van der merwes blog site

Today we completed 84km, along two river valleys – from Fusch to Golling

The first ten km or so out of Fusch was still part of the descent from Grossglochner, down the Fuscher river valley. It was all on nice bike paths, and went quickly.

There was a lot of construction and the bicycle route became messy when we reached Bruck at the end of the valley.
We turned East here – into the Salzach river valley.

When we rejoined the Adria-Alpine Radweg, it sent us back uphill – a climb of a few hundred meters. We met another cycle tourist and took photos of each other.

Our route took us past Bischofshofen and Werfen.

Note the para-glider in the foreground of the photo

We noticed some ladders in the river to help trout swim upstream.

Before we got to Golling we passed through a very steep kloof – we were forced to share the road with cars here as it was so narrow. There was a castle on the hillside just before this pass. It opened up on the other side for a quick descent into Golling.

Narrow pass before Golling

Countryside flattens between the pass and Golling

We didn’t like Golling too much, even though it has pretty buildings. The town is ruined by a busy road running through the center including large trucks. Our accommodation was on this road above a cake shop – it was overpriced and noisy.

Although our the cycling route from Golling to Salzburg should have taken only around 30km we ended up doing 50km, after we had explored Salzburg and continued on to our budget accommodation around 10km out of town (to the north).

We still enjoyed the, by now familiar, alpine scenery at the start of our route – but this morning was the last of it.

Scene just out of Golling

There was a strong smell of sweet onions riding through this stretch of forest, emanating from the plants on the sides of the path.

Elsbethen is a small town just before Salzburg (must be named for Kris’s mother!)

We enjoyed riding into Salzburg – the bike paths got better and better as we drew closer, until we were riding on a sealed path alongside the river, passing by some very attractive large public gardens. The castle on the hill dominates the view of the city as you get closer. A strong wind began to blow on this part of our ride, but luckily it seemed to blow itself out by the time we reached the city and there was no rain.

We meandered about a bit enjoying views of the Cathedral, castle and other old buildings.

Locks on a bridge (promising everlasting love)

Up-market shopping street

My favorite part of the city was the Mirabellgarten – you are not allowed to ride bicycles here, as the garden is a quiet space in the city, so we pushed ours through.

German poem about the garden – now also accessible to me as my German improves

Once we had seen enough, we made our way to the river again, to head out north alongside the river bank. We passed more sprawling university buildings here.

Our accommodation is well out of the city and is a large hostel like hotel – very clean with practical functional rooms and at a very good price. However booking.com had stated the wifi was rated as excellent, so I was disappointed when it was pretty much sub-par. We got to the hotel at around 2pm, with the idea of spending the time planning our time in Berlin – we had to book 13 nights accommodation and a rental car. We ended up sitting in the breakfast room as the wifi was so weak in our room, and the connection kept on dropping. So we spent many hours doing the research and making the bookings.
With this kind of traveling, you can never totally predict or control what you will get – in our experience even if you pay more!

Today we meandered along the river Inn, from Salzburg to Hochburg, a trip that should have taken around 40km. We stretched it out to 54km. The river is the border between Germany in Austria, so we rode in both countries today.

We had a treat in the morning when our friends from Hamburg, Andreas and Silvia, turned up with Andreas’ grandmother, a charming 87 year old lady. They were returning home from a trip to the Alps and still had to drive back to Hamburg, so we just had a short chat and visit together.
Andreas and Silvia left us with a gift of some strong little bottles of hazelnut and herb liqueur, which came in handy later.

We bought some food from the good local supermarket before we left, as our destination town is so small and we thought there may not be good grocery shopping there. All in all it was a late start to begin cycling at around 10am.

We started out finding the nice cycle path along the river again, but it soon petered out a bit and we crossed the border to Germany. There were no border posts or guards, just a road sign indicating the crossing.
We attempted to follow the river again, and there were nice river roads in places, but they kept on coming to dead ends.

This stretch of river path was not so bad

Obscure path next to river – maybe not an official bike path?

Definitive dead end – no way to cross the water

By the time we reached Laufen, we had travelled twice the distance planned, on a combination of good bicycle tracks, unsealed tracks and walking paths.

Laufen had a very impressive bridge crossing over into Austria again. The traffic was quite congested coming off the bridge and we criss crossed through the town again trying to find the right road. The problem being a big hill that we had to make our way around.

