Bad Tölz is the market town of the Isarwinkel, a place of seventeen thousand people on the Isar river with the Alps standing behind it, and it is the sort of town where a motorcyclist can eat very well. The old main street, the Marktstraße, climbs gently from the river and is lined with houses painted in bright colours and decorated with gables and painted fronts, a pattern that Bavarian towns have followed for centuries. It is a spa town in a modest way, known since the nineteenth century for the iodine-rich springs that gave it the name Bad, and people still come here for the cure.
Television viewers in Germany know the town as the setting of a police series, The Bull of Tölz, and the film crews are part of the local colour. Among music lovers the Tölzer Knabenchor, the boys' choir, has an international reputation. The best known local tradition is the Leonhardifahrt, held every November, when decorated horse carriages take part in a procession up to the chapel on the Kalvarienberg in honour of Saint Leonard, patron of livestock. The hill with its chapel is a short climb and gives a good view over the town to the mountains.
For food, the Marktstraße has a cluster of traditional inns and bakeries, and you can expect the usual Bavarian menu of roast pork, dumplings, sausage salad and Kaiserschmarrn, the shredded pancake with plum compote that no mountain meal ends without. There are also ice cream cafes by the river. Lunch on a terrace here is a fine reward after the bends of the Kesselberg or the Jachenau. Parking in the centre can be tight on weekends, and the street is steep and sometimes cobbled, so a heavy bike needs care when turning.
Practical things are easy: Bad Tölz has petrol stations at its edges, supermarkets, and a railway to Munich. The Isar here is wide and green, with gravel banks, and in summer people swim and picnic along its edges, though the current is strong and cold. The ride from here toward Munich on the old roads through Holzkirchen or along the Isar is smooth and easy. Time your visit for a weekday if you can: on sunny weekends the town fills with day-trippers and the queue for a table can run long.