Day 6, Salzburg to Burghausen, 61km, Ascent 143m, Descent 280m 3/09/2019
Back on the road with the sun shining and the streams flowing faster than I have ever seen in Salzburg.
Soon after this, we cross the Salzach just downstream of the new dam (run of the river powerplant) and head left and downstream. The path is forested and we are soon past the point where the Salach river joins the Salzach. From here, the German Austrian border now follows us down the middle of the river.
There is a large area just south of here undergoing restoration.
Such restoration also has a role to play in preserving underground water levels and mitigating the risk of flood damage.
Lunch was beside the Salzach on a bench overlooking the water with forest on both sides. We have coffee at Tittmoning just across the river, a gorgeous little German town with a long cobbled stoned square defined by coloured houses with well preserved town gates at both ends.
On the German side, we enjoy a few kilometres of rather muddy single track.
Soon after, and 50m inland, there is a border stone between Austria and Bavaria, collecting lichens since 1820 . . .
We arrived in Berghausen and managed to find accommodation on the waterfront, facing the Austrian river bank.
The view of Austria from across the Inns from the kilometre long castle (7 courtyards) built on the ridge.
Behind is a long lake, probably a dead arm of the Inns. Dinner was at a resturant within the castle walls overlooking this lake.
Day 7, Burghausen to Passau, 91.4km, Ascent 391m, Descent 499m 4/09/2019
Another cool, bright, sunny morning and a look back at the castle. Note that the floods of 2013 reached above the wall above the water.
A little later, the trail heads up the steep hillside and joins a main road before a lookout over the point where the Salzach is joined by the larger and darker Inns river flowing out of Bavaria - directly ahead, above. We head off back on the road for a short while before the trail leads back down the hill and quite close to the water.
Before the dams along the river, with locks to allow shipping, flood prevention walls were built allowing for very flat, very long and very straight cycleways . . . and certainly we came across cyclists going either way. Say half on ebikes.
Mostly. . .
Another body of still water, another monastory on the shore . . .
We finally arrive at Passau at the confluence of the Inn and Danube rivers. And the much smaller Ilz.
On the medieval town hall, flood levels over the years, note that the 2013 is only second from the top.
Naming rivers convention; when rivers join, it is the bigger, longer river that maintains it's name downstream. However, in the case of the Inns and the Danube rivers, it is the Danube that keeps the name even though it is considerably smaller and slower that the Innes. Passau is yet another stunning town, almost as big as Salzburg. We find a gorgeous hotel in a very old but well renovated building close to the town square. Another long day in the saddle but we manage a walk around the town centre before dinner in the square.
Day 7, Passau to Linz, Train to Vienna, 105.3km, Ascent 417m, Descent 363m 5/09/2019
Another cool, sunny day. A view of the Danube and the Ilz converging.
A bit further down, and a view of all three rivers converging. And the view from a postcard clearly shows the three rivers, below;
Ilz at the top, Danube in the middle and the Inns at the bottom.
Along one patch, the river ran between wooded slopes with only the road squeezing in. With dams creating much still water, we rode pass a stretch with numerous white swans. The dam was Jochenstein and was an easy flat crossing until we came to the loch itself, two stories of narrow and steep granite steps with a slippery stainless ramp for the bikes, up and down on the far side. An exhibit and eatery of sorts on the German side greeted us. Lunch was of ham and cheese sandwiches as we read the signboards. The key stone species here is the dimunitative Starlet sturgeon which grows to just 1.2m long and breeding programmes are trying to bring numbers back up. So where is the fish ladder?
Further along, the valley seems to narrow, and the road we are on follows the river around a corner and simply stops. There are a few farmhouses on a small patch of flat land on the inside of the curve which provide wonderful organic offerings. We join the half a dozen bike riders awaiting the ferry to cross the river to continue the trail and have afternoon coffee. So far from any traffic, the chickens, roosters and turkeys there all run free. This part of the river is called the Schlögener Schlinge, where the river turns completely to the opposite direction before turning back again, a very big S curve. While there has been cleared farmland at the top of the valley for many centuries, you cannot see it at the bottom and it all feels very remote, almost wilderness.
There is very little traffic here.
We continue until we get to our last dam at Ottensheim which actually does have a substantial bypass stream for wildlife that was separated from the main river some 15km further upstream. Just beyond the dam, we cross a small bridge over this stream and the cycleway follows along until the waters reconverge. We arrive shortly at a ferry connection to the other side. It is a two hulled, two storey structure that can carry a dozen cars or so that uses a wire cable to simply ferry across the water. Too ugly to actually photograph (Earth Google it if you must . . ) . Once across, we ride through the small village of Ottensheim, then Puchenau before reaching the outskirts of Linz during peak hour. The cycleway is becoming crowded and runs right beside the main road into town, and there is at least a kilometre or so of new cycleway cantilevered over the river itself. Linz is Austria's second city but we make it to the main train station ahead of the threatening rain - it is no longer just a matter of seeking out the church tower. The bikes are booked in on the 7pm train and we make it with time to eat at the station.
The train has us back in Vienna in just over an hour with skies still threatening. A few drops but we are back home within half an hour. Long day.