Danube Bike Tour Day 16: Deggendorf to Passau
Posted by Cassie, November 25th, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Distance: 63km
This morning it was still cold, but we were glad that it had stopped raining. Even though it was cold and cloudy, the ride was enjoyable. We spent most of the day riding on bike paths next to the river alongside farms and through the forest. The terrain was still hilly, and it was pretty to see the hills rising up from the river banks. We stopped for lunch at a castle ruin by Winzer. The castle ruin was on top of a hill with a great view of Winzer and the Danuber river valley.
Winzer Castle Ruins
On the way to Passau, we stopped at Vishofen, and they had a big festival going on in the city center. They had a bunch of stands set up and a couple blow-up castles for the kids. There was also a stage set up for performances. When we arrived, a high school band was playing polka music wearing traditional Bavarian dress. There was also a group that did some dances that were similar to square dancing, except with accordion music. The highlight of the performances was the group of men doing traditional slap-dancing. I felt like I was in the middle of a Rick Steves show. 🙂
Vishofen Festival
Vilshofen Slap-dancing Performance
As we arrived into Passau, we were surprised at the size of the city. Passau had only 50,000 people, but it felt much larger than that. There were a lot of suburbs as we rode into the city. The campground and the hostel were next to each other, so we had to decide whether to camp or stay at the hostel. It started to rain a little bit as when we got near the campground and hostel, so we decided to stay at the hostel. However, we did not realize that the hostel was at the top of a steep hill next to the castle. We were already tired from riding all day, so it was not fun to haul our bikes and gear up the hill to get to the hostel. We asked if they had a double room available for two nights, but they only had a double room available for one night. We would have to stay in separate men/women dormitory rooms the second night. Since they didn’t have a double room available for two nights, we decided to camp instead. The campground was at the bottom of the hill, so it was much easier to ride down to it. However, when we arrived at the campground, it was closed for the season and the restrooms were locked up. Since we had no other option, we decided to ride back up the hill to the hostel. I was so exhausted after we arrived at the hostel for the second time. It was too hard to ride up the hill with all the gear, so we walked our bikes up the hill instead. The road up the hill was made of cobblestones that were very slick from the recent rain, so it was a challenge to walk up the hill with the loaded bike. I felt like I had been lifting weights because my arms were sore from pushing the bike up the hill. The weather turned out to be pretty unpleasant over the next couple nights, so we were glad that we decided to stay at the hostel.
The hostel was at the top of the hill next to the castle
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