Exploring Köfering Castles
On Thursday before the hike I had my other two wisdom teeth taken out. I was feeling under the weather, and I was forbidden from doing active sports, so taking a stroll across some fields was my only option.
I could either go to Eggmühl or Tutzing to continue my Hiking Web journey there, and I chose the former. Upon arrival, the dark cloudy sky immediately caught my attention. I knew it was supposed to rain later in the day, but I presumed I'd manage to avoid the worst of it by picking a location up north from Munich.
Eggmühl was as small as I remembered it to be, the lion statue was still majestic, and soon after I switched to walking across fields and forests on a small trail. I stayed on the Via Nova pilgrimage route for a while, but it kept going east, so I eventually left it.
Upon reaching Rogging, some locals met me and briefly talked about my route. Despite the numerous hiking trails passing by, they were weirded out by me being there. Oh well, no hard feelings. I then turned north towards Einhausen and kept going.
The road there was very well kept. Asphalt for most of the way, no rubble or mud on the track, locals enjoying strolls walking past me. Everything was just too good to be true, so the clouds decided to drop some rain on us. Still, I kept going and soon after passed the settlement.
Next up was a federal road between Einhausen and Höhenberg. It was quite nerve-wracking to walk on the side of it, with cars flying by at 80 km/h, with no pedestrian train to be seen. As a positive, I saw some deer peeking out of a nearby forest. I passed this section as quickly as possible and kept going.
Next up were a bunch of wheat fields leading me to Untersanding, with the Schloss Haus castle soon after. I deliberately took the longer route on the day to visit all nearby castles, so I was happy to finally get close to one of my main points of interest.
I barely saw anyone around when walking past the village, but the castle on the hill was in clear view, giving me motivation to keep going. After crossing another regional road and approaching it through a nice road with fruit trees planted on both sides, I came across a big oak shortly before the castle. It was already hollow inside, but the sheer size allowed it to keep living by getting nutrients through the thick bark that remained of it. The locals brought some children by car to the tree to play around and climb on it, and the children were very excited about it. The Saint-Wolfgang Oak is said to be 1250 years old based on the local legends. I looked into the name and it's related to St. Wolfgang, one of the first bishops of Regensburg, but the connection is not very substantiated and the name could have transitioned from a different nearby oak.
As I approached the castle, it dawned on me that the whole area around it was private, with no way of getting close. Security cameras and alarms deterred me further from making any stupid moves. Since there was nothing else to do there, I took a short break on a bench under the big oak and saw some locals from the Regensburger Diözesanfußwallfahrt nach Altötting bringing two donkeys for a walk. Then I kept going towards Alteglofsheim.
By this point, I've been walking for 10-12 km, and because of antibiotics and general post-procedure pain I already started feeling lightheaded. My original plan was to keep going another 16 km to Regensburg after reaching my destination, but I wasn't feeling up for that. Still, I did my best to enjoy the rest of this hike, no matter the circumstances.
I think this was by far the most interesting section of the hike. The road towards Alteglofsheim goes through another forest, filled with local bikers and hikers. I met quite a few of them, some even training on the equipment installed along the trails, like pull-up bars, ladders, etc.
Soon after, I reached the Waldlehrpfad - a local trail with educational signs and a smaller Wichtelwald section with tiny houses the locals built for magical creatures. It was really nice to see the decorations, presumably made by local kids and their parent. It's always nice to let children get closer to nature.
After this nice section, the town of Alteglofsheim begins. While it isn't too exciting by itself, it houses Schloß Alteglofsheim, a high medieval castle that was transferred to the third Bavarian music academy in June 1999. With beautiful ornaments and stucco ceilings (even some by Giovanni Battista Carlone), it's a great sight to behold if you can get inside. The park surrounding it was also renovated in 2002, but at this time of the year it didn't look too special to me.
When I left the castle and started walking towards Köfering, I saw a wall of rain on the horizon. Judging by the wind, I had about 30 minutes to cover the full distance to the train station, so I hurried there despite the dizziness and headache I was having. The whole area near the station is currently dug up to build some new housing as I understood, so the road was terrible, but I pushed through. As soon as I reached the Köfering station, the thunderstorm reached me, and the rest of the time until my train arrived, I was just hiding in the corner to not get soaked.
Although I typically don't recommend these hikes to other people, since it's just me walking through some settlements, this one felt much better. The castles on the way looked great, the shady and chill forests helped against the heat, and the calm rural views were great to look at. While not for everyone, I'm sure this route can offer some of you the much needed respite in-between work in a hustling and bustling city.