Laufen Border post – back in Austria

At one point we traveled on a very nice path alongside a field with cows, up a hill and into some woods – this also came to a dead end and we had to back track to take a steep road going down to the river.

Dead end in woods

Finally we found a good straight bicycle track alongside the river and began to make up some distance. Only for Kris to get a puncture – in his back tire this time. Jenny actually rode on for quite a while before realising Kris was not following and back tracking. It was difficult to get the back tire off, so the tire change took a while. It threatened to rain while we were working but luckily never quite got there. Jenny opened the nut liqueur at this point.

When we reached Ostermiething, we left the river to cut across country to our destination at Hochburg. We passed through a number of small but prosperous looking villages. Many of the houses had immaculate gardens. One had a covered swimming pool. We rode on a busy road for a while, with a bit of a hill climb, before turning off onto a forest road, mostly downhill, that lead to Hochburg.

Hochburg is a small village and you first see the church spire as we approach.

Approach to Hochburg

The Stiftsgasthof Hochburg (where we stayed) is in an historic building next to the church. Alongside is a memorial to Franz Xaver Gruber, the composer of “Silent Night” – who was born in this town. There is also a historic 18th century house alongside. A very enthusiastic guide to the house greeted us and took us through, showing us all the artifacts from life at that time. Including a piano that belonged to Gruber and a loom (for making sisal cloth), that he used.

Silent night memorial

Memorial house

Gruber’s piano

Today was Ascension day, a public holiday in Germany and Austria, so all the shops were closed and everyone was out and about. There were many people on the cycle ways, fishing on the river, and in the cafes. However, it was not quite as jolly as we experienced in Germany on our previous tours – no people dancing in the streets.

We traveled 84km, mostly on cycle paths – from Hochburg to Scharding. We started out on a lovely forest ride out of Hochburg.

And not long after, we had a brief ride on one of the most peculiar roads we have experienced. It was still in the forest, and unique because the middle of the road was much higher than the sides – by at least half a meter in places. This would make it impossible to ride on with an ordinary car – we assume only trucks ride here (so this may have been done be done on purpose to keep cars out). It was uncomfortable to cycle, as the road was unsealed and we were riding on an angle on the side.

Uncomfortable road
As soon as we could we turned off onto a tarred road. Kris found a path to the river, which also eventually petered out. Then onto a bigger road with cars for a while (part of the official cycle route).

And finally onto off-road cycle routes alongside the river Inn, for the rest of the day. The river was amazingly calm when we joined it early on – a mirror reflecting the clouds above.

Many of these routes were on the stop banks and became quite monotonous in the last ten kilometers – very flat and straight with bushes on either side and no good view of the river. However we made good progress.

The river is the border between Germany and Austria. We rode in Austria for most of the day, but did cross over a couple of times to ride in Germany. Our destination (Sharding) is in Austria.

The front mudguard of Jenny’s bicycle got mangled when a stick got stuck in the wheel. After some debate over whether it was salvageable, Kris finally removed the mudguard as he thought it safer and we continued on our way. On a cycle tour of this length, you start out all shiny and clean with new equipment that gradually degrades, things break off and wear down, but you carry on.

We crossed the river again to get to Sharding, and saw how wide it had become – at least 100m wide.

After circling through the town, we bought some absolutely delicious pastries from a bakery in the main square, and had some beer and pizza at an outdoor cafe. There were many people around, a lot having arrived by bicycle. The cafes were buzzing. The town bills itself as a “baroque town” – the buildings are all narrow with gables and are painted in different bright colours. Evidently the colours relate to medieval guild colours – red for butchers, blue for bakers, yellow for brewers etc. There is also a large brewery in the town. We enjoyed some beer and pizza at one of the cafes on the main square.

Our accommodation is one of the most expensive yet, and in the center of town. The room is small, although it has everything you want and a nice bathroom. However the Internet is a disappointment – it doesn’t work in the room at all, probably because the walls are so thick (Old buildings in Europe have very thick walls). We had to sit next to a router in the hallway to plan for the next day’s journey. There was a comfortable table and chairs to sit on, but the lights go off automatically every minute or so and then you have to wave your hands around to get them on again with the motion sensor.

We only did 64km in all today, from Scharding to Falkanbach (outside Freyung), but it was an exhausting due to the nature of the terrain and roads we traversed.

