35 – (GER 35) – Donauworth – Meitingen

Place of Departure	HARBURG
Place of Arrival	MEITINGEN
Length – KM	24
Nation of the route	Germany
Region	Bavaria
Uphill Gap	85 mt.
Downhill Gap	77 mt.
CAI (Diff. Escurs.)	E
Praticability
File (.KMZ)	File .kmz
Open Street Map on Outdooractive	Open Site

Donauworth – a municipality of 18.269 inhabitants, it is the capital city of the district Danube-Riesè. The town was founded with the name of Ried in 500, as a mere village. The first bridge on the Danube was built in 955, the Rathaus was erected in the year 1236 and the village obtained the status of city in 1301. The present town, as we may gather from its name, stands on the banks of the Danube where it is joined by the river Wornitz.  The town lies midway between Munich and Nuremberg.

This stage runs across a broad plain watered by three rivers: Wornitz which empties its waters in the Danube, which we shall cross and whose waters run due North East, the Schmutter which we follow and will cross several times, until we leave it to go by the Lech a few km before Augsburg, the whole area is highly anthropic and heavily built up. We begin our walk on the Kronengasse in a South-East direction, at the bottom of the way we turn left and then sharp to the right on the Kapellstrasse which leads to the bridge on the Danube. We cross the river and continue on the Augsburgerstrasse for 700 m; at the fork we take lane on the left, we skirt, from the left the road junction between the Don28 with the St2215, we continue on the cycling lane parallel to the Rainerstrasse which we cross after 300 m turning right. We cross the railway line and turn left; we follow the railway for 500 m, we cross the St2215 and take the footpath along the bank of the river Schmutter, we underpass the 16 and continue along a lane which after 200 m turns left: we are in the open country. We keep this direction for over 3 km, with the river on our left and variable distances; we arrive at the outskirts of Asbach and we cross the Schmutterstrasse; we continue straight on the Alois-Tenschert-Ring for 900 m, we arrive on the Konigmuhle, we turn left and immediately right and carry on along the river for a further 900 m, where we turn left, then right on the Muhlfeldstrasse that we follow up to the Dr-Steichele Strasse, where we turn left and we will find ourselves in the centre of Mertingen. We leave this town walking first the Muhlau then the Augsburger Strasse or Don28 and we arrive at the junction between this and the St2027. We continue on the Don28 for 1,4 km and we arrive at Drusheim which we cross in North to South direction. We walk out of this village along the Graf-Treuberg Strasse, we leave the Don28 on our left; 2,3 km across the fields between two hills and arrive at Allmannshofen, another hamlet which we cross straight from North to South walking first the Druisheimer Strasse, then the Ehingerstrasse or A32. Continuing along this road for 1,5 km, we arrive on the A23, leaving on our left the small village of Holzen; we cross the  A23 and continue in the same direction for 1,5 km more, then we turn left and aim at Blankeburg which we then cross from West to East and turn right on the Holzenerweg; 120 m and we turn left in order to cross the River Schmutter on the Blankenburger Strasse; continuing along the same road for 750 m arriving by the southern outskirts of Nordendorf, we turn right and go ahead straight for 1,6 km and we are in Westendorf; we enter the village along the Schulstrasse, we turn right on the Hauptstrasse and turn left on the Riedstrasse. We continue on the Meitinger Strasse and in little more than 2 km we cross road 2; straight ahead for 300 m then we turn left on the Peter-Dorfler Strasse, then right on the Ludwig-Thomas Strasse and we arrive on the Hauptstrasse, or in other words in the centre of Meiningen.

G.Caselli e Th.Dahms   Via Romea Stade-Mittenwald Pilgerfuher Duetschland  Ostfalia