Today you’ll arrive in Passau, the City of Three Rivers, at the confluence of the Inn, Ilz and Danube Rivers. Depending on flight times, you may have the chance to stretch your legs with a sightseeing wander around the city and maybe visit the impressive cathedral or museum of modern art.

Your local representative will meet you at your hotel to fit you to your bikes (if hiring) and to hand out information on the route including detailed maps and notes. They will discuss your program and route and answer any questions you might have.

• Meals: Breakfast

Today you’ll be passing through the charming town of Engelhartszell with its unique Trappist monastery and breathtakingly beautiful rococo church. The monastery also makes its own brandies! After cycling through granite massifs, the route opens into an opulent green landscape before following the river around a 270 degree bend near Schlögen. You’ll spend the night either in Schlögen or nearby.

• Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast you’ll continue through the narrow and winding Danube valley to Ottensheim, a medieval market town with an historic parish church and castle. Once you’ve seen the sights you’ll continue riding alongside the Danube under the gaze of old castles that peer down from the hilltops. You’ll soon come to Linz, Austria’s third-largest city, with a historic market square surrounded by Baroque buildings. The majestic fifteenth-century Linz Citadel stands watch over the Danube. You might want to board Europe’s steepest mountain railway to climb the Pöstlingberg, a hill overlooking the city. The train, which still operates with its original 19th-century cars, covers nearly 2 miles and about 825 vertical feet in 16 minutes and offers a fantastic view out over the river.

• Meals: Breakfast

You can start today with an optional ride to St. Florian (10 miles/16Kms), a small town dominated by an Augustine Abbey which is recognised as one of the finest Baroque buildings in Europe. Beyond its architectural splendour, St. Florian also contains the so-called “Bruckner Organ” with its 7,386 pipes. Organist and composer Anton Bruckner played the organ and is buried in a crypt beneath it. Behind Bruckner’s tomb, more than 6,000 skeletons are stacked in neat but ghoulish rows, tended by monks which have served in the abbey since 1071. You’ll continue past two medieval castles to the Enns River and head a few miles upstream to Enns, the oldest city in Austria. Enns is picture-perfect with its medieval tower, fortifications and its Renaissance and Baroque façades.

• Meals: Breakfast

Just out of Enns, a winding road overlooking the Danube ends starkly at the concentration camp in Mauthausen. This is an optional side trip which offers a stark insight into a tragic period in the area’s history.

In Wallsee, you might want to take the time to visit the 14th-Century Wallsee Castle, still in the possession of the Hapsburgs. Past the tiny village of Ardagger, you’ll ride under the mighty Fortress Clam. You’ll explore the fertile farmland of the Danube Valley, through rural towns and picturesque farms. Grein with its imposing castle soon comes into view which for many is one of the highlights of the trip. With only 2,800 residents, Grein is one of Austria’s smallest towns. Due to its strategic location above rapids on the Danube, the city became quite rich during the 16th and 17th centuries, and the wealth is still evident in the elaborate houses built around the town square.

• Meals: Breakfast

After Grein, the Danube starts getting narrower, the valley is tighter and increasingly more craggy, making it all the more impressive when you round a sharp bend to find the ruins of Persenbeug Castle looming over you.

You’ll cross the river to Ybbs, with its recently restored old town with winding lanes, quiet courtyards and patrician homes from the 15th and 16th centuries. Astoundingly, much of the historic town wall is still intact. You’ll follow the Danube around a tight curve and travel a short distance to another tour highlight: the Melk Abbey. Melk marks the official start of the Wachau, Austria’s most famous wine-growing region. Vineyards stretch up the sides of the valley, and wine villages lie along the river as well as in the neighbouring hills. The Benedictine Abbey, a magnificent Baroque structure built between 1702 and 1736, surrounds seven courtyards. You can take a tour of the abbey and the adjacent English landscape garden if you fancy a break from the saddle.

• Meals: Breakfast

From Spitz, in the heart of the Wachau, you can take a short hike to the ruins of the Hinterhaus castle and look across to the Tausendeimerberg – the Mountain of a Thousand Buckets so named because of the abundance of grapes that grow there – where vineyards are carved into hillside terraces. The hike takes about an hour. You can lock up your bikes in Spitz and you’ll be provided with maps for the hike in your info pack.

Back on the bikes and you’ll soon reach Krems, which you’ll enter through its impressive Stone Gate. The 1000-year-old town is surrounded by vineyards and filled with historic buildings – including churches, monasteries and fortifications. Krems also offers a nice selection of cafes, shops, bars and bistros.

• Meals: Breakfast

You’ll ride past dams and lochs and along trails as the valley broadens and flattens. Here the river flows off into oxbows and meanders, the setting feels more like remote wetlands than one of the world’s mightiest rivers. In Tulln, known as the “Flower City”, you can enjoy a ride along the medieval town walls and look for relics from Roman times.

• Meals: Breakfast

Unfortunately today is your final day cycling but you still need to pass Klosterneuburg with its imposing monastery before you reach Vienna for your final night. If you still have the energy Vienna is a fantastic city which is well worth exploring! You’ll spend your evening in a centrally located hotel.

• Meals: Breakfast

The time has come to head home, but not before some last minute sightseeing and a chance to get those souvenirs you promised everyone back home.