Burghausen

Burghausen is a scenic old town on the border between Bavaria and Austria, with Europe’s longest castle.

The gradient between the old town on the river where I was staying, and the new town on the hill is also incredibly steep. I was very grateful to have a lift to school every day. This was at the start of September in 2023 and the weather was still very hot.

My room was in the fancy new youth hostel. I had a private ensuite room, but there were also school groups in dorms, which could be trying to be around.

The breakfast was ok, but the €4 beige buffet dinner was probably the worst food I’ve ever had in Germany. The ravioli looking things are meant to be Maultaschen, a local pasta that is normally delicious (and served in a broth rather than left to turn to leather under a heat light). The cherry juice was nice at least.

I could never quite figure out if the nearby playground was meant to be a mosquito or pterodactyl. Or some unholy combination of both.

There were lots of interesting antique and junk shops in town, but the tourist season was over, so a lot of them were closed.

The rhyming text says “give way in the street, or you could lose your life”

We went for a meal at this inn, they had a display of archeological artefacts found on site.

More pubs should have their own mammoth exhibit.

My schnitzel was made of soya instead of mammoth meat.

This copy of a medieval manuscript was just on the shelf in my classroom.

The alien spores are here, we just haven’t noticed.

We went to the Euro shop to get some craft materials for school. God knows what these €1 perfumes smell like, but they have some strong packaging game.

I know conceptually that Graberde means compost for planting up graves, but I can’t stop reading it as “grave soil”. Reduced, direct from the crypt! (Not guaranteed to be bubonic plague free, use at own risk).

You can just walk over the border into Austria now. No passport needed. The old customs stop is now an arts centre, but it didn’t seem to be open.

Here is the art in their garden.

The Inn is not a particularly friendly river, the water is fast and very cold.

The bridge is high above the water, and a huge lorry went past me, which made the whole bridge shake. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience.

Welcome to Austria.

I walked around Wanghausen. There wasn’t much there except this cool old house. Somehow you could tell you were in Austria rather than Germany however.

Extra-organic bread

I like how he very Germanly specifies he knows exactly 214 tricks and games. You will be efficiently entertained.

I think it’s unwise to accept any food or drink in this house if you want to come back out into the same century.

Maybe they did get me. On the way home I somehow got lost going round in a loop in these Back Rooms under Munich Airport, with escalators that went up into nowhere. I was genuinely concerned I was going to miss my flight. The airline had obviously saved money by booking the haunted section of the airport.