Ernst Erdl’s bike on the grass verge overlooking the harbor area just off the Danube and Ernst and Randal on our flybridge.

Ernst was also waiting for enough water to continue to Vienna and then Greece.

This is where we were tied up our first two nights until the visitor berth became available and we realized we’d be here a while so needed power and water available at the dock. 

Bow to the rock and attached with lots of lines.

A high stone wall and railroad tracks separates the yacht club from the club’s shower block.  You must also climb up, over and down the wall to get to town.  The gate is kept locked when no one is around but we have access to the visitor’s key as well as the keys to the shower block.

The small, square, sparkling clean building is the shower/toilet block.  Randal and I always shower on DoraMac but Rick and Mary prefer marina showers where there is an unlimited amount of hot water.  When 4 people shower as we did when Charmaine and Linda visited us, you have to use the water more sparingly or wait for the hot water tank to refill.   In the heat of Israel, you really didn’t need much hot water anyway. 

The club building where many of the members gather to eat their meals or watch the World Cup now.  On June 26^th Germany and the U S face off.  We all might have to go watch that game.  The weather forecast is just for sunny weather until the very end of the month and the beginning of July!

Randal, Rick and Karen

Karen is a member of the yacht club and kindly offered to drive us to the “too far to walk to, big supermarket.”

Later in the day she and her husband and the “harbor master” and his wife came on board for a tour. 

Everyone here, and they’ve been together for about 20 years, are very friendly and welcoming.  We have definitely found that cruising communities around the world are very supportive.  Our Diesel Duck is really the “odd duck” along the river so helps us make friends.  Everyone is curious and wants a tour which we’re happy to oblige. 

Deggendorf Library

“The town library is one of Bavaria’s most architecturally beautiful libraries.  Around 70,000 items and a variety of events invite one to linger.”  M-F 10 to 6; Saturday 10 to 12 noon.  Deggendorf Tourist Map

The library seemed pretty busy which was nice to see.  Wonder if the evening and Saturday hours change during the school year? 

No hands needed door!  It senses that you’re there and opens. 

The main desk over which is a sky light and the sculpture of a tight rope walker.  Not sure what’s upstairs but I’ll look next visit.

A wonderfully decorated kids room. 

Next door is the Town Museum.  Across the road is The Museum of Crafts and Trade is just near the round fountain but nothing is available in English so we didn’t buy the ticket needed for entry. 

Funny art : ice cream advert and someone’s “treasure” in a window. 

Around town are different sculptures so Randal and I set off to find them.

Sculpture of Sammer Xidi who is described as a “mushroom expert and colorful Deggendorf character.”

You can drink the water from the fountain at his feet.  During the week there are food stalls set up in the town square.  On Sunday it’s just Sammer Xidi.

Dumpling Fountain 

She saved the town but is still only referred to as “the Mayor’s wife” rather than by her name.

A fountain in the old town centre commemorates the legend of the “dumpling hurler“.  In 1266 Deggendorf was saved from being overrun by Ottokar of Bohemia after the mayor‘s wife drove off an enemy spy by throwing a dumpling at him.  After hearing that the inhabitants were using food

to bombard their attackers, the enemy troops concluded a siege would be useless and withdrew.”

http://www.deggendorf.de/ official town brochure.

Reading about the dumplings made me think of a similar latke story.  I thought I remembered something about throwing latkes at the enemy but this more interesting legend of Judith and the Assyrians is what I found.

The Latke Tale

Did you know that latkes were originally made with cheese? Legend has it that in the 16th century, a young widow, Judith, fed the Assyrian general Holofernes salty cheese latkes so he would thirst for more wine and become intoxicated.  It worked and she beheaded him in his stupor, which allowed the Jews to defeat the leaderless Assyrians. It wasn’t until the mid-19th century when potatoes began to be farmed that latkes were made from potatoes. However, the most important element is the oil that is used to fry the latkes, which symbolizes the holiday miracle in which one day’s worth of oil illuminated the Holy Temple for eight days when the Jews recaptured it in Jerusalem in 165 B.C.

http://www.lindasgourmetlatkes.com/latkisms.html

“Rosa” the Sow with the shiny spots where she has been rubbed. Her shoulder and nose.

“Called “Rosa” by the citizens of Deggendorf.  This location in the Pfleggasse is a reminder of the piglet market once regularly held here.”

