Kochel am See lies right at the point where the Bavarian flatlands end, as if somebody had stood the Alps up against the lake. The Kochelsee is a small, deep glacial lake of a few kilometres' length with reed beds along the north shore, and behind the village the ground rises sharply to the Herzogstand and Heimgarten, two wooded ridges that give the lake its backdrop. The village has about four thousand people, a handful of cafes, a promenade and, if you ride south from Penzberg, the first real sense of arriving in the mountains.
The painter Franz Marc lived nearby, at Ried, and there is a museum devoted to him in Kochel, set on the hillside above the lake. Marc was one of the founders of the Blue Rider group and painted his famous blue horses in this country; he was killed at Verdun in 1916, aged thirty-six. The light on the lake on a still morning, when the water goes grey-green and the mist rises from the reeds, is easy to link to those paintings. A short way east, Benediktbeuern has a large Benedictine monastery whose abbey church is one of the finest baroque buildings in the region. Carmina Burana, the medieval songs, were found there in manuscript form.
For riders the fun starts just beyond the village. The Kesselberg road climbs from the lake toward Walchensee in a tight series of bends, some of them quite steep, and has a reputation among Munich riders that goes back decades. It is also a road where local authorities have at times restricted motorbikes, notably on weekends and holidays for noise reasons, so check the current rules before you plan a Sunday there. Early weekday mornings are the best time, with cool air and few cars. Take care in the shade, where damp stays long after rain.
Kochel has petrol stations and bakeries, and for a larger choice of shops Penzberg, eleven kilometres north, is the place, a former coal-mining town that has reinvented itself. The lake is good for swimming in summer, with a public beach and shallow water that warms more than the high lakes, though water temperature is still cool. In autumn the beech forest on the slopes turns copper, and on the clearest days after rain the whole range stands sharp above the water.