Oberjoch is a village that sits on a saddle, and the saddle belongs to two countries. At 1,178 metres, the pass on the German Alpine Road marks the boundary between the Allgäu in Bavaria and the Tannheimer Valley in Tyrol, and the road crosses it from the town of Hindelang with a steep climb. The pass has a ski resort, a clutch of hotels and a few tidy farmhouses, and it is among the highest villages in Germany.
The German Alpine Road, the Deutsche Alpenstraße, was conceived in the 1930s as a scenic route along the northern edge of the Alps, from Lindau on Lake Constance to Berchtesgaden near the Austrian border, and the stretch through the Allgäu is one of the best. The climb from Hindelang to Oberjoch is a motorcyclist's favourite, a series of hairpins and fast bends through forest, with views of the Allgäu Alps opening up at the top. The surface is good, the corners are well signed, and the traffic can be heavy on summer weekends.
Jungholz, a few kilometres away, is a curious Austrian village that is almost surrounded by Germany and touches Austria at a single point, so tiny that it was long said to be connected by a single mountain peak. It is in effect part of the German customs area, and is an oddity worth a detour. Tannheim, in the valley beyond, has about a thousand people and a lakeside setting at the foot of the mountains.
There is fuel in Hindelang and Sonthofen, the nearest bigger town, about eleven kilometres away, but not at the top. The pass can have snow into May, and it is cold in the morning, even in summer. Fog and rain are frequent, so check the weather before you go. A coffee and a slice of cake at a hotel terrace, with the view over the valley, is a pleasure after the climb.