m/1,454ft) looks down into the valley (landing-stage at Marbach).

A road bridge links Persenbeug with Ybbs (on the right side of the Danube; alt. 220m/722ft), the Roman Ad Pontem Isidis. This marks the beginning of the Nibelungengau. Ybbs is noted for its Gothic parish church and the old houses and Renaissance fountain in the town center. It also has a local museum.