TdE - Day 27 Hausen im Tal - Donaueschingen

Route: Hausen im Tal - Beuron - Donau - temporary end of Donau - Donau source - Donaueschingen 
Distance: 80 km
Elevation: 408 m
Duration: 4:26 h
Weather:  Sun, clouds and sometimes a bit of drizzle, 20 C 

The highlight today was the disappearance of the Danube. And no, I am not referring to a place beyond its source, but somewhere midway through. 

But for a more logical explanation let’s start with the “source” of the Danube, which was my goal today. 

I put source in quotation marks, because neither of the two sources (!) I saw today is actually the source of the Danube. There are at least another two places that have a more logical claim to bring the source. And one of them is about 300 km away from here in the Engadin in Switzerland… normally called the source of the Inn. But where the Inn flows into the Danube it is actually bigger than the Danube. 

An other source is not so far away, only 35 km, and is called the source of the Breg. 

But the two sources I saw today are the more official ones:

#1 is the confluence of Breg and Brigach, which is an exceptionally ugly location:

#2 is the source of the Danube as defined by the local aristocrat who conveniently has it right besides his castle and decorated it lavishly:

The statue is of “mother” Baar (yet another affluent of the Danube) who explains her “daughter” Danube where to flow…

… only it seems the daughter didn’t listen too well, because after about 30 km the Danube disappears underground and only surfaces again a few kilometers to the South in the source of the Aach, which then flows into the Rhine! Or at least for most of the year that is what happens. The Danube gets completely dry, syphoning off all its water away to the Aach. Only in winter and spring the Danube has so much water that it can’t loose all of it and actually makes it to the Black Sea. 

In order to see the dry Danube, I hiked a bit into the valley. It is really surprising how quickly a relatively large river disappears. At some point one can even hear how it is going underground. 

But the day started in the narrow part of the Danube valley. After some kilometers I passed these sleepy cows. They were still lying all huddled together and the only sound came from their ears and tails flapping around. 

I also stopped at the abbey in Beuron. It seems to be very famous, but I have to say that I expected something a bit more impressive. Maybe it is important for a religious and not so much artistic reason. Although one has to admit that there is of the stained glass for the Ray of light was very effective.