CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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.
Green hills, castle views and softer touring curves. A 171 km loop that starts and ends near Landsberg am Lech, about 2 h 56 of riding. On the way it passes Forggensee view, Neuschwanstein view area and Peißenberg hills. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,350 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
13 km on Romantische Strasse.
For about 49 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.
Food at 0 km, roughly 0 minutes into the riding. 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 about 70 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 83 km into the recorded legs 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, late 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.
Back at Back to Landsberg am Lech. That is the ride.
This Forggensee view → Neuschwanstein view area stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Neuschwanstein view area → Peißenberg hills is the reward section in Munich. Look through the bends, use legal pull-offs for photos and keep a little margin for tractors, cyclists and damp shade. The best ride here is smooth, not noisy.