After much debate, we had decided that we would not follow Eurovelo 7 into Czech Republic, but rather stay in Germany and head north towards the Bavarian woods. The obvious bicycle route from here is Eurovelo 6 along the Danube, but we did that on our last cycle tour.

The first part of our journey today was straightforward – from Sharding to Passau, along established bike paths and alongside the river. Morning river rides are always special, with a magic quality to the light on the water. Look at the reflection of this monastery on the river.

We kept pace with a short couple on electric bicycles most of the way to Passau. The man seemed very keen on overtaking us early on, on the gravel path. Once we were back on sealed paths closer, we overtook them on a couple of downhill runs. Electric bikes had an automatic shut off once they reach a speed of 25km in Germany. So we made it into Passau just ahead of them!

We stopped at tourist information at Passau, but they were not particularly well informed about bike routes going north (all the tourist are on the Donau!). However they did provide us with a map with some cycle routes outlined through the Bavarian woods area that has been quite helpful.

I was taken with this statue to a woman poetess, that I hadn’t seen two years ago when we passed through Passau.

We rode alongside the Danube for only about 100 metres, before we made our way to the Ilz river, avoiding the big roads.

The main route north was on a busy road so Kris’s idea was that we could follow the banks of the Ilz river up north. This worked, although some of the routes we took were walking trails not bike paths.

This interesting trail took us through a tunnel that cut through the hill between S-bends in the river – some water was running through it. The stairs on the other side were so steep Kris had to carry my bicycle up.

Once we were out of the little nature reserve, we moved away from the river and Kris navigated us through very small rural roads and villages – Eggersdorf, Rhornbach, Harsdorf. Our route was much longer than you would take with a car, as we kept skirting around the bigger road. This part of the ride was hard as it took us through foothills leading to the Bavarian Forest – so there were constant hill climbs and it was also getting really hot.

Our final hill climb before Freyung was through the forest on unsealed roads. Jenny was not happy having downhill runs on loose gravel again.

We finally reached Freyung after 3pm and did a big shop at the supermarket. The accommodation we had booked was an apartment a few kilometers out of town, without any dinner, drinks or breakfast available. We enjoyed shopping in the German supermarket again and finding some old favorites from previous trips.

We circled the town and then did the final few hill climbs to the accommodation. We were very shocked when the lady who answered the door rudely said we couldn’t stay there and that booking.com should have contacted us. We were sweaty and exhausted. We just insisted to her that we had a booking.com booking confirmation. She looked on her computer and phoned around a bit. She finally got into the car and asked us to follow her. She led us a kilometer up the road (more uphills!) to two more accommodation providers. The one was deserted, with no one at home. We knocked on the other one and thankfully it had a place available. It was above our budget but we didn’t care, and in the end booking.com reimbursed the difference in price.

So we stayed a wonderful Gasthaus, der Danibauer (www.danibauer.de) – a historic house – it has been run as a guest house by the same family for more than 100 years.

The woman running it is an amazing attentive hostess. There were people drinking and eating beautiful food in the historic courtyard. There are only a few rooms upstairs, the main business seems to be the restaurant. We were just sorry we had bought all this food. We restrained ourselves to just having some Weisenbier and asparagus soup (Spargelsuppe). The woman said she could not afford booking.com as it represented a 30% overhead.

Booking.com had later sent me an email at 11am suggesting other accommodation, not very helpful. I claimed the price difference in accommodation from booking.com as a matter of principle and complained bitterly. (booking.com refunded the money without argument). We are looking for alternative booking channels.

Today we chose a shorter route, as we are both feeling tired and stiff (maybe still from the Alps?). Our route was only 28km, from Falkenbach (Freyung) to Spiegelau. We were on nice small roads, all sealed, and nominally following the Donau-Bayerwald cycle route – in any case we spotted cycle route signs every now and then. There are no other cycle tourists on these routes – probably too hilly!

We left late (9.30!) after a good breakfast in the historic cellar of the gasthaus.

Typical German breakfast

The areas we rode through became more wooded, but remain very hilly – some long stead uphill climbs and some nice downhill runs. The only largish town we rode through was Grafenau.

This is a typical scene half way up one of the hills.  Notice the tractor in the foreground – we have seen a lot of activity involving silage cutting over the past couple of days – even though today is a Saturday farming activity continues.

