Day 153-visiting Weltenburger Kloster

Starting the hike from Kelheim, this is a repeat of our hike 20
years ago, except that now I am the one with young kids

trailing along (and we are a bit older, too........)

   June 5-Rudi did his usual bakery run this morning and we all had a typical Bavarian breakfast with fantastic rolls, meat, cheese, butter, jam, and Nutella.  Add in coffee, juice, and Rudi’s special tee, and it was a fantastic way to start the day.  The off-and-on rainy weather from the day before began to peter out by mid-morning, so we headed to Kelheim to hike up the Danube (Donau) river.  This is a hike the Schneiders take all of their guest students on, but they took the early ones (including me) on the forest hike before they discovered that the river hike was better. 

The kids explore caves along the river.

   So, we hiked up the Danube, which was running somewhat high from the recent rain.  In fact, it even was lapping just over the edge of the walkway at a couple points!  When we got to the Donau Durchbruch gorge, we hiked up over the hill and came across the southern end of the Roman limes.  This was the frontier wall built by the Romans in the first century AD to help repel Celtic invaders from the Bavarian Forest.  It started at a high point of the gorge and extends for many miles to the northwest.  This is similar to the more famous Hadrian’s Wall in Britain.  The wall looks more like a long hill, now, but it is still quite impressive.  When you consider that a wooden palisade was built atop it with wooden lookout towers every couple of miles, it must have been a fairly imposing structure during its time. 



Thankfully, Alex did not get swept away by the high water
when the boats caused the river to wash up on the path.



I bet their pictures turned out just as good!  The Schneiders are standing in a trench that was dug through the Roman limes.  The wall continues on behind them for a couple miles until it reaches the Altmühl river.

The Weltenburger Kloster is behind us.



The ferryman approaches.

    Continuing on, we hiked back down to the river, where a boatman picked us up and ferried us to the southern bank, where the Weltenburger Kloster (monastery) is.  Rudi is a family physician and ran into one of his patients, so we stayed on the shore for a little while skipping stones and relaxing while they talked.  Then we headed into the monastery.  Its church was designed by the famous Asam brothers in the Baroque style, so it was quite fancy.  The Sun
was starting to shine a bit more, so we sat outside in the courtyard’s Biergarten and had ourselves dinner and some beer.  This only makes sense, since Weltenburg has been brewing beer since 1050, and is the oldest monastic brewery in the world.  Besides, I fell in love with Weltenburg’s dunkles Weissen while studying in Regensburg and definitely needed to drink some during this visit, since this beer is not exported to the U.S. 

The excesses of the Baroque style are evident in the Weltenburg church.

Each piece of decor in the church symbolizes something. This portion here symbolizes hell. The beer mug in the lower right-hand corner is forever empty, which epitomizes hell for a Bavarian!

The medieval walls of the monastery.



Loading the boat to take us back to Kelheim.



The Donau Durchbruch gorge between Weltenburg and Kelheim.

   We explored the grounds a little more and did some tourist shopping, before we caught a boat back down the river to Kelheim.  Taking the boat through the gorge was not as impressive as taking a boat into the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, but it was still quite enjoyable and a fun way to return to the car.  We drove a little further upstream to the town of Eining where the Roman castle, Abusina, had existed.  During the early Roman times the limes were the frontier and this site was not as heavily fortified.  When the Germans overran the limes, though, the Romans fell back to the Donau and this fort became a front-line defense and was rebuilt more stoutly.  It was very interesting to read about the different buildings that were in a Roman fort and to see the rebuilt foundations as well. 

Ruins of the Roman baths at Abusina.

   After a short visit at Abusina, we went back to the Schneiders for supper, which included a cheese dish, called Obazta.  After the kids went to bed we found a little time to sit and visit with the Schneiders again before going to bed.