sumava ~ böhmerwald ~ bayerischer wald (CZ DE AT)

well, my wife was busy with her friends in passau, so i could hike in the nearby mountains of  nature park bayerischer wald / böhmerwald / sumava in the border area between czech republic, austria and germany. 

well, i often use to say that the nature knows no man made borders, but it is not true in the bayerischer wald (sumava) region. why not? there were different ways to fight against the bark beetles (borkenkäfer). the germans decided to leave the trees up to their destiny, so there are many dead tree stubs out there. but i can confirm that nature is recovering fast if we only leave it :-). on the other hand, the czechs cut the ill trees and used a lot of chemistry against the bark beetles, so the czech side is more green and more intoxicated at the same time. 

my tour #2 was in the czech republic in the area of strazny:

 lake zdarske jezirko, sumava, CZ

my starting point in strazny, CZ

my tour #1 started in freyung (bavaria) and continued over the himmelsleiter stone stairs up to the lusen mountain (1373 m)

 freyung, BY

bark beetles defeated this trees, but not the whole forest :-)

 himmelsleiter (stairway to heaven), DE

lusen, 1373 m

lusenschutzhaus

more pictures here.

pictures from my last visit in june are here.

castle neuburg am inn

what a nice castle in neuburg am inn and what a really, really good (and quite expensive) restaurant hoftaferne next to it. and what a beautiful cars from czech republic in front of the castle:-)

which one would you choose, if you could? ... i would choose my wife for sure :-)

 neuburg castle

 restaurant hoftaferne (highly recommended. but yes, it is really expensive, too)

good-bye castle neuburg

neuhauser see is our favorite lake for swimming in neuhaus am inn, the place we stayed this time again when visiting the passau area 

more pictures here.

passau, the 3-rivers-city

we have visited friends near passau (neuhaus am inn), so i have of course enjoyed the opportunity to show this beautiful lower bavarian (niederbayern) city to my wife.

passau, the 3-rivers-town [danube (donau) + inn + ilz]

of course, in spring when all the snow melts, passau is quite often flooded by its rivers :-)

danube (blue) meets inn (grey)

ilz (right) meets danube (left + center)

but there are not only rivers in passau, my dears, there are good girls, too

good girl (braves mädchen) + good girls pub

the peschl brewery (founded 1259) is not active any longer. 

unfortunately, only the beer name stayed under the new owners

the dome square

town hall

 good-bye, passau

castle oberhaus, castle niederhaus and the ilzstadt (on the right side)

more pictures here.

medieval city of berching, franconia

we have been invited to a birthday party to nuremberg (nürnberg), so we have enjoyed to chance to visit franconia (franken) again.

happy birthday, dear dimitra :-)

day #1 was a dark light minigolf event in an former industrial district, which is a culture & leisure time area today.

on day # 2, after as always a nice breakfast with friends, we have visited the more than 1100 years old medieval city of BERCHING, the small lake kauerlacher weiher where we couldn't swim and finally our well known lake pfraundorfer see near beilngries (, which itself is also a small medieval city).

kauerlacher weiher

lunch break ... good-bye, berching

 lake pfraundorfer see near beilngries

more pictures here.

eof