We arrived in Spiegelau around lunchtime. We stopped at the Penninger Schnapps brewery near the start of the town – where we admired the beautifully packaged and decorated bottles and were given some to taste. My favorite was the Lusen-Hexe Heidelbeerlikkor. We bought some little bottles to try out later.

We got to our accommodation too early to check in. Hotel-Pension Salzsumerhof is alongside a big green field with plenty of open space, so we used our time to give the bicycles some attention. Kris needed to try to re-seat his tire, which has been running uneven since he changed the flat tire three days ago. Jenny gave the bicycles a wash and oiled the chains – they were getting very grubby after much riding on unsealed paths.

We had a quick look around the rest of the town – not much to see – it is the start of a number of tramping trails into the national park (Bavarian Woods) and that seems to be the main tourist activity.

We ate in the gasthaus in the evening – it was a treat to have a home cooked meal of salad, soup, and goulash with dumplings.

We left Spiegelau after a fantastic breakfast that had every option you could possibly think of – including sausages and mustard!

Our route for the day was not an official bicycle route – Kris once again found us small roads to travel on between little towns – Kirchdorf am Wald, Rinchnach, Regen, Sohl, Kaikenried – to Patersdorf.

Regan was the biggest town we passed through and we paused in the town square. It was very hot.

Regan

Regan maypole

We ended up doing a shorter route than we expected – only 40km – as we zig zagged across the countryside we found some excellent bicycle paths that are not advertised.

The entire day was through gentle hill country – so we had our share of climbs as well as nice downhill runs. It soon began to get too hot – which makes the uphill climbs difficult.

It was also a festive Sunday (maybe people are still celebrating Pentecost?) – we rode past a couple of tents filled with people, some in traditional dress, and the sound of Bavarian Brass Bands emanating from inside.

We arrived at Patersdorf just after 1pm, and were pleased to see that the Gasthof includes a restaurant and a terrace where you can sit and drink beer. They kindly let us check in early and we had a restful afternoon out of the heat.

Weizenbier

Later on we had a delicious and reasonably priced meal on the terrace. We are enjoying these traditional German Gasthofs – they are great value and very comfortable.

We chatted with the couple sitting at the table beside us – they are doing a shorter tour, and on electric bicycles – their bicycles cost E4,000 each! We are not doing too badly on our cheap Declathon bikes…

A half a dozen older, obviously local, men sat at another table, drinking beer and chatting. We were later told that this is a “Stamtisch” – a group that meets regularly for conversation.

Today we rode 52km – from Patersdorf to Chammunster.

We are having a bit of a heatwave – we are told that spring has not come to Bavaria this year – it has gone straight from winter to summer!
We left as early as we could, in the cool of the day, after our good German hotel breakfast – including yogurt, boiled egg, bread rolls with cheese and cold meats – and plenty of coffee.

The first part of our ride was still hilly, but along good cycle ways – and through green fields dotted with little villages and farmsteads.

We soon came to Viechtach, where we found an Edeka supermarket for some supplies (more sunscreen!).

After this we got onto the Regental-Radweg. The first 20km or so was built on an old railway line. Although the countryside was hilly, we had a gentle ride because of the well graded train track – though our overall direction is still uphill.

The next section was alongside the Regen river, on bespoke cyclepaths. The countryside had started to flatten out at this point, so we had an easy ride

Before we knew it we had overshot our destination- we should have turned off at Chamerau, but we almost cycled all the way to Cham. We crossed the river and made our way back to Chammunster, where we paused to eat our apples and buy some more snacks at a small shop. The shop keeper was very talkative and she had a broad Bayrische accent.
Our accommodation is just down the road from Chammunster, with fields all around and a forest behind it. It is another lovely traditional gasthof, where you can drink beer and enjoy a hearty meal at the end of the day.
We checked in early again and had another restful afternoon out of the heat – becoming a habit for us now.

Jenny had trout and Zander (also a freshwater fish) later on, which was a real treat. The meal came with salad, which comes in a separate plate – all very good value for E10.80.

Later on Jenny walked out of the hotel, to see the sunset at around 9pm.

It was a beautiful moment – with the air cooling down finally after the heat of the day. There was a very slight breeze in wheat field next to the hotel – the wheat is very green and fresh. The sky displayed coral pinks and reds below speckled clouds. The sound of traffic and a dog barking were constant in the background – but also birdsong and running water.