Deggendorf Tourist Map

Schorsch Karmann Glassmeisier 1884-1959

http://axinte.de/persona_eng.htm  website of the artist of the glass maker; the sculpture was sponsored by the town of Deggendorf Savings Bank.    This was added in 2012 and wasn’t on the map or mentioned in the tourist booklet.  We found it looking for the Post Office.

     “The first glassmakers in Germany were brought here by the Romans, but after they left, it wasn’t until the Middle Ages that Germans rediscovered the art of making glass. By the end of the 17th century, there were about 60 glass factories and the area in the eastern part of Bavaria gradually developed into an important center for glassmaking.    http://discoveringbavaria.com/The-Glass-Road.html

We followed the buzzard path.

Trails are very well marked especially when 3 pairs of eyes are looking.

We passed this tree covered with what looked like very solid fungi and it reminded me of the artist I’d talked to in Bayerisch Eisenstein at the art gallery just near the trail.  I believe he said it was ash.  He has spent time in the US with different tribes of Native Americans.  Unfortunately the gallery wasn’t open when we passed by. 

The long awaited art gallery, Kunsträume grenzenlos,    https://de-de.facebook.com/KunstraumeGrenzenlos   opens its doors on Sunday 28th July 2013. With over 600 m2 of gallery space visitors will be able to enjoy works by contemporary painters, graphic artists, sculptors, glassmakers and more from both sides of the border as well as retrospectives of older artists from the region.

The first exhibitions, until 11th November, are by reknowned artists; Walter Mochizuki (1913-1999), co-founder of the Donau-Wald-Gruppe (artists association), Czech painter Jindřich Bilek, Vit Pavlik and the sculptor Václav Fiala.

There is also a gallery shop with a selection of local produce, regional craft products in glass or wood and more.

The gallery is located 100m from the German/Czech border next to the village train station at; Bahnhofstrasse 52, 94252 Bayerisch Eisenstein.

http://bavarianholidays.co.uk/

We’d left DoraMac and walked to the train station which was a hike itself.  The train trip was 50 minutes.  We spent a bit of time looking for trail information, buying water, visiting with the sculpture and finally starting our hike at 10:40.  We hiked through the woods aiming for lunch at the Schwellhausl Inn. 

Schwellhäusl Inn for lunch.

“In our historic inn "Schwellhäusl", a popular destination among Zwieselerwaldhaus ArberLand, Bayerischer Wald, in the middle of National Park Bavarian Forest, you can wonderfully relax from everyday stress.

We pamper our guests with bavarian "Brotzeiten*", spicy lunch, coffee and cakes. (*=little solid bavarian snacks)”

http://www.schwellhaeusl.de/en/

There was a huge lunch crowd so we shared a table which is lots of fun because you get to chat with people who are usually quite friendly. 

This glass sculpture had both Hebrew and German and my guess, “The Ten Commandments.” 

Carved wood and deer antlers.  A German version of the Peaks of Otter and Maybry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Not Maybry Mill Buckwheat Pancakes.

Heavy duty buckwheat pancakes to start off an 80 mile bike ride weren’t a good idea and neither were these dumplings.  I was trying to avoid the heavy meat dishes!  None of us was exactly sure what it would be except for the vanilla sauce and the marmalade.  I was thinking it might be some kind of noodle.  But it was really three large servings of steamed bread with marmalade in the center surrounded by a thin vanilla pudding.  I ordered it “by mistake” but the couple sharing the table ordered it on purpose.  An acquired taste maybe.  Or maybe this wasn’t such a prime example. 

Germknödel ([ˈɡɛɐ̯mˌknøːdl̩], Austrian German for yeast dumpling) is a fluffy (mine was definitely not fluffy) yeast dough dumpling with a mix of poppy seeds and sugar, filled with spicy plum jam and melted butter on top, occasionally – even though less traditional – also served with vanilla cream sauce. It is a culinary speciality of Austria and Bavaria. The dish is served both as a dessert and as a main course.

Germknödel is usually a spherical or bun-shaped dessert. The dessert’s main ingredient is a yeast dough with sugar and fat, usually butter, added to the dough. The dumpling is filled with Powidl, a sweet and spicy plum jam. The dumpling is steamed and then served still hot with either melted butter or vanilla dessert sauce, and topped with crushed poppy seeds and sugar.

The main difference between Germknödel and a related dish, Dampfnudeln, is that the former is either steamed or boiled whereas the latter is cooked in a deep pan.   Wikipedia