German Alpine Road East

A 336 km loop

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Why this ride

Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. A 336 km loop that starts and ends near Moosinning, about 7 h of riding. It goes by way of Schrobenhausen, in Prittriching, near Penzberg and Grünwald. The climb of the day is near Tuntenhausen. It tops out at about 1,000 m. Long stretches are under trees.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Moosinning fuel

   North-east of Munich, the land flattens into a wide plain of fields, drainage ditches and scattered villages. This is the Erdinger Moos, once a vast marsh, drained over the past two centuries and now home to farms, gravel pits and, a few kilometres away, Munich's international airport. Moosinning is one of the villages on its edge, quiet and practical, with a church, a few farms and modern housing.

   The riding here is not dramatic, but it has a certain calm charm. Roads run straight between fields of maize and wheat, then curve gently through villages and over small streams. The Isar flows to the north, with riverside woods and gravel banks. On a clear day, the Alps appear as a pale blue line on the southern horizon, a promise of what is to come. Watch for agricultural traffic, especially in harvest season, and for strong crosswinds on the open plain.

   Erding, the nearest town, is worth a stop. Its old centre has a pretty square and a tall city tower, and it is home to a famous wheat beer brewery, Erdinger, whose name you have probably seen on bottles worldwide. Nearby, the huge Therme Erding thermal spa draws visitors from all over Bavaria. If you are heading towards the German Alpine Road, though, you will probably want to keep moving south.

   For fuel, Erding and the larger villages along the main roads have stations, and bakeries offer pretzels and coffee. The airport area also has services but can be busy. Moosinning is a good place to take a short break, check the route and enjoy the open landscape before turning towards the mountains, where the roads become much more interesting.

2. Schrobenhausen, on the way back swim

   In spring, the sandy fields around Schrobenhausen are covered with long, ridged rows under black plastic, and from April to June the whole region revolves around a single vegetable: white asparagus. Schrobenhausener Spargel is among the best-known asparagus in Germany, protected by an origin designation, and the town even has a museum devoted to it. If you are passing in season, the restaurants serve it in every possible form, classically with boiled potatoes, ham and hollandaise sauce.

   The town has a well-preserved medieval wall, with towers and a moat, enclosing the old centre. The painter Franz von Lenbach, famous for his portraits of Bismarck and other notables of the German Empire, was born here in 1836, and his birthplace is now a small museum. The river Paar flows past the town, and the countryside around is gentle, with fields, woods and small villages.

   To the north lies the Donaumoos, once the largest fen in southern Germany, which was drained and settled at the end of the eighteenth century under the Elector Karl Theodor. The landscape is flat, with straight roads and drainage channels, and the peat soils have been sinking ever since, as the drained peat decomposes. It is a strange, quiet landscape, with big skies and fields stretching to the horizon.

   For a swim on the way back to Munich, there are several quarry and gravel lakes in the area, some with small beaches and kiosks, and the water is clear and refreshing in summer. Choose an official bathing spot, as some lakes are private or used for fishing only. The roads around Schrobenhausen are generally quiet and flat, with gentle curves through the fields and woods, and the ride back to Munich takes about an hour. Fuel, supermarkets and restaurants are available in town, and in May a warm plate of the local asparagus is reason enough to stop twice.

3. Food stop in Prittriching food

   Prittriching lies on the Lechfeld, the broad gravel plain that the River Lech built as it flowed north from the Alps towards the Danube. The village is small and agricultural, with a church, farms and a few modern houses, and the countryside around it is flat and open, given over to fields of maize, wheat and potatoes. It is a quiet place with a long view in every direction.

   The Lechfeld has a place in European history. In 955, somewhere on this plain south of Augsburg, Otto the Great defeated the Magyar horsemen who had been raiding central Europe for decades, a victory that helped secure his position and led to his coronation as emperor a few years later. Nothing marks the exact spot, but the open landscape makes it easy to imagine the clash of armies.

   On the bike, things are relaxed. Roads are straight and smooth, linking villages across the plain, and the Lech, with its chain of reservoirs and riverside woods, runs to the west. Wind can be strong on the open fields, and farm machinery is common, particularly at harvest time. On a clear day, the Alps rise on the southern horizon, a hint of the mountain roads to come.

   Prittriching has a village inn and a bakery, which can be a good stop for a simple Bavarian meal or coffee. For fuel, the nearby towns of Königsbrunn and Landsberg am Lech are the best bets. Landsberg is especially worth a visit for its medieval old town, perched on the steep bank of the Lech with a weir and colourful houses. From the Lechfeld, the route heads south towards the German Alpine Road, where flat fields give way to mountains and lakes.

4. Photo stop near Penzberg photo

   Penzberg was a coal town until 1966, when its mine closed after more than a century of operation. The miners' houses, the old headframe and a museum recall that past, but Penzberg's real surprise is cultural: its museum