A lake tour to dream about

… And indeed rain was followed by sunshine. And not only the weather showed its best side in the next days - we had finally arrived in summer cycling -, but also the landscape was to our taste: hilly with a few meters of altitude again and again, so that you can enjoy views and descents (after the climb of course!); the high mountains as a panorama on the horizon and in between refreshing lakes for resting, bathing and camping.

We spent the first night at the camping site at the Schliersee. What could be nicer than camping directly on the bathing meadow and having dinner sitting at the shore of the lake? Also the place and the surroundings were very charming and almost convinced us to stay longer, but we pedaled on to the next lake. Unfortunately our cycling guide had not told us that this would be a steep trail leading over hill and dale. A sign at the roadside with the name “Radwanderung” was more honest. We struggled laboriously meter by meter uphill with a family; we motivated each other by thinking “If the little ones can do it, then we can do it” and they thought “If the big ones can do it, then we can do it”. At the Tegernsee we took a long bath break at the public bathing place Kaltenbrunn with french fries and naps on the wooden loungers, which they kindly put up for us ;-). Distrustful of our map material, we didn’t rely on the cycle path for the continuation to the Kochelsee, but rushed comfortably along the main road. We made a short stop at the Bull of Tölz - the market place and the ice were really worth it. Both campsites of Kochel am See declared they were “occupied”. At the second we tried it nevertheless and after an extensive face control of Katharina (quotation: “Now take off the sunglasses”). That was a difficulty Katharina encountered because her sunglasses are optical and without she sees almost nothing.), we were allowed to enjoy also here the wonderful place at the lake with dinner at the water with sunset. The next morning there was then once again a small culture injection: We visited the Franz Marc museum in Kochel. Here we got a small impression of his work as well as of other artists of the modern age, but most of all we enjoyed the “view room” in which one is invited in an almost meditative way to look at the landscape - a very relaxing and restful experience. Afterwards we mastered abclimb along the Königstraße towards Füssen. Shortly before Füssen, we found again a beautiful campsite along a lake in the evening: the Bannwaldsee Camping. In the evening, we sat out the thunderstorm in the camping restaurant and decided to have a break day. The next day we just had to let our souls dangle, bathe, rest … But we couldn’t leave the pedaling completely and rented a pedal boat (with slide!) :-). From the water we had a beautiful view of the castle Neuschwanstein.

Düsi caused a loud bang noise. We were astonished. The rear tire once more had no air. A short examination revealed that the coat was broken again. We were at a loss, even an extensive internet research did not really produce a solution for our rear tyre problem: Problem “coat cut by the rim” is apparently unknown. The next morning Matthias drove alone and without luggage to Füssen (the nearest town), where he had expert help to retyre the rear wheel with adifferent coat model. Instead of “Schwalbe Tour” we now ride “Schwalbe Tour Plus”. So we started to bike again in the early afternoon. We passed other beautiful lakes like the Hopfensee, where we could hardly resist to stop and take a bath. Our goal was to get as far as possible on this day, as we wanted to be at the post office in Bregenz the next day (Saturday) until 12.00 noon to post domestic mail. So we drove until shortly after 20.00 o’clock and then quatted ourselves in the cosy country hotel “Alte Post” with very good food a few kilometres before Oberstaufen. Would we be able to cover the missing 60 km tomorrow morning in time for the post office in Bregenz? … This isn’t an easy task for the morning grouch Nina.