The castle, mondays closed and resting under the shade of a tree

Thursday 5th August

Well the day started off well enough, down hill run to Seigerdorf then across towards Bernau. We made good time for the first part of the day and got 50km into our journey by about lunchtime. Linked up with a bike path for a while which took us through farming land and skirting the edge of the mountain range. We saw lots and lots of bicycle tourists today. However all of them we riding in the opposite direction. I believe the usual route most people take is from Bodensee (on the border of Germany and Switzerland) towards Salzburg. It was heartening to see so many riders today, reassuring us that we were at least on the right path even if we were headed on the opposite direction. It was also good to see the different types of gear that they have. Some of the panniers that people have are pretty expensive looking. We feel that our bags are pretty good, they have certainly proved to be 100% wasserdicht (waterproof) and we are decked out in our distinguishing yellow jackets. By about 1.30pm it started to drizzle and the jackets had to stay on for good. By about 2pm it was raining and we were soaked through. What a lovely day for a ride on a touring bike with fully loaded panniers. Michelle had a tough day today, some of the climbs were long and steep and it was into the wind and the rain. I thought she might want to quit at any time, but Michelle just kept on going like an energizer bunny only much, much slower. Maybe an energizer bunny with no name batteries. Had to let Michelle lead up all the climbs so that I didn’t get carried away and ride off. We have found that when we come to a hill, it is easier for Michelle to set the pace and I just follow behind offering words of encouragement like “nearly there“ (not) or “the top is just around this next corner“ (not), or “we go down hill soon” (not).
The map I bought in Gmunden for 20c is good but I have a suggestion for the printers on the next edition. It should have things printed on it for cyclists like, “you’ll enjoy this bit” or “I know it looks flat on this map but the hill near here is very hard and you should have chosen a different route“, or maybe “are you crazy?” Made it into Meisbach by about 3.15. It was very, very cold. We were unable to find any accommodation at all. Reason why?? Who the hell knows? The town didn’t really appear to be a tourist sort of place, it had a totally different feel to any of the other places we have passed through or stayed at. Not sure how to describe it but it just didn’t have that usual European feel to it. It could have been any place back in Oz.

After riding around for about an hour finally located the tourist information building who confirmed that there was no accommodation available at all. They made a booking for us in Waakirken about 14km away. Great, back into the weather again. The ride here wasn’t quite as bad as I initially thought it would be, probably due to the fact that we were already as cold and as wet as we were gonna get anyway. No photos today, although the scenery was nice, by the standards set on previous days it wasn’t photo worthy. There was one sign I saw which would have been a great momento but the rain was to heavy at this point and we were headed downhill. The sign was for a small town, and the name of the town was “Ed”.

Found the place for the night. Now we can say we have stayed in all the various types of accommodation available. FeWo, Frei Zimmer, and Bauernhof. (a bauernhof is a converted barn). We stayed in our wet gear and rode about 1km up the road into town and had dinner at a nice restaurant that served typical Bayernish fare. Ie Schnitzel and roasts with kraut and knoedel. Yum! Distance covered for the day 110km and about 50km of that was in the rain. Yippee!!!

The plan will be changing yet again due to this weather (might get the train today and skip a day of rain riding) which is supposed to last until today and then we should (fingers crossed) get nice weather up until Tuesday at least. Hopefully in those 4 days we can cover the distance we need to and make it back to Georgensgmund nice and dry.

Well, it rained non stop all day. It was very windy, and the rain was about as hard as it has been. However we hardly even got wet. Total kilometres covered for the day about 5km. We rode from Waakirchen to the station then boarded a train which took us into Munich. We then caught another train which supposed to take us right back down to the boarder of Germany and Austria, and the enchanting old world town of Fussen. As we managed to get into Munich well before the train was due to leave we were able to buy our tickets and board the train straight away as it was already waiting on the platform. One, to get out of the cold, and two, to make sure we got a good seat. Nobody was even on the train when we boarded. Got the bikes a good position and snagged a good seat. This turned out to be a brilliant idea. It was a very popular train and by the time it was about to leave it was fully packed. We were both very glad we didn’t have to stand up holding onto our bikes and then have the trouble of shifting about every time somebody wanted to get off or on.

Like most of our adventures something had to happen along the way. The train broke down, “kaput“, not going any further. We had to wait for the next train, thankfully we were able to stay inside and keep warm until it came about 45 minutes later. On the journey to Hopferau about 8km from Fussen we were able to see the flooding which all the rain over the last few days has caused. Every river, stream and creek had broken it banks. At one point we were watching a bike path beside the tracks which disappeared under a torrent of water.

