German Alpine Road East

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Füssen

   Füssen is the southern end of the Romantic Road, a sunny little town on the Lech river, a stone's throw from the Austrian border and with the Alps standing straight above its rooftops. It has about fourteen thousand people and a history stretching back to the Romans, who built a road here, the Via Claudia Augusta, to carry troops over the Alps. The old town is tidy, with arcaded streets and painted facades, and the river tumbles over a small waterfall at the edge of the centre.

   Read the complete Füssen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Füssen sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

2. 2. Garmisch-Partenkirchen

   Garmisch-Partenkirchen lies in a wide Alpine valley in Bavaria, close to the Austrian border, with the Wetterstein range rising behind it and the Zugspitze, at 2,962 metres the highest mountain in Germany, standing at the end of the valley. The town is really two, Garmisch and Partenkirchen, joined together for the 1936 Winter Olympics, and each still has its own character. Partenkirchen, the older part, has a Roman history, as it stood on the road across the Alps, and its main street, with painted houses, is the more charming.

   Read the complete Garmisch-Partenkirchen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Garmisch-Partenkirchen comes up 46 km in. Next is Tegernsee.

3. 3. Tegernsee

   Tegernsee is a lake town in the Bavarian foothills, at the eastern edge of the Tegernsee valley, with the lake in front and steep, forested mountains behind. The Benedictine monastery that gave the place its name was founded in the eighth century, and its church and cloister still dominate the shore, though the buildings are now partly a secondary school and partly a brewery tavern, the Bräustüberl, where locals and visitors share long tables and big pretzels in the courtyard. It is a lively place on a sunny afternoon, with a crowd of beer drinkers, cyclists and bikers.

   Read the complete Tegernsee write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   92 km in you reach Tegernsee. Next is Berchtesgaden.

4. 4. Berchtesgaden

   Berchtesgaden sits in the far southeast corner of Germany, in a pocket of Bavaria that pokes into Austria, and the mountains here do not bother to be modest. The Watzmann, at 2,713 metres Germany's second highest mountain, stands above the valley in a long ridge, with the pale wall of the Hochkalter opposite. The town is the end of the German Alpine Road, which runs from Lake Constance, and it feels like the end of the line, with the peaks closing in on all sides. For centuries the local economy rested on salt, and the salt mine, worked since the sixteenth century, is open to visitors who put on miners' clothes and slide down the wooden chutes.

   Read the complete Berchtesgaden write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Berchtesgaden, late in the day. Next is Schönau am Königssee.

5. 5. Schönau am Königssee

   Planning note

   Schönau am Königssee sits at 271 km, late in the day.

Recorded source links

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