Burghausen

Burghausen from the bike path
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Monday. The weather report today was for rain early and again late afternoon, so Doug checked his 582 emails after breakfast while we waited for the weather to clear. It didn't show much sign that it would, so we left around 10:30, in a moderate rain that continued off and on throughout our 70 kilometer ride. Even aside from the rain, the ride was probably the least interesting one we've done so far. Except for a steep climb up through some pretty farmland and woods, we followed the Salzach River, which forms the border here between Austria and Germany, and we crossed into Germany just at the end of the day to spend the night here in Burghausen. We've left behind the striking Alpine scenery, and the Salzach here is a tamed river, with man-made banks channeling it into a highly ordered (might one say German?) stream.

Sophie--looking very untrainable and a lot like us today
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Burghausen is a lovely town, with an extensive castle--the longest castle complex in Europe, we're told--overlooking the altstadt. The castle originally guarded the town's salt trade and was extended around 1490, when the Turks were threatening Vienna. We enjoyed watching a falconer working with some beautiful hawks (or were they falcons?), though he couldn't seem to lure his bird back once it settled on one of the roofs. It made me think of puppy kindergarten with Sophie this summer. Doug thought it looked more like training cats.

A Rainy Ride

Lunch in a bike shelter along the route
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As we walked through the Altstadt, we heard organ music coming from the Jakobskirche, and circled the church twice before finding an unlocked door. We found ourselves the only people (other than the organist) inside the grand Gothic space so we settled in for a magnificent organ recital. I lit votive candles for Howard Segars and my brother Jeff, which I often do in European churches, and then I felt the strong presence of Grace Sponberg, with her great joy in playing the organ, so I lit one for her also. I hope she would not be offended, good Lutheran that she was. But I prefer to thinkthat she would be tickled pink that her spirit momentarily took over a Catholic church in Bavaria.