Another wonderful and peaceful night on the trail. Our room at Haus Steinmetz in Rossatz was great and so quiet, and breakfast was also nicely done with home-made jams and apricot cake.
The weather didn’t look too bad (yet) so we started off at around 9 a.m.
After hiking along the fruit orchards and the camping place of Rossatz we started first through the vineyards where we had one last good view on Dürnstein.
Then it went uphill and we headed into the forest again. On the top of the Pemexel we had some nice views and even saw our destination in the far distance, Stift Göttweig.
The path went comfortably through the Dunkelsteinerwald and it was a pleasure to hike it along.
After hiking down through the forest we emerged at a crossing where we found a nice resting spot, and since the sun just was out we decided to make a short break for lunch. It was just above Oberbergern where we again saw the Stift Göttweig. When we started to continue the sun was gone and rather dark clouds had emerged.
So we hastily continued to the lookout Ferdinandswarte where we were supposed to have a good view down onto the Wachau again. Actually, the path would have led us down to Oberbergern which would have been today’s end but while planning the trail we couldn’t find anything to stay for the night so we decided to sleep at the Stift Göttweig. Honestly, is there a more decent place to spend our last trail night?
So, considering the clouds we decided to skip the “picturesque farmers’ village” (description of the guide 🤣) because, honestly, from up above it didn’t look very exciting.
When we reached the lookout the first raindrops already fell. I just made some pictures in time before the real rain washed over us.
Since the lookout was quite sheltered we waited 10 minutes for the worst rain to pass before continuing.
We still needed our umbrellas but when descending and entering Unterbergern (the village next to picturesque Oberbergern) the sun came out once more. Crazy April’s weather!
Unterbergern seemed as exciting as Oberbergern. Nothing was open, no one was seen anywhere. So I took a photo of the church and we hiked on.
After leaving Unterbergern the path lead us to a plateau without the shelter of the forest with only meadows and vineyards. Most of the path was on paved street. And of course it started to rain again. 🙄
Along the rather boring way we saw our destination at nearly every corner. And it just didn’t seem to come closer. 🤣
Meanwhile the rain fell steadily and we slowly got annoyed. Reaching the small suburb Furth we had to hike down again.
In Furth, two small pedestrian bridges that should lead to the Stift Göttweig were blocked with a sign “Winter closure” – sure, it’s end of August, nearly winter, right? 🤣 I suppose it was because of the flood in July. The bridges looked fine to us and we just climbed over the barricade and headed on. Uphill again.
The path was no easy hiking, very rocky and small but it was a welcomed distraction from the rain. Not far below the Stift, the rain stopped again.
When we finally reached the top, Stift Göttweig finally presented itself to us in all its glory.
Yeah, meanwhile we know that this wasn’t the main entrance. 😅 But it worked just fine and after running around quite aimlessly we finally found the reception near the souvenir shop and checked in.
Our room was fantastic, very large with an oversize bathroom and overlooking the old abbey walls.
After a quick shower we headed for the abbey’s restaurant and stuffed ourselves with the only vegetarian dish and Marillenknödel as dessert.
Then we took the offer as overnight guests to see the exhibition 1+1 for free and got to know really interesting details on the Abbey and its art treasures. And the view from up above was exquisite, too.
Afterwards we had a look into the church and took some photos of the whole Abbey.
Afterwards, I went for a quick walk because on arrival I saw a sign pointing towards “Predigtstuhl” which should be some kind of observation point. And it really was! Best view on the Abbey I’ve gotten in 10 days! 💚
Then I went to the abbey’s gardens to have seen this part, too. 😉 There was also a nice view down, currently shaded by all the green blossoming.
Today in numbers:
- 21km (+3km running around at the Abbey +3km for me for my extra tour to the Predigtstuhl)
- 640m up and 480m down
- Hiking time: 4h 15min (for the 21km)
- Total time: 5h 30min
Schaut nach einer grossartigen Unterkunft aus! Und noch zum Vortag: ich bin auch gegen Abkürzungen. Jeder Meter des Weges wird gegangen 🙂
Die Unterkunft war super und überraschend luxuriös! War nicht in der Originalroute so geplant, aber ich wollte mir die Möglichkeit nicht entgehen lassen. 😉