CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Landsberg am Lech it runs 582 km to Starnberg; allow about 8 h 32 of riding. The stops in between: Forggensee view, Neuschwanstein view area, Peißenberg hills and near Starnberg. near Herrsching am Ammersee is the high point. It tops out at about 1,350 m.
10 km on Romantische Strasse.
For 59 km this is Romantic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Landsberg am Lech sits on a bend of the river with a medieval gate, a tilted market square and a history that began with salt. In the twelfth century Henry the Lion, the Duke of Bavaria, built a toll station here on the Lech to tax the salt traders who were bringing their loads from Reichenhall to Swabia, and the town grew up around it. The Bayertor, a tall, ornate gate of the fifteenth century, still stands at the end of the old town, and its roof is covered in glazed tiles that sparkle after rain. The Lech itself tumbles over a weir in the middle of town, a lively sound that follows you through the streets.
Read the complete Landsberg am Lech write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Landsberg am Lech is where the day begins. Next is Forggensee view.
From the shore above the Forggensee you can see Neuschwanstein, white and improbable on its rock, and behind it the mountains of the Ammergau Alps fold into Tyrol. Few views in Germany are so famous, and few so likely to be crowded, so the advice is to come early. The castle was built by King Ludwig II from 1869, was unfinished when he died in 1886, and opened to the public within weeks. Hohenschwangau, the yellow castle below it, was where he grew up. Tickets for the interiors are sold for timed entry and fill up in summer, so this is a place to admire from the road if you did not plan ahead.
Read the complete Forggensee view write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Forggensee view comes up 54 km in. Next is Neuschwanstein view area.
Everyone knows the picture: white towers on a limestone crag, forest below, flat land stretching away to the north. What the postcards do not tell you is how many people are in the picture's foreground. The village of Schwangau and the car parks around Hohenschwangau fill with coaches from about ten in the morning, so if you want to see the castle with some room to think, arrive early or come late and treat the visit as a shoulder-season pleasure.
Read the complete Neuschwanstein view area write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
109 km in you reach Neuschwanstein view area. Next is Peißenberg hills.
Peißenberg is a town on a hill, and the hill is the thing. The Hoher Peißenberg rises to just under a thousand metres, isolated from the Alps behind it, so that it stands like a lookout over the whole of the Pfaffenwinkel, the Priest's Corner, the pilgrim country between the Lech and the Loisach. From its top you see the lakes, the Ammergau mountains and the line of the Zugspitze in the distance. The road up is steep and short, with a good surface, and parking near the summit is limited.
Read the complete Peißenberg hills write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Peißenberg hills, early in the day. Next is Back to Landsberg am Lech.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Landsberg am Lech write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Landsberg am Lech. That is the ride. Next is Grossglockner Gateway Overnight.
On the evening of 13 June 1886, King Ludwig II of Bavaria, the builder of Neuschwanstein, drowned in the shallow waters of the Starnberger See, together with his psychiatrist, a day after being deposed and declared insane. The circumstances have never been fully explained, and theories of murder or suicide still circulate. A cross in the water off Berg, on the eastern shore, marks the spot, and a votive chapel stands on the hill above. Across the lake, at Possenhofen, his cousin Elisabeth, the future Empress Sisi of Austria, spent her childhood summers.
Read the complete Fuel stop near Starnberg write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Grossglockner Gateway Overnight is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is High point near Herrsching am Ammersee.
On a hill above the Ammersee, the onion-domed church of Andechs Monastery has drawn pilgrims for centuries, but many modern visitors come for something else: the beer. The Benedictine monks of Andechs brew some of the most celebrated beers in Bavaria, and the beer garden next to the monastery, with its view over the countryside, is famous. The climb from Herrsching through the Kiental, a narrow wooded valley, is a pleasant walk for those who want to earn their beer; riders, of course, take the road and leave the beer for later.
Read the complete High point near Herrsching am Ammersee write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Grossglockner Gateway Overnight checkpoint 8.
West of Munich, the city fades into a belt of comfortable suburbs, Germering, Planegg, Gräfelfing, set among fields and patches of forest on the flat gravel plain that stretches towards the Alps. The ride ends among them, near the forest of the Kreuzlinger Forst, and it is a convenient finish for rides that have gone south to the Grossglockner and the Allgäu.
Read the complete Near Germering write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Grossglockner Gateway Overnight checkpoint 8. That is the ride. Next is Scenic stretch near Petershausen.
North of Munich, the land rolls gently through the valleys of the Glonn and the Ilm, a quiet country of fields, forests and villages known as the Dachauer Hinterland. Petershausen is one of its towns, with a railway station linking it to the city, and a church and old farmhouses. It is a practical place, and the surrounding countryside is pleasant, with meadows, woods and onion-domed churches.
Read the complete Scenic stretch near Petershausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Scenic stretch near Petershausen sits at 435 km, about halfway. Next is Photo stop near Au in der Hallertau.
Tall green walls of hops line the roads around Au in der Hallertau in late summer. The Hallertau is the largest continuous hop-growing region in the world, and its vines climb wires strung between poles about seven metres high, giving the landscape a strange, almost theatrical look. Au, a small market town with a castle and a church, is one of its centres, and the smell of hops at harvest time, from late August into September, is unforgettable.
Read the complete Photo stop near Au in der Hallertau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Photo stop near Au in der Hallertau comes up 490 km in. Next is Munich / Bavarian Alps return.
After a weekend on the Grossglockner, with its glaciers, hairpins and thin, cold air, there is something deeply satisfying about stopping in the soft green hills of the Chiemgau and lowering yourself into a lake. The point lies near Halfing, a village between Rosenheim and the Chiemsee, and within a few kilometres there are several lakes that make ideal swimming stops on the way back to Munich.
Read the complete Halfing, on the way back write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
544 km in you reach Munich / Bavarian Alps return. Next is Food stop near Bad Feilnbach.
Bad Feilnbach is a spa town at the foot of the Wendelstein, the striking rocky peak that rises above the Inn valley south of Rosenheim. Its speciality is moor baths, using peat from the surrounding bogs, and visitors have come for its healing treatments for over a century. The town is quiet and green, with meadows, orchards and farmhouses, and the mountain looms over everything.
Read the complete Food stop near Bad Feilnbach write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Somewhere to get off the bike, 599 km in. Next is Back to Grossglockner.
Starnberg sits at the northern end of the Starnberger See, the big, elongated lake south of Munich, and the dot lands in the lakeside commuter belt between the town and Pöcking. It is wealthy country. The shoreline is lined with villas and old summer houses, the roads are quiet, and the Alps appear on clear days as a long white wall above the water, with the Zugspitze and the Karwendel easy to pick out.
Read the complete Grossglockner write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Grossglockner closes the day.
Landsberg am Lech → Forggensee view is 75 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Forggensee view → Neuschwanstein view area is 10 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Neuschwanstein view area → Peißenberg hills is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Peißenberg hills → Back to Landsberg am Lech is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Landsberg am Lech → Fuel stop near Starnberg is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fuel stop near Starnberg → High point near Herrsching am Ammersee is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
High point near Herrsching am Ammersee → Near Germering is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Scenic stretch near Petershausen → Photo stop near Au in der Hallertau is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Photo stop near Au in der Hallertau → Halfing, on the way back is 113 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Food stop near Bad Feilnbach → Back to Grossglockner is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.