Up early the next morning, our host kindly rode with us to the start of the bike path which would takes up around the lake and into Fussen and Schwangau. This was the coldest start to a day so far, 10 degrees Celsius, and this is summer! Riding south the view is framed once again by the enormous peaks of the Alps. We could see the castle in the distance nestled right on top of one peak and surrounded by several others. At this time it appeared about the size of a postage stamp. It was quite exciting to be riding towards Germany’s number 1 tourist attraction. Gunter warned us that all we would see is Japanese tourists taking photo after photo. We made it the Schwangau by about 10am and followed the traffic towards Neuschwanstein castle. We followed the bike path through the forest and eventually came to the parking area at the bottom of the peak. Germany’s number 1 tourist attraction you’re not kidding. Already the car park was full, tour buses everywhere and people walking towards the “ticket office”. This is definitely the most people we have seen in one place since we arrived in Europe. After being in the line for about 15 minutes and making it about half way to the counter, I realized that you could only “tour” the castle on one of the guided tours and when you purchased your ticket you were allocated a time for the tour. The earliest English speaking tour with spots available was 2pm. What are we gonna do for 3 ½ hours? Bugger it, stuff the tour. We rode up to the castle and had a look around, I took some photos and watched the tour groups actually entering the inside of the castle. We spoke to some Aussies who were part of a tour and caught up with news at home. The election has been called and will be on just after we arrive home. I’m missing out on some overtime with work, ah well . . . . I’ll have to save some money for a new bike some other way. Viewed the castle from a few different areas, one of the best being on the marianbrucke (marian bridge) which spans the gorge behind the castle above the waterfall.

The castle was built in the 19th Century (about 1869) by King Ludwig II. It is famous for being instantly familiar to any one who has read a fairy tale, and is the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle and is also in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Michelle and I can’t recall the castle from the movie, which now means we are probably going to have to watch the movie again)

By the time we come down, the line up for the ticket office is now about 300m long. I thought to myself those people must be queuing up to get tickets for tomorrow otherwise they are crazy!!!! What a money making machine this place is. $9 Euro for the 35 min tour and add on a few bucks for everything else you might want to do. You can catch us bus to the entrance for about $4 Euro return (private bus company), you can take a horse and carriage ride to the entrance $4 Euro up and $2 Euro back down. ( I guess this is because the horse have to work really hard on the way up because it is really, really steep. There are signs everywhere advising the tour is very difficult for disabled people. The walk from the bottom, to the entrance would be about 30mins and very strenuous. I’m not sure how much money this place would be making but it would certainly be a lot. Not exactly sure why it is so popular as there are so many other nice places to visit, but I guess it just has that tourist quality to it. It was exciting to be here though, I’m not sad about not doing the tour, just being here amongst all the people was great fun. Actually getting to see the castle that you always see in the brochures was one thing we can now tick off the list, Yep we’ve been there!!!

Now we are mainly following the romantische strasse bike way. It is also one of the most popular bike path ways in Germany. Most tourists normally follow the bike path south and finish up at the castle. We are traveling north and because we are now back on track with our original intentions (only having missed out on riding to and from Innsbruck through the Alps) we are settled into a much more leisurely pace. Made it into Schongau by 3pm and there was a type of medieval festival thing happening in the main square so we had a bit of a captain cook (As Hux would call it) and then made our way north just a few k’s out of town to spend the night.

Sunday 8th August.

After a fantastic breakfast we departed Haus Gotz bound for Dachau. Excellent riding for the first part of the morning. Some of the best roads we have ridden on thus far. Sunday morning, no traffic and quiet roads. We aimed in the direction of Amsee. The plan was to follow the lake and then head north east towards Dachau. We must have been pretty high up still because we descended for a long time coming to the lake. Upon arrival at the lake we saw signs for a Flohmarkt (Sunday markets???) It was big, heaps and heaps of people and lots of stalls. Mostly junk, the kind of stuff you see people trying to flog off down at the jetty on every third Sunday. Michelle decided it was a good opportunity for her to see if she could find some old wooden ski poles to go with the wooden snow ski’s that we have at home. I am so glad she didn’t find any as it would have been very strange looking and cumbersome having ski poles on the back of our bikes! We finally navigated our way back onto the bike path and continued north.

With about 15km to go, it rained yet again. Michelle took this opportunity to escape the rain near the train station. She struck up a conversation with one of the locals, who immediately pulled out his map and showed us the way to go. So far everyone we have come across, when we are looking a little lost has been sooo helpful and always pointed us in the right direction again. The rain passed quickly enough and with our newly donated map we made it into Dachau after a brief detour to escape the rising flood waters where they covered the bike path. We were sure that we would be able to locate some reasonable accommodation once in Dachau, however this proved more difficult than has been on previous occasions. Finally located some accommodation about 5km out of Dachau and tried to make our way out of the city. Dachau is a lot different to what I thought it would be. I know we are only about 18km from Munich but I thought because the concentration camp was here and with the history surrounding the town it wouldn’t be nearly as modern and industrialized.

