Bicycle Touring the River Inn & Bavaria

Part 2 - Austria & Germany - Pfunds to Passau

After changing our Swiss francs into Austrian shillings at Pfunds, we followed quiet roads through tiny villages. At we rode by the farms we had been intrigued by the stacks of wooden crosses lying against the barns. We discovered that these were used to form the framework for the many small haystacks which dotted the fields. The campground in Landeck was a another pretty site on the banks of the river. We were becoming quite used to sleeping to the sounds of the river as it rushed on its way to meet the Danube.

Haystacks near Pfunds

The Inn was starting to become quite a large river but it was still very much a 'wild' river with numerous rapids. Landeck is over 1,100 metres lower in altitude than St. Moritz so there must have been more downs than ups on our route, but it didn't feel like it. In Austria, the River Inn cycle route followed quiet roads and well surfaced tracks. The sign posting was excellent and we had been able to buy a guide with good maps. Lots of other cyclists were following the route, but they were going from hotel to hotel. We didn't meet any other cyclists camping. It had been hot and humid all afternoon and a thunder storm quickly developed. The rain continued for most of the night.

Water fountain near Landeck

When we left Landeck, we didn't get very far before our first stop. Two and a half kilometres from town we stopped at a tiny park with an elaborately carved water fountain and a flower covered Calvary. Here we enjoyed a second breakfast of crusty fresh bread, jam and rich pastries. As we were leaving Zams, we missed a turn under the railway line and continued on a delightful path beside the river. It was a bit muddy after the rain and had a couple of nasty steep bits but it was a pleasant ride. The ruined castle at Kronburg stood on the top of an isolated hill and dominated the river valley. At Schönweis, a new bridge was being built over the river and the path was detoured around the construction site. The signposted for the detour was misleading and we had some difficulty finding our way through the maze of muddy tracks. Another group of cyclists were pleased to be able to follow us to where we found the main track again. For much of the way, the path followed the railway or the motorway. Despite the band of trees and shrubs separating us from the roadway, the constant noise from the heavy traffic was annoying.

Just after the turnoff to the city of Imst, the river entered a deep gorge. The path climbed very steeply up the mountain side and even walking was difficult. When we finally made it to the top of the climb, we stopped at a seat to enjoy a rest. A large group on unloaded mountain bikes came passed and we were pleased to see that most of them had walked up the climb as well. We rode through high open meadows before dropping down to the river again. The views from the campground in Telfs were quite spectacular.

View from the campground at Telfs

That night, we had another violent thunder storm and it rained for most of the night. The river level has risen quite a lot so there must have been quite a lot of rain elsewhere in its catchment. As we neared Innsbruck, there were the first signs of minor flooding along the track. Water was lapping the sides of the path in several places. The campground in Innsbruck is about five kilometres west of the city on the opposite side of the river from the bike path. We were a bit worried that we had missed it because the people in the tourist office told us that is only two kilometres away. It has a lovely setting on the side of a hill with mountains climbing high into the sky behind it. It was difficult to find any flat of ground on which to pitch the tent. Ramps were provided to help the owners of motor campervans to park on the level.

Innsbruck Alstadt

It rained heavily the day we left Innsbruck. We had a late start after waiting to see if the rain would ease. After 11km we stopped in the picturesque town of Hall to do some shopping for lunch. The rain had eased and we were able to sit on a park bench overlooking the river and enjoy our picnic. A few kilometres further on the track was closed because of flooding. We followed the detour around a small lake but it too had overflowed its banks. The water wasn't very deep so we rode through it creating a large wake as the water came up over the bottom of our panniers. At least we now knew that they were waterproof as advertised. We stopped that night at a guest house at Pill and enjoyed the luxury of comfortable beds and restaurant meals. The guest house had its own schnapps distillery for which it had been licensed for over 250 years.

As we were loading our bikes the next morning, a local came over to tell us that the bike path was flooded by the river and that we should avoid the low lying areas of the valley. The old town of Schwaz with its narrow winding streets lined with old stone and timber buildings was only a few kilometres up the road and we had our first stop here. We sometimes rode on the bike path where it followed the top of the high levee bank but for most of the day we cycled on quiet roads which ran parallel to the main road. At Wörgl, David nearly got us well and truly onto the wrong road. The road to the famous ski resort of Kitzbuhel turned off here. David confused this name with Kirchbichl, the next town along the river towards our destination for the day. Thankfully, David agreed to Noelene's suggestion that we follow the path along the levee banks and didn't insist that we ride to Kitzbuhel instead. We camped alongside the river at Kufstein, an interesting old town dominated by a large round castle. The river level had started to drop so we were able to look forward to not worrying about flooding.

