Day 12: German alpine route

After a couple months of slacking, it’s time to report on the last couple days of my bike trip! I’m actually on my next trip now (not biking), so I’ve got some spare time in the train.

It was cold, wet and foggy in the early morning at our Bavarian camp. The Allgäu region is a beautiful place but I was definitely missing the days of the warm French coast. I went down the street to the bakery and grabbed some bread from a sketchy bakery with no prices. Sorry, no photos!

Next, I went to settle the bill for the camp. I was apprehensive because they had told us the night before that they don’t accept credit cards. When I offered to pay by bank payment, the woman at the desk phoned her boss and asked what to do and how to input this in the books. In the end, she said not to pay at all and said we could just leave without paying! Well, I think we definitely discovered a money washing operation…

Well, it was time to get moving!

This day would be filled with crossing the bottom of Germany, always with the Alps on our right to remind us of where we came from.

This region has a lot of beautiful hills and quiet villages with nice houses. Everybody has flowers on their balcony.

Definitely a really nice area to ride your bike – always lots of mountains to feast the eyes on!

Last year, we had a work team event in Kempten and got a recommendation to go to this great restaurant up on the mountain nearby. I had one of the best sausages I’ve ever eaten in my life and I declared I’d be back just to eat this sausage. When I was planning this trip, I made sure the route passed by this restaurant because I had to fulfill my destiny.

We actually tried to bike up but we were too ambitious: the climb was probably the steepest we’d encountered so far and there was no point in killing ourselves for lunch, when we had so much left to cycle.

Behold, the world’s best sausages! It was so good, I ordered the same meal again and endured more Sauerkraut, just to eat another one of those great sausages. So delicious. It was crunchy and juicy.

We got back on the road and continued our journey. It was a long ride in the same direction and with not a lot of variation but when the sights are consistently amazing and beautiful, do you really need any variation?

The last hurrah before Munich was the twin castles of Schloß Neuschwanstein and Höhenschwangau. Although I’ve been twice, I thought there was no way I could lead Bert to Munich without seeing these amazing castles, especially the one that inspired the Disney castle! We took our bikes up and into the courtyard, ignoring the no bikes sign, thinking they only meant that we weren’t allowed to ride our bikes in there. Shortly after this photo, a worker yelled at us for bringing our bikes. It was worth it!

In the photo you will also see Bert trying on a really nice jacket we found. We checked all the pockets for hints about who owned it and even considered keeping it – it was such a nice jacket. But after such a great trip with so little that went wrong, who were we to take such a hit to our karma, no matter how great the jacket? We reported it to the mean worker and left the jacket there. I hope it was returned to its owner or that it found a good home.

Here is Bert standing on a castle, looking up at another castle! Thanks, Mad King Lüdwig!

The castle was closing up and we also felt the call of the bike, so we started heading down the hill and out of the castle, back to the adventure.

Glad I grabbed this great shot on our way out of town. I think I’ll make this the cover photo.

Originally, I had planned that we would stay at a camp near these castles but we still had some biking left in us and we decided to press on into the evening. It felt like the ride dragged on for a while and I began to doubt we would ever arrive but we eventually did.

Two great cycle buddies – Cycle Envoys!

And what is a great cycling effort without a great cycling dinner? I had procured some pasta and sauce at the store earlier and cooked it up on our gas contraption. Together with some sausage from the camp and a little bread, we had a surprisingly tasty reward for the day’s adventure. We narrowly avoided a torrential downpour – luckily, the food was finished just in time for our mad dash to cover. We ate up everything and prepared for our final day.

Did you miss a previous day’s tales or are you looking for an easy overview? Then check out the European Biking Tour 2019 page to get a list of all the days and reports from me and Bert!

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