Today was a longer ride – 82km, from Chammunster to Burglengenfeld.

We had an early start this morning (before 8am) as the gasthaus offered an early breakfast. The sun already had some heat in it and we knew we were in for a hot day ahead, so we were keen to do most of our riding in the morning.

The first part of the ride was flat and easy. It became more difficult when we ran into some roadworks that took us off track and added a few extra kilometers to our journey.

We entered some steep woodlands just after the cloister at Walderbach. Jenny took a wrong turn while Kris rode on ahead and we became separated. Jenny stopped at another fork in the road further on and waited anxiously for half an hour or so as Kris backtracked and worked out what had happened.

The bike path then came alongside the river Regan. We stopped at Nittenau, a biggish town to eat a pastry and some ice cream outside the supermarket. It was past midday and very hot at this stage, so good to cool off a bit.

Then we crossed the river to join the Marienthal cycleway, which took us up and down through some woodland. It was a relief to ride in the shade, though the road was not easy (unsealed etc).

We reached our target area for accommodation when we got onto a tarred road and reached Teublitz. We had not booked accommodation on-line, so had to find some on the ground. There was not much in Teublitz and the woman at the Rathaus (town hall) advised that there was accommodation is Burglengenfeld, only a few kilometers away.

Burglengenfeld was a much prettier town and the tourist office gave us a list of accommodation. We went to our preferred accommodation on the outskirts of the town and found a sign saying that it was closed for a Ruhetag (rest day/ day off). As we were standing there looking at our list to decide where to go to next, someone came out of the gasthaus. We spoke to him and he said there is a possibility of a room. A little while later he came out with a key! We seem to have the place to ourselves. The room is nice and big, it is very reasonable and breakfast is included. The only thing we did not have is Wifi.

River Naab and Burglengenfeld

Burglengenfeld center

Burglengenfeld Rathaus

Later on we walked through the town to look for some food and drink. We stopped at a pizza place and ended up helping the owner’s daughter with her English speech – for a school exam. We got our pizza for free!
We then tried Weizenbier at three different cafes – we sat outdoors for the first two and inside on the last. The last one was also a Greek restaurant and had the best beer. We had a wonderful Greek anti-pasta platter and pita bread – it was so good we ordered a second one. We were both really full and satisfied by the time we rolled back to the hotel.

Today we traveled along the Naabtal Radweg – 72km from Burglegenfeld to Hirschau.
We started riding out of Burglegenfeld along the Naab river.

We paused at Schwarzenfeld to have a quick look at the town – including an old watermill. We don’t know why the statue is holding a boot aloft.

From here on we rode alongside the train tracks for a long while, through productive rural farming country.
We paused again at Nabburg, to admire the walled town and church, all perched up on top of a hill above the river.

At one point we had to stop at this railway crossing – the gates were closed and there was an intercom with a button you had to press. Jenny pressed it and in a little while a voice asked us to please wait as a train was coming – just as well Jenny understands German! Once the train was passed, she asked Jenny to confirm that it had passed by, and then opened the gates for us.

We stopped at the town hall in Wenberg-Koblitz to ask for information on accommodation in the next ten kilometers or so. We decided to segue to the West, towards Nurnberg, staying at Hirschau that evening. The first part of this road was an excellent cycleway alongside the main road through a forest.

The road became a bit chaotic just before Hirschau, with many trucks, as we approached a large Kaolin mine. The cycleway was still separated from the trucks, but it was not as pleasant and we were getting worried about what Hirschau would be like.

Hirschau is luckily off the main road and a bit away from the mine, it is a lovely little town.

We were disappointed that the accommodation we were aiming for was charging quite a bit more than advertised on their website. We went around and asked at the other places in town but they were full – we suspect with employees from the mine. In the end we had to take the more expensive accommodation (without breakfast to keep the cost down). We decided not to eat there, and found the local pub.

It is called the Goldenes Lamm and we had a wonderful evening there with some regulars who live just around the corner. A lot of discussion on Bavaria, politics, beer, etc. We also had some surprisingly good pub food – curry wurst, asparagus toast, soup.

The pub is right next to the Catholic church and the town square – the church bells struck the hour, as well as half and quarter while we sat there. Some children dressed in white arrived and began to process around the outside of the church with candles singing. This was a ceremony to do with their first communion the Sunday before.

Elvis visited this pub in 1960!