The Prolog runs down the sloops of the Wienerwald, bordering Vienna to the north, through the many wineries.

The main route passes through the fields using country roads and field tracks. The Leitha river is bordered by woods, providing sun shelter in the summer. 

The landscape contains many wind-turbine.

When the Danube curves around two large hills, the Hundesheimer Berg and the Braunsberg, the trail runs close to the river. In springtime, the track can be flooded. When it does, a short detour is recommended. 

From the Danube bent the trail follows the Danube on a towpath (Treppelweg) until Bratislava.

The Danubian wetlands (Donau Auen) between Vienna and Hainburg are an National Park.

The Leitha river is a Natura 200 site and makes good fishing. It is home to several bever families. In summer, the area is also rich in musquitos.

The Braunsberg and Hundesheimer Berg are rich of game.

In the area around Vienna, some good wineries are found.

The shores of shallow Neusiedlersee are cover by reeds, making it an ideal habitat for wildlife. The lake itself is a vital resting place for migrating birds.

Lower Austria produces some outstanding wines. A typical drink is Most (grape juice) and Heurige (young wine).

Burgenland is known for its cereals, especially spelt, used in bread, cakes and even beer, and fish from the lake, like Zander, Eel, Pikes and Carp.

Typical food of Lower Austria is: a potato dumpling called Mohnnudels, the Wachau apricot dumpling and Mohnzelten, according to the Taste Atlas.

The wineries around Rauchenwarth take turns in offering Heuriger (or Buschenschank) where this young wine is served together with a limited selection of food in a very simple and sociable setting. Ask locals for the calendar.

Bad Deutsch-Altenburg is a popular Spa resort with iodine-sulphur springs.

People have lived in this area since 8.000 BC. Around 400 BC, Celtic tribes settled here, and from 15 BC, the Romans dominated the region. German tribes took over in the mid-500s, and around 800, Charlemagne, king of the Franks, ruled.

In the middle ages, the Babenberg family possessed the lands and later the Habsburg family.

In 1529 the Ottoman arrived at the gates of Vienna.  During the next 150 years, they would fight with the Habsburgs for control over the area. Eventually, they lost, and Austria entered the lush Baroque era, challenged only briefly by Napoleon in the early 19th century.

The Rhodope mountains have been populated since prehistoric times. The first known people are the Thracians who built many temples, cities and fortresses. The most famous town in the area is the sacred city of Perperikon located 15 km northeast of Kardzhali.

Dyavolski Most
The spectacular 18th-century Ottoman bridge over the Arda river, in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains

Since Roman times it has been an important mining area (lead, zinc, gold, chromite), crisscrossed by trading routes. Mining continued in Ottoman times resulting in many beautiful bridges, where trading routes had to cross a river, such as in Trigrad, Smolyan, Edirne and most impressive of all, Dyavolski Most.

Rila Monastery (10^th), hidden deeply in the valley of the Rilska river, is regarded as one of Bulgaria’s most important spiritual, cultural, historical and architectural monuments.

The population of southern Bulgaria has been ethnically and religiously diverse for centuries. The mountains are home to a number of Muslim communities, including Pomak (converted Bulgarians) and Bulgarian Turks.

The Sv. Nedelya church in Batak bears witness to atrocities that took place during the struggle for independence in 1876.

At Belitsa, in the Rila Mountains, the French actress Brigitte Bardot helped to finance a bear sanctuary, which the trail passes.
In the Arda valley, the trail passes the vulture centre in Madzharovo.

Near Ivaylovgrad the remains of a Roman villa have been preserved.

Finally, Edirne, once the capital of the Ottoman Empire, before the capture of Istanbul, still preserves architecture from that ‘golden age’ of the Ottoman Empire, many of which were designed by its most renowned architect Sinan (1490-1588).