Why this ride
From Munich it runs 248 km to Munich; allow about 3 h 58 of riding. The stops in between: Rose Island, Unfriedshausen, Pestenacker and Water Management System of Augsburg.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Munich afternoon · Water Management System of Augsburg
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 248 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 58
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Scenic road chapters
Romantic Road
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 33 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 35 km
- Named road
- Romantic Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Munich
Munich is closer to the Alps than any other German city of its size, and on a clear day with a warm southerly wind called the Föhn, the mountains seem to sit at the end of the street. The wind brings a sharp clarity and headaches for the sensitive, and the locals are used to both. The city lies on the Isar, a river that once ran milky green with glacial water and is now lined with gravel banks where people sunbathe, barbecue and swim in summer. Munich's centre is compact and cheerful, with the twin onion-domed towers of the Frauenkirche, the Rathaus on Marienplatz with its mechanical clock figures, and the Viktualienmarkt for food.
Read the complete Munich write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Munich is where the day begins. Next is Rose Island.
2. Rose Island
Lake Starnberg, south-west of Munich, is the lake where Bavaria's Fairy Tale King met his end. Ludwig II drowned in its waters near Berg in 1886, in circumstances that are still debated, and a cross stands in the lake where his body was found. On the opposite shore, near Feldafing, lies the small Roseninsel, or Rose Island, the only island in the lake. Ludwig's father Maximilian II had a little villa built there, surrounded by a rose garden, and Ludwig used it as a retreat, sometimes meeting his cousin, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, known as Sisi, who spent her childhood at nearby Possenhofen.
Read the complete Rose Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Rose Island comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Unfriedshausen.
3. Unfriedshausen
Unfriedshausen is a hamlet in the rolling farmland west of the Ammersee, part of the municipality of Geltendorf in the Landsberg district of Bavaria, and if you have never heard of it, you are in good company. This is the gentle, prosperous countryside between Munich and Augsburg, a patchwork of fields, meadows, spruce woods, onion-domed churches and farmhouses with balconies full of geraniums, and it is the kind of place where the main event of the day might be a tractor crossing the road.
Read the complete Unfriedshausen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
At least about 88 km into the recorded legs you reach Unfriedshausen. Next is Pestenacker.
4. Pestenacker
Pestenacker is a field in Bavaria with a secret under it. Around five and a half thousand years ago, Neolithic farmers built a settlement on the damp ground near the Lech, and the waterlogged soil preserved timber, tools and household remains that would have rotted elsewhere. It belongs to the family of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, inscribed by UNESCO in 2011, a group that also includes the Roseninsel in Lake Starnberg to the south. What you see at the surface is modest, since most of the evidence is below ground, so the interest here lies in imagining.
Read the complete Pestenacker write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Pestenacker, about halfway. Next is Water Management System of Augsburg.
5. Water Management System of Augsburg
Augsburg was a Roman town, a medieval free imperial city and the home of the fabulously rich Fugger banking family, but the thing that held it all together was water. Over the centuries, the city built an intricate network of canals fed by the Lech and Wertach rivers, water towers, pumping stations and fountains, supplying clean drinking water to the citizens and power to mills and workshops. The system was so advanced that UNESCO inscribed it in 2019, recognising twenty-two sites, from the water towers at the Red Gate, dating back to the fifteenth century, to the great Renaissance fountains dedicated to Augustus, Mercury and Hercules on the main street.
Read the complete Water Management System of Augsburg write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Water Management System of Augsburg sits at 121 km, about halfway. Next is back through Pestenacker.
6. back through Pestenacker
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pestenacker write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Pestenacker comes up about 160 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Unfriedshausen.
7. back through Unfriedshausen
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Unfriedshausen write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 161 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Unfriedshausen. Next is back through Rose Island.
8. back through Rose Island
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rose Island write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Rose Island, late in the day. Next is Munich.
9. Munich
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Munich write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 248 km.
Leg by leg
Munich to Rose Island
Munich → Rose Island is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rose Island to Unfriedshausen
Rose Island → Unfriedshausen is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pestenacker to Water Management System of Augsburg
Pestenacker → Water Management System of Augsburg is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Water Management System of Augsburg to back through Pestenacker
Water Management System of Augsburg → back through Pestenacker is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Unfriedshausen to back through Rose Island
back through Unfriedshausen → back through Rose Island is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rose Island to Munich
back through Rose Island → Munich is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.