Trees blocking the cycle path near Rosenheim

Not long after leaving Kufstein, we crossed into Germany for the first time. After wandering along small country lanes for about 11 kilometres, the route started following the high levee banks beside the fast flowing river. Before long we started noticing that there were a lot of leaves and twigs on the path. A little later there were branches and finally fallen trees over the path. We were having to stop every few hundred metres to lift our bikes over the fallen trees. As we didn't have any Deutsch marks with us we decided to head into Rosenheim to use an automatic teller machine. We followed the signposted cycle route into the city but after a kilometre, we came across several trees over the path, each of them about 50 or more centimetres in diameter. We turned around and followed the roads into town. There was no traffic on the roads and no people on the streets. All the shops and restaurants were closed. It was very quiet and rather eerie. We tried the money machine at one of the banks and none of our cards would work. At another bank not far away, we managed to get some money. As we left the bank another couple of tourists with rather bewildered expressions on their faces came to use the machine. At least we now knew that there were other people alive in Rosenheim and that World War III hadn't started. We sat in the main square and ate our lunch. It wasn't until we were setting off after lunch that we saw anyone else.

On our way out of town we had to lift our bikes over more fallen trees. The campground by the lake at Schechen where we had planned to stay was flooded so we headed on knowing that there were no more campgrounds within riding distance. We tried several small hotels and guesthouses but they were all closed. One had a sign outside saying that it only opened Monday to Friday. After 85 kilometres we reached Wasserburg and managed to get the last hotel room in the town.

Beware of Sundays in Bavaria!

There was a long climb out of Wasserburg to the rolling farming countryside near the river. As we followed the signs out of Jettenbach, it was obvious that the signs were taking us in a different direction to the route shown on our map. The trail had been re-routed up a steep, rough track through the forest. Small round river stones had been used to surface the new track which made the track quite difficult to ride on. We detoured to do some shopping in Mühldorf. We climbed steeply up to the town and spent quite some time looking for a supermarket. Eventually we found one and after buying our food for dinner dropped steeply down again to the river. A kilometre later we came across a very large supermarket on the banks of the river - all that climbing for nothing!

As we left Mühldorf, we had to detour to the road to avoid sections of the path which were unrideable under thick layers of mud and silt. We could see where the path had been covered by about two metres of water. Nearby, the tiny campground at Moos has a couple of small grassed areas set aside for cyclists among the permanent caravans. The toilets and showers have a delightful mix of different coloured and patterned wall and floor tiles obviously leftovers from other tiling jobs. A box of newspaper sitting on top of the cistern in one of the ladies toilets was a nesting box for one of the numerous hens which wandered around the grounds.

We left Moos in warm, bright sunshine. By the time we had ridden the nine kilometres to Altötting, the site of the first Christian church in Germany, the sky was dark and threatening. The route took us through a delightful beech forest were we stopped for a pleasant morning tea. The castle in Burghausen, one of the largest castles in Germany, enjoys a spectacular cliff top location overlooking the Salzach river. As we reached the castle the rain started falling and became increasingly heavy. The temperature had dropped considerably and we stopped for a bowl of delicious, hot soup at a hotel on the main square. The rain eased for a while when we reached the lookout at the confluence of the Inn and Salzach rivers. We took advantage of this break to enjoy some bread and cheese as we looked at the view.

The rain started again as we  headed for Braunau. We arrived in Braunau in torrential rain, the heaviest we experienced on the trip. Not wanting to put up tents in such a downpour, we headed to the friendly tourist office who found us a room in a nearby pension. The friendly proprietor insisted that it was OK for two wet and bedraggled cyclists to take their dripping bikes through the main foyer to the bicycle storage shed in the rear courtyard. The next morning at breakfast, we discovered that there were 12 other cyclists staying there.

Braunau is a pleasant town with a number of interesting old buildings clustered around the main square. Historically, the town is important as the birthplace of Adolf Hitler, but you won't find any signs pointing the way to the house where he was born. The town is trying hard to attract cyclists and has constructed the 'Radterminal' near the main street. This has toilets, bike racks and luggage lockers as well as maps of the town and district and telephones to some of the hotels that cater for cyclists.

Branau on a bright sunny day

On our last day, we rode the 69 kilometres to Passau in bright sunshine. We found riding on the levee bank beside the river to be quite boring and followed quiet lanes through the many nearby villages. When we reached Passau we crossed the Inn for the last time just before it joined the Danube and headed to the tiny Zeltplatz on the Ilz river a few hundred metres from the centre of town. This small campground is for the use of walkers and cyclists only and provided a pleasant place to end our ride.

The last bridge over the River Inn before it meets the Danube at Passau

The walkers', cyclists' & canoeists' Zeltplatz on the banks of the River Ilz at Passau

Passau is a delightful city full of old buildings lining the narrow winding lanes of the old city. Throughout the summer, concerts are held daily in the cathedral which houses the biggest pipe organ in the world. The sheer volume of sound produced by this mighty instrument has to heard to be believed.

Part 3 - Germany - Bavaria - Nürnberg to Würzburg

Back to Part 1 - Switzerland