Here is a link to today's photos.
See today's route in a web browser.
Here is a link to today's KML file (e.g., for use with Google Earth).
Here is a link to tomorrow's diary.
Here is a link to yesterday's diary.
Here is a link to the index of the days of this holiday.
Most of the area alongside the Danube from Krems to Melk is called the Wachau. It's famous for its wines, and it is currently the time for picking this year's crop of grapes. The vineries are mainly in the ares close to the river, but a few kilometres away from the river, the countryside is hillier and full of pine forests.
My walk this week is to do a route from Krems to Melk doing a segment each day and then returning to my hotel and then returning the next day to start walking where I finished the previous day.
If you look on the web, you will find plenty of companies that provide hotel-to-hotel treks from Krems to Melk. They take your luggage to the next hotel. However, they are reasonably expensive and seeing there is a train service alongside the north bank of the Danube I plan to use that. As I discovered yesterday, this service is currently provided by a mix of trains and buses because of landslide west of Duernstein. When I get closer to Melk, this train service isn't suitable, but there is a bus service from Krems to Melk on the south bank of the Danube. However, the only timetable I could get on the web dates from 2006 and that timetable says the service is pretty infrequent and are dependent on when schoolchildren are on holiday or not. These problems I shelve until later in the week!
There is little information on the web about walking in this area. If you attempt to research what others have done, you'll get swamped by the web pages that are offering hotel-to-hotel treks from Krems to Melk.
However, these web pages are useful in that they give you a rough idea of where to go each day. For example, most of these holidays go from Krems to Duernstein on the first day, and, then, on the second day, they go from Duernstein to Weissenkirchen. Although both of these villages are on the north bank, they get the ferry to the south bank of the Danube, walk inland a bit working westwards, before returing to the Danube at a point further upstream before crossing it again to get back to the north bank and to Weissenkirchen. So by looking at these wenb pages, I have roughly divided up what I'm going to do each day.
Having said that, these web pages only provide a few hints about the routes. Before the holiday, I have obtained two 1:50000 maps:
During the walk, I find these maps are both pretty accurate and I use both of them to make decisions about navigation. I like the F and B map because it identifies the footpaths using red, blue and green lines and these are the colours used by waymarks. There is one complication: they are using yellow lines for the main roads and for the footpaths that have yellow waymarks they use a red line with the word gelb (the German word for yellow) alongside. I like the Kompass map because it uses different kinds of lines for cart tracks, footpaths and steep footpaths. At a point where there is a ldder to climb on one of the routes, this is marked on the Kompass map (and I can easily avoid such routes!). I think the F and B map covers twice the amount of area than the Kompass map, but this is no concern to me as I'm only interested in the are between Krems and Melk.
Even having maps that clearly identify the paths, I'm still scared about embarking on routes where I'm unclear as to how much work and how difficult they will be.
So in Krems I buy a copy of:
This books gives details about 50 walks in this area, 26 of which are not far from Krems and 7 of which are useful for my trip. For each walk, it gives a small map and notes about the amount of climbing, where the highest point is, where you will find cafes and bars. There is also a description giving other details about the walk. For me, the big snag is the book is in German (and unlike some of the Rother books there is no English translation of this book). Although my German does not cope with the descriptions, I find the book really useful as:
Although I had wondered about getting this book before the holiday, one glance at it when I was in the shop at Krems' Bahnhof convinced me it was necessary.
Today, I plan to walk from Krems to Duernstein, and then catching the train back from Duernstein.
The Rother book gives a choice of two routes for this. One is close to the Danube whereas the other goes further inland and is a little longer. Both routes are categorised as blue meaning easy. I choose to do the longer route as this involves a climb to a lookout point at Starhembergwarte (564m). One snag with the book is that it does not give the length of a walk, instead it gives the hours taken to walk each bit of it together with a total, a Gesamtgehzeit. The Gesamtgehzeit for my route is 2.75 Stunde, i.e., 2.75 hours. However, both routes start in Foerthof (199m), a village some 4K to the west of Krems.
The first photo is of the Pulverturm. It's taken from the window in my hotel room. This fortification is on a hillside protecting Krems from the East. The next few photos are in Stein, a village adjoining Krems. On the western side of Krems, there is a board describing the cycling routes that are on offer on both sides of the Danube between here (Standort) and Melk which is 36K away.
One of distinct features of Foerthof is a small church.
The start of the two routes offered by the Rother book is the level crossing to the east of the church. Beyond the level crossing you will see a sign like the one in next photo identifying that you heading for the Pfaffenberg. There are yellow waymarks, and after a long hard climb, there is a signpost that identifies the point where the two Rother routes split: carry straight on for the the slightly shorter route or turn right for the route I'm doing. The sign mentions the Fesslhuette which is a cafe/bar/restaurant.
At one point, the route in the Rother book takes a different path from the yellow waymarked route. I think its variation starts at the point in the next photo. here the yellow route splits off bearing left. This yellow-waymarked track is followed for some time when, after a few junctions both to the right and the left, a junction is reached where there is sign with both green and blue arrows for the Fesslhuette and Scheibenhof. The F and B map has this marked as a green route whereas I think most of the waymarks are blue.
At another junction the route for the Starhembergwarte bears off left.
Later, I see a building with an Eskimo sign, the sign of ice cream, but when I reach the Fesslhuette a blackboard announces in chalk that Heute Ruhe Tag, i.e., it's closed today!
Near to the Fesslhuette, there are many signs advertising different footpaths. One is for the Ruine Duernstein which is a ruin that I will reach on my way to Duernstein. However, it is a shorter route. I want first to visit the lookout point at Starhembergwarte and its footpath is advertised as Zur Aussichtswarte, Aussicht being the German word for lookout. Aside: the person at the one of the railway stations in Vienna where I transferred trains ended her announcements about each train arriving at a platform with Bitte aussicht.
After another climb, the Starhembergwarte is soon reached, and you can climb inside to the balcony which gives good views including views towards the river. Around the bend in the river in the distance is Weissenkirchen and closer but on the south side of the river is Rossatz. From here I can see the walk I plan to take tomorrow: it is from Duernstein, by ferry across the river, through the woods on the south bank to the hamlet called St Lorenz and then by ferry to Weissenkirchen.
The descent from Starhembergwarte is through a wood where I saw some mushrooms and a beetle. At times, the descent is difficult because the acorns on the ground entice you to fall over.
From various places you can see Duernstein (including the distinctive blue tower of its church) and the river beyond. But before reaching Duernstein, the footpath passes Ruine Duernstein. I also see the ferry I'll be catching in the morning. It looks pretty small from here. I also see some people climbing. After lunch in Duernstein, I see a vineyard advertising the wine I had with my lunch: Domaine Wachau: Gruener Veltliner.
I then catch the train back to Krems.
The bus stops in Krems are outside the railway station. I discover one that has a timetable for the route from Krems to Melk, the route that is alongside the south bank of the Danube. I will need to use these buses later on in the week. The times of the buses are different from the 2006 timetable that I found on the web but still the buses are infrequent and are dependednt on whether children are at school or are on holiday. Unfortunately, the timetable only gives the times for buses from Krems to Melk: there is no timetable for Melk to Krems. Anyway, the timetable says that the first service is the 0945 bus from Krems. That will be useful later in the week.