It was a foggy cold start today after yet another great breakfast at the hotel. There was quite an amazing array of food but not many guests to eat it all. We did our best but barely scratched the surface.
We packed up and left. The lady who ran the hotel was fantastic, but I suspect that this is their lowest part of the season – not enough snow for skiers and too wet and cold for hikers.
We left town and immediately followed some completely empty bike lanes to the next village about 15 kms away. It was still cold when we found a nice Bakery / Coffee shop, but while inside, the fog burned off and the sun emerged. Ahhhhhh. It was warm in the sun but still very cold in the shade.
Another 15kms down the road was Bad Tölz which is a beautiful town on the Isar river. We got food for the rest of the day and cash before looking around town.
I’m amazed at the fact that so many businesses take cash only, here in Germany. I didn’t expect that at all, so we’ve had to bring cash wherever we go.
At Bad Tölz, we also joined the Munich – Venice bike path which after one day, is great. We’ll be on it until we’re well into Italy.
The path followed the river for much of the day and it was gentle climbing with a few steep pitches which nearly killed me. Near the top of one, there was a bench seat in the sun, so we simply had to stop and polish off the rest of our food – half a large cookie each.
It was here that we met a young German couple, Sofia and Noah, who are on their way to Baku in Azerbaijan by bike. Sofia had fallen a few days ago and had a finger heavily strapped. They were great people and we talked for a while – very jealous of their trip, so it may be on next year’s agenda.
The next section took us off into the bush and up a steep 12 – 15% slope, which I walked. That rest day can’t come soon enough 😁
From there, the muddy road levelled off and went downhill – so relieved. We made it into Achenkirch, stopped for a hot chocolate and booked an apartment on Booking.com. One of the benefits of all of this travel is that you qualify for some great discounts – which is what happened here.
We went to the supermarket so we could cook up a storm again. It’s easy to get sick of restaurants, and staying in a place with a kitchen means having some home cooked meals that are much better that what I cook when camping.
Achenkirch is a ski area. Out of every window here, are snow covered peaks. It’s astounding scenery.