On the way we called into the memorial just to check it out. The plan was this would help us locate everything again tomorrow morning when we made the trip back into town to visit the memorial properly. Guess what “Montags Geshlossen!” Mondays Closed! What??? We rode over 100km today, detoured away from the Romantische Strasse to come here and its closed on Mondays. What a bugger!! We took this opportunity to quickly go into the memorial and have a look around. It wouldn’t be a proper look taking our time to go to the museum and check out all the exhibits but it would have to do. It would have been good to spend a few hours here, entrance to the memorial is free and you can walk around the camp grounds and read all of the information boards and get a feel for the place as it would have in 1945.”Arbeit macht frei”

As if our luck wasn’t bad enough, the weather decided to change, and a thunderstorm rolled over Dachau. We got caught in the rain yet again and got soaked. We were able to find some shelter under a tree for a while and then make our way under the rail bridge until it passed. By the time we reached Pellheim the town where we had accommodation the sun was back out, typical. Only two more days to go.

Monday 9th August

With the memorial closed there was no need to ride back down into Dachau. Through the rolling country side we went mainly following quiet roads. Detoured onto a bike path at one point which took us on a circuitous route and deposited us back out onto the same road I had been following anyway. What’s a few extra k’s??

Made it into Ingolstatdt on the Donau, where the really big decision for the day needed to be made, do we ride back over towards the bike path along the main canal and return home (Georgengmuend) the way we started out on the first day, and call it quits when we find a nice B&B, or do we choose a different route and do the same thing, or could we possibly finish up one day early and arrive back in Georgensgmund one day early??

After consulting the map from the tourist office and unsuccessfully trying to obtain directions out of the city we avoided the main Radweg and found a nice bike way which followed the road more directly to our destination. It was a brand new bike path, which was just getting the finally touches of completion. It was so new in fact that no riders were even supposed to be on it at this time. By following this road we probably saved over 2 hours at our pace. By 4pm I said to Michelle lets find a Gasthof and get something to eat, a proper meal, we’ll sit down and enjoy ourselves and eat and rest for a while before continuing on.

You can see by the photo’s what this meant. One whole cake devoured, and half a bottle of cola, energy restored and off we go. Thankfully we started off going downhill and this meant we covered some distance easily for a while. Made it to Grading which was the turn around point for the triathlon on a beautiful back road that doesn’t appear to be used much any more with fantastic scenery all around. It was very much like riding out past Glenreagh towards Grafton.

Coming back into Holpolstein we go down Solar coming from the other direction. I guess the roar of the crowd at this point during the race really does get you through this climb because I don’t remember it being so steep, the sign says 9%. Call in to have a look in the window at Buchstellar’s bike shop, I wonder if I can get any challenge gear cheaper now that the race is over?

Another 2 km down the road and we go past the swim start and then turn and go in to see Dani at the mini golf. Rode back into Georgensgmund exactly the same route we left on over 2 ½ weeks earlier, past the where the Kirsch frau was (lady selling cherries), through the forest and then down the hill into Georgetown.

I asked Gunter when we arrived “Haben sie ein zimmer frei for heute abend vor zwei erwachsene?
“Ya!”
“Mit fruhstuck oder abend essen?
“Naturlich!”
“Gute, kkan ich reserverien maken?”
“Ok.”

You see, we decided to try and make it back to Georgensgmund today and finish up one day earlier than originally planned. With no need to frantically search for accommodation for the evening we were able to ride leisurely along and enjoy the last moments of our bike tour. It ended up a very long day, Michelle has now officially done her longest ride, 157km. Maybe she could do an Ironman. It‘s a hell of a lot easier to ride without being a mobile aid station, and carrying your transition areas with you in the panniers.

We also ended up breaking another record today. Today was the FIRST day we rode the entire day without the need to put our jackets on. It was a nice sunny day, very little wind and a perfect day to be out riding. What a great way to end the tour, or is it?

Tuesday 10th August.

Michelle has this crazy idea that one more day on the bike would be good. We should ride to the lake at Brombachsee. Its about 15km away, followed the bike path all the way to Stahl and then up and over this huge hill and down to the lake. It is a really nice place. Heaps of people out enjoying the weather, swimming, playing volleyball, and having picnics around the lake.

3 hours resting (sleeping) under the shade of a tree doing nothing, now this was the perfect end to the tour!!

So after 19 days on the tour, 13 days of riding, 2 of those days without any rain, jackets and panniers tested for water proofness, many photos taken, far, far too much chocolate consumed, too many bread rolls and ham and cheese eaten for breakfast, 2 countries, old acquaintances and host families visited, we have covered 1071km. We are looking forward to coming home and………..


getting on our bikes and going riding!!!

See you soon!!

Chelle and Ed.