Donausteig - Day 4 - Haibach to Eferding

Day 4: Haibach ob der Donau to Eferding

Three days seemed like enough of the river-woods-hilltop-woods-river-woods-hilltop-woods pattern to give me an idea of what the river, the woods, and the hilltops looked like. My original plan for Day 4 was more or less wash-rinse-repeat for another 17 miles, but then I noticed I could take a shortcut over to the next valley and visit not one but TWO Burgruinen. So that's what I did.

Burgruine Stauf was, alas, largely inaccessible, with the most enticing bits locked up on the other side of metal gates. Oh well. 

The valley-of-the-day was the Aschachtal, carved by the Aschach river.

My route took me past the pilgrimage church Hilkering, which was also locked up and inaccessible.

S had told me that the version of German spoken in Oberoesterreich would be easy to understand, but I was having a really hard time understanding it. This poster offers proof that no, Oberoesterreichisch is NOT Hochdeutsch. Happy bday to Meli, and thanks to her friends and family for providing evidence to support my claim. 

In contrast to the first set of ruins, 12th-c. Burgruine Schaunberg was accessible and extensive. Although I saw a few other hikers heading up the hill outside the gate, I had the ruins all to myself. On the plus side, this meant zero pressure for the acrophobe to move faster up and down stairs. On the down side, there would be no one around to see the acrophobe plummet from the tower. Fortunately, no plummeting occurred, which was a good lesson for the acrophobe.

I climbed up these stairs and lived to blog about it!

I was a little weak in the knees by the time I finished coming back down the stairs, but there's really no thrill like an extensive not-overly ruined set of ruins. Wow.

Yet another chapel on a hill:

Look! In the distance! Alps!

View from the top of the ski jump above Hinzenbach. Oh my.

Death was waiting down in Hinzenbach, but I don't think this was related to the ski jump.

From Hinzenbach, I followed the road into Eferding--the biggest town I had been in since Passau. Construction of the Eferding Dom began in the 15th c. I'm a fan of those high Gothic ceilings...  

Some parts of Eferding were a little run down, but offered opportunities for art.

The local Schloss, deftly photographed through a locked gate:

In a park outside the Schloss, a tribute to Johannes Kepler:

In English, the mnemonic I learned for the planets was My Very Eager Mother Just Served Us Nine Potatoes (Mercury Venus Earth Mars Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto. For a brief period from 1979-1999, it was Potatoes Nine, since Pluto was closer to the Sun than Neptune; and now Pluto isn't even a full-fledged planet anymore. But I digress.).  

In German, the mnemonic is Mein Vater Erklaert Mir Jeden Sonntag Unsere Neun Planeten (My father clarifies for me every Sunday our nine planets).  

Altstadt Eferding, celebrating 800 years:

Kepler slept here...

Kepler's second wife was an Eferdingerin.

It poured in the afternoon, so I skipped the backpackless evening constitutional.

Ta da! 14.9 miles hiked, ~1,530 ft. elevation gain.