Hiking around Passau

28.7.-31.7.2020, today a spontaneous hiking trip.

Since May, my friend has been in Passau because of his master's school, I haven't been able to visit him there yet. But now it's finally summer vacation in Bavaria and I have some time. That's why I set off on Tuesday afternoon with my small (non-air-conditioned) Toyota to surprise my friend.

The surprise was successful, he didn't expect me at all. He immediately felt guilty because he had to go to school and didn't really have time for me. But I had already taken my hiking shoes with me as a precaution.

And so on Wednesday morning, I set off for a first little round. I parked my car in the parking garage and walked along the Danube for a while and through the old town. I enjoyed the view for a while at the point where the Inn flows into the Danube.

Then I went in search of the starting point or endpoint of the Goldsteig, a several hundred kilometer long hiking trail through the Bavarian and Upper Palatinate Forest. I found it near the Ilz. First, I had to climb steeply up to the Veste Oberhaus, a mighty fortified castle. I took my time to look at it and enjoyed the view of Passau.

Then I followed the path through meadows, forests, and fields. Whenever I liked it somewhere, I took a break there. So I didn't really make much progress. I passed through a small village and then there was a long descent. I hadn't walked that high before, had I? Then I reached Hals and crossed the Ilz for the first time. I followed it along its flow and finally reached a tunnel carved into the rock. It was fascinating: the Ilz makes a bend there, almost a circle. At the nearest point, the two 'circles' are only about 100 meters apart - separated only by the rock. So you can walk through the rock and come out at the other end of the Ilz circle!

From then on, I always walked quite close to the Ilz. I passed the Ilztalsperre, put my feet in the Ilz reservoir, and finally followed its course relatively parallel to a railway track uphill and downhill. It was really beautiful!

At 14:21, I arrived in Fischhaus. Why do I remember that so precisely? Exactly at this time, the last bus to Passau drove past right in front of my nose. But well, not a big deal, I thought, because I had discovered a platform that seemed to belong to those tracks. The platform was only grass, a sign with timetables, and a bench, but it looked very trustworthy.

The next train was supposed to leave at half past 4 and arrive in Passau at 5. I spent my waiting time reading a novel. When half past 4 finally came and went, I asked some residents when the train would come. They just replied, 'You'll have to wait until Saturday.' Great. So the train only runs on weekends. I was very annoyed. There I stood. So I called my friend, who then picked me up in Fischhaus and drove me to the parking lot. So I picked up my car, went shopping, and finally went to his apartment and cooked together.

The next day, I looked for a circular hiking trail so that I wouldn't have the same problem as the day before. On the internet, I found a Vils circular hiking trail starting in Vilshofen. So I drove there and again looked for the starting point of the trail. It initially went uphill near the Vils through a residential area. After a short distance through the forest, the path led onto a newly paved road - and the work on the road surface was not yet finished. So I walked through the meadow. The grass and flowers were so high that they almost reached my shoulders. To get back on the road, I would have had to walk through similarly high nettles. I didn't want to do that. So I went on a detour through the undergrowth very close to the Vils until I finally found the right path, slightly scratched. Thanks to an unknown animal that had already prepared a path for me.

From then on, it was always level on a gravel path directly along the Vils. It became a bit boring, but then the path branched off to the Tafelsee, a natural lake formed by granite extraction in the last century. There I enjoyed the tranquility and the view in the shade.

Shortly after, I crossed two bridges to the other side of the Vils. There I followed the path along the Vils, which was again level, and finally turned left to go up a hill to an imposing-looking monastery. I strolled through the courtyard, passed the monastery building, and finally took a break in the shade of a tree opposite the cemetery. Now it wasn't far to the center of Vilshofen, through which I strolled. Finally, I drove back to Passau, finished reading my novel, and cooked.

On Friday, it was time to go home. But before that, I wanted to follow the beautiful Goldsteig from Wednesday a bit more, especially since I had read that you could take an Ilz circular path from Fischhaus. So I set off and walked along the Ilz until Kalteneck. It was brutally hot. Fortunately, the path mostly ran through the forest - in the shade. The nature was beautiful, the Ilz lay untouched in its bed and wound its way through the hills. However, the path was very flat and never went up to the mentioned hills. I found that a bit of a pity. Anyway, I quickly reached Kalteneck and then wanted to go back to Fischhaus on the other side of the Ilz. However, the hiking trail was closed due to tree felling. Too bad. So I walked back the same way.

And then I drove home, 3 hours on the highway (because of a traffic jam), at an outside temperature of 34 degrees, without air conditioning. When I got home, I was drenched in sweat. So first a cold Radler.