Lower Inn Cycle Path

The Lower Inn Cycle Path (R3) follows the lower Inn downstream for around 65 kilometres, from the old town of Braunau to the bank opposite Passau - the Upper-Austrian section of the international Inn Cycle Path. Because the river is impounded by a chain of run-of-river power stations, the route stays almost level. The headliners are the Inn itself and the Lower Inn European Reserve, a bird paradise on the reservoirs, plus the Baroque town of Schärding with its "Silberzeile," the Augustinian abbey of Reichersberg and the old town of Braunau. About half the route runs on fine, water-bound gravel through the floodplain - ideal for a trekking bike.

The Inn Cycle Path is a quiet, almost level river route - and that is precisely its appeal. The Inn rises in the Engadin, crosses Tyrol and forms the border between Austria and Bavaria along its lower course before joining the Danube at Passau; in the annual mean it actually carries slightly more water there than the Danube itself, above all during the alpine snowmelt. Over the final 65 kilometres or so to Passau the river is impounded by a chain of run-of-river power stations - Braunau-Simbach, Ering-Frauenstein, Egglfing-Obernberg and Schärding-Neuhaus - so the cycle path gains barely fifty metres of elevation over its whole length. The start is Braunau am Inn, the largest town in the Innviertel: a long Inn-Salzach market square and the gothic parish church of St. Stephan with its 87-metre tower, one of the tallest church towers in Austria. Braunau is also the birthplace of Adolf Hitler (Salzburger Vorstadt 15); since 1989 a "Stone of Remembrance against War and Fascism" of Mauthausen granite has stood in front of it, the building itself was expropriated by the state in 2016 and is being converted into a police station. Downstream the route enters the Lower Inn European Reserve - a Ramsar wetland of international importance since 1976 and, thanks to the shallow reservoirs with their reedbeds and gravel islands, one of Central Europe's most important stopover and wintering grounds for waterfowl, with well over 270 recorded bird species. The reservoirs of Ering-Frauenstein and Egglfing-Obernberg are the places to watch it all, and the Naturium am Inn at Ering explains the reserve. Above the river sits Obernberg am Inn with one of the finest market squares in the country, its Baroque stucco facades recalling its time as a Passau border fortress. A little later the path reaches Stift Reichersberg, an Augustinian abbey founded around 1084 by Wernher von Reichersberg and his wife Dietbirga after their son drowned in the Inn - the canons remain active to this day, and the abbey tavern makes a fine stop. Schärding provides the cultural climax: the Baroque town on the Inn was Bavarian until 1779, and its celebrated "Silberzeile" lines up colourful burgher houses in the Inn-Salzach style; the colours are traditionally assigned to the former guilds, the name to the "silver coins" of the wealthy merchants. Past the Wassertor and below Schloss Wernstein the Inn sweeps north in wide bends until the state border opposite Passau is reached at Neuhaus; a few minutes on, the Inn joins the Danube at the Three Rivers Corner, where the Danube Cycle Path (EuroVelo 6) connects. About half the route is paved, the other half runs on fine, water-bound gravel through the Inn floodplain, without any significant rough stretch - excellent for trekking and touring bikes, and rideable on road bikes if you are prepared for the quiet gravel surface. Because it is level and largely car-free, the tour suits families well.