Wow, Sunday at Stift Göttweig and the church bells only started to ring at 7.30 a.m. – we were already wide awake and ready to start the day aka have breakfast…
Breakfast at the Abbey started at 8 a.m., and we were totally on time but by far not the first ones. We’re really not used to be beaten by being the first at breakfast. 🤣 But we still got a nice table at the window overlooking the Wachau and started to dig in. The selection was rather large, not exciting or very special (definitely not our highlight breakfast on the trail) but more than enough to make us happy. 😉
After breakfast we packed and headed one last time to the Predigtstuhl which Felix also wanted to see.
Afterwards we really went to the Sunday holy mass at the Abbey because we thought when you’re at Stift Göttweig on a Sunday you should have a look.
The church was well visited, nearly full. The organ sounded incredibly good but being not religious we only made it 40 minutes into the mass before we silently left. Usually, I’m visiting churches only for the building so we really showed incredible perseverance. 😉
Then we finally started our last hiking day with a sad eye. At first we hiked down to Furth on a rather steep but well-kept forest path and emerged in Furth where we walked through some small side streets.
After passing the church (see, again Göttweig in the background 😉) we reached the Zellergraben, a loess canyon, a very interesting geological structure. Somewhere there were even some figures carved into the loess that looked like sand figures.
Then the path led us again and probably for the last time 😥- through the vineyards.
Oh yeah, Göttweig in the background again. 🤣
Then we arrived in Mautern where we bought some sweet stuff at the bakery and sat at former Roman castellan Faviani for a short break. Not needed physically but more emotionally because in a few kilometres our trail would be over. So quickly. Too quickly!
After crossing the bridge via the Danube we arrived in Stein where we hiked through the small, pretty side streets.
And so we arrived in Krems.
Since there was a festival in Krems it was very well visited and we were glad that the trail led us through the small street back to the Hohe Markt – the very place our trail started 10 days ago.
And just like this is was over. 😔
We continued back to our car, changed quickly into not bad smelling clothes and drove to our final lunch/dinner in the Wachau, to Dürnstein. Being Sunday and not too bad weather (yet!) the place was also quite well visited. We decided to go to the Schloss Dürnstein and had a very appropriate meal with lovely desserts.
On our way back along the Danube the rain hit us again with a downpour so that we hid under the very same chestnut trees just below the Schloss Dürnstein where we sat in the evening sun 10 days ago…
Today in numbers (Dürnstein excluded):
- 13km
- 180m up and 420m down
- Hiking time: 2h 15min
- Total time: 3h 50min
10 days, 200km, 6600m each up and down – it was a beautiful trail, well marked, avoiding main streets (if hiking on paved streets at all), through vineyards and forests, with views beyond imagination, meeting lovely people, staying in cool places, being surrounded by history and religion and rained on not too often. And eating great food of course! Life was good on the trail! 💚
Sackstark das Schlussbild mit dem Fussabdruck!!
Wie hast du das gemacht, wenn ich fragen darf?
LG Martin
Ich hab da so eine App, Phinsh heißt sie. Wenn man die pro Version hat, kann man wohl noch mehr Sachen machen, aber mir reicht die gratis Variante. 😉 Damit geht das in 5 Minuten.
Danke, das werde ich gerne auch ausprobieren 😀