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.
Day 4 of walking will be on the south bank of the Danube. First get the 0845 train and bus to Spitz, then get a ferry to Arnsdorf (on the south bank of the Danube), then walk from Arnsdorf to Aggstein and then catch the bus back to Krems.
The tricky bit of today's trip is that I don't yet know the times of the buses from Aggstein to Krems. This bus route, along the south bank of the Krems, is the one for which I've seen the timetable for Krems to Melk but not one for the reverse direction. However, I have a cunning plan: my maps have the position of the Haltestellen. So, when I get to Arnsdorf I can find a Haltestelle and there will be a timetable attached to it.
The walk from Arnsdorf to Aggstein is in three parts:
As usual, it's the 0845 train to Duernstein and then a bus from there to Spitz. At Duernstein, I snatch a photo of the bus and say Morgen to the bus driver: it's the same person as the last few mornings and the trip from Spitz to Duernstein yesterday afternoon.
On the way out of Duernstein I try to get a photo of the landslide that has clobbered the railway line but the photo isn't very good.
On the ferry from Spitz to Arnsdorf, I grab some photos of passing boats. Amazingly, the ferry has a camera obscura and try to take some photos of the image that is projecting (which are inverted laterally).
When I get to the 33 road that runs along the south bank of the Danube from Melk to Krems, some road signs indicate that I'm about halfway which is weird because I'm thinking of completing tomorrow. Alongside these signs is a Haltestelle and this has the timetable that I've been seeking. For some reason I don't take a photo of it but instead write the times down. There is a bus at 1504 from Aggstein (which is not dependent on whether children are at school or not). This bus fits in with my walking schedule with about an hour to spare. I note that the next bus is two hours later if children are at school (which they are) and that is no later bus if they were on holiday.
In between the road signs and the Haltestelle, there is a waymark indicating that my route starts by walking along the road to Melk for a bit. But at the next junction, I leave the road using a lane where there is a sign for Maria Langegg. I take a photo back towards Spitz and the Ruine Hinterhaus sitting on the top of the hillside.
My route leaves the lane to bear left along a footpath. cart track. It becomes very steep and the footpath is aloing a route that has been carved into the earth. The footpath is part of the 05 route. There are more mushrooms alongside.
At one point the footpath is blocked and I have to find a way pass the blockage.
I'm starting to worry. There have been a lot of path junctions but there has been no sign for Maria Langegg since I left the main road. At one junction, there is a sign for Hoher Stein pointing to a footpath going right. My map indicates that the route for Hoher Stein should leave the main path on the left and not on the right. And the heading from my GPS watch indicates that the footpath to Hoher Stein is going South the way I want to go. So I follow the signs to Hoher Stein both at this junction and the next one. According to headings being given by my GPS watch, the paths I'm taking are going the right way but I'm worried I've done something wrong and I will finish up in Hoher Stein (which is a mountain quite a bit away from the route I want to take).
At the next junction, there are two signs, one pointing back along the footpath I've come along and one pointing left to Hoher Stein. There is no sign pointing out where the footpath to the right goes. This is the junction I've been looking for, the one where the route to Hoher Stein leaves the main path. So I turn right along a footpath which is not signposted. After the junction, there are some red waymarks along the path, the heading from my GPS says I'm going the right way, and I forecast that I will reach a farm called Ernsthof in a few minutes.
When I get there, I take a photo to celebrate.
Just after a weird statue on the right, my route leaves the main path and bears right.
I reach an un-waymarked junction. I look at my maps and foolishly don't see it clearly marked on one of the maps. I go left to begin with. This goes up and to the east and feels wrong. I return to the junction and take the other path. This goes South, and I start to walk along it, the sounds of church bells sounding 1200 come from two or three churches in Maria Landegg ahead of me.
I stop for a quick drink at a restaurant in Maria Langegg and see the restaurant's cat.
I then leave on the second section of the walk: the route from Maria Langegg to Ruine Aggstein. It's a part of the Jacob's Way, a long distance religious footpath across Europe. This section also forms part of an European route called the E6 (which is pointed out on my maps and by one of the waymarks on a post cluttered with waymarks). According to the Rother book, this section should take an hour. Because it's a reasonably short distance and because it connects two popular places, I meet about five groups of people whilst doing this section of my walk.
En route, I look back and see one of the churches at Maria Langegg.
Curiously, in the forest there are paintings of some wild animals! And a stone commemorating a singer called Paul Dolezu.
I then reach Ruine Aggstein. It costs 4.5 euros to go in but I do so mainly because I want some lunch.
I then walk the road back down to the main road at Aggstein.
Whilst waiting for the bus, I see the boat called the Wachau. The plan is to return from Melk to Krems on this boat tomorrow eveving.
The bus is about 10 minutes late and I've relieved to see it. And on the bus, we are hindered by a tractor and trailer gathering grapes.
When the bus gets to Krems, I ask the driver (in pigeon German) when the first bus is tomorrow morning. I know but I just want confirmation. He scurries around at the front of the bus and gives me a copy of the timetable for this route. I will leave this bus stop at Krems railway station at 0945 tomorrow morning. It'll mean an extra hour in bed or an extra hour/beer tonight!