Passsau to Burghausen
The earliest train departure this morning was supposed to be at 0419hrs however a very long freight train rattled through at 0216hrs that really shook the building to the core. Not that Jackie noticed. From around 5am the station was quite busy with both trains, silly jingles and tannoy announcements.
An enforced late start at the bike shop gave us the chance to look around the city of Passau. It’s an impressive place the centre of which, where we’re staying in the station, is effectively on an island where the Danube meets its main tributary, the Inn. According to Wikipedia, the town has a Roman history, was a centre for top quality sword production in the Middle Ages, was destroyed by fire in the 1600s and was subsequently rebuilt in the baroque style seen today. The young Adolf Hitler evidentiary spent a few years living here.
We’ll head south today and, considering the late start, hope to get around half way to Salzburg (from here, Salzburg in two days will keep us on schedule).
The bike is fixed! (Long story.)
.
From its juncture with the Danube, we followed the Inn river south and eventually stopped at the town of Burghausen. (The Inn looks to be a bigger river than the part of the Danube into which it flows.)
It was a good day’s cycling. Sunny and with highs of around 27C. Compared to the last four days, where the hills were plentiful and often steep, the stage was fairly flat and we didn’t need to press on the pedals. We did 98km.
Burghausen looks interesting. Evidently it has the ‘longest’ castle in the world. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the place.
Booked into the 4* Domero hotel (Well, I’d only booked it en route a few hours before, when we stopped for a snack. And, for sure, I wondered why, at about £50 including breakfast for a 4*, it was so ridiculously cheap. When we got there, I found out why - I’d inadvertently booked a Sunday in September: we had no booking. And it was non-refundable. How I managed that I do not know. But, the nice young lady on reception took it upon herself to change the booking for today (“my boss won’t know”). I offered to pay the extra but she said that it wasn’t possible! Amazing room: 50 inch plasma tv with SkySports and on-demand movies, free minibar, marble bathroom, Egyptian cotton bedding, etc. And to think, last night we were over Platform 2 - Happy days!)