BAVARIAN CYCLING HOLIDAY SEPT. 2008

This was a fourteen day holiday but would have liked more days.
Flew into Munich Airport 2nd September 2008. Was collected there by a representative of Bent's Bicycle and Walking Tours.
Travelled to Lenggries. Went for walk here and already I like this place. Beautiful buildings and scenery and friendly people and lots of sunshine. My hotel 'Hotel Alpenrose' was also excellent.
The idea of this particular holiday was to cycle to a destination and remain there for a day and two nights and then continue to next destination. It therefore left a day where we could cycle and explore the area we were in or just relax.
I met a wonderful English couple, Chris and Cherry, with whom I travelled  for the rest of the holiday.
Garmish-Partenkirchen:  After leaving Lenggries we cycled to here passing through Mittenwald.  Three Kilometres past Mittenwald we crossed border into Austria. Some steep hills here, which I enjoyed. 10km past Ehrwald we crossed border back into Germany and continued  on to Garmish-Partenkirchen. This was the only time on the holiday that the weather was not in our favour. It rained almost all day and prevented us from our planned trip to the summit of Germany's highest mountain, "The Zugspitze", which was unfortunate as I was really looking forward to that. That was the only day we had rain on the whole holiday.
Garmish to Hohenschwangau
Approx. a 27km cycle passing through Reinertshof and skirting Fussen. The focus of attention in Hohenschwangau were the castles of 'Mad King Ludwig', Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. After visiting the castles we went to the lake and hired a boat which Cherry, Peter and myself rowed about the lake on a beautiful sunny day. We had dinner in one of the restaurants in Hohenschwangau that evening, which I thoroughtly enjoyed. Hohenschwangau for me though was a bit overcomercialised and a tourist trap.
Hohenschwangau to Oberammergau
Another short trip, this time to Oberammergau.
Oberammergau is full of wonderful craftsmen, whose extensive skills working on wood would mesmerise you and hold you in awe of their extraordinary skills.
From here we did a trip to Ettal and back. Ettal is such a beautiful place. It's the kind of place you could visualise in a fairytale.
Oberammergau to Bernried
Travel through Diemendorf, Monatshausen, Kerschlach,and Bernried
This was our last cycle of the trip.
In Bernried I decided to take a sauna. I didn't know it at the time but it was used by both sexes. I'll say no more, other than I enjoyed my sauna, which I needed, after an enjoyable cycling holiday in a beautiful area of Germany and indeed Austria.
Next morning we would travel by train to Munich and then on to the airport for my flight home.
P.S. I loved the beauty of the scenery here . The people also, I found friendly and hospitable and might just return sometime in the future.

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