Kochel am See lies at the foot of the Alps, where the Bavarian lowlands finally give way to mountains, and the Kochelsee fills the basin in front of it with a sheet of green-blue water about six hundred metres above the sea. The town has about four thousand people and a long lakeside promenade, with the first big peaks rising behind. The painter Franz Marc, one of the founders of the Blue Rider group, lived in the village of Ried, just outside, and the Franz Marc Museum on the hill above the lake holds a lovely collection of his work and that of his circle. Marc died at Verdun in 1916.
The lake's other great neighbour is the Walchensee, which lies about two hundred metres higher on the other side of the Kesselberg ridge. In the 1920s, the engineer Oskar von Miller used that height difference to build a hydroelectric power station at Kochel, where water drops from the upper lake through pipes down the mountainside. The Kesselberg road climbs the same slope, and it has been an important route since the Middle Ages. Behind it rises the Herzogstand, a peak of 1,731 metres with a cable car and a famous view.
For riders, the Kesselberg road, the B11, is the classic. It leaves the lake shore in a series of bends and hairpins, climbs through beech and spruce forest to the high pass and then drops to the Walchensee with views of the water and the peaks. The surface is excellent, but the road is narrow in places, steep, and busy on summer weekends with motorcycles, cars and cyclists. Noise limits and local restrictions apply, so watch the signs. Fog can hang on the lake in the morning, and the first autumn frosts can leave ice in the shade. Spring and autumn weekdays are best.
Practically, Kochel has fuel stations, supermarkets, bakeries and many inns and cafes, and in summer boats run on the lake. Schlehdorf and Großweil, nearby, are small villages with limited services. A swim in the lake is cold but refreshing, and a slice of cake on the terrace is a Bavarian tradition. Parking for bikes is plentiful, and the walk along the shore is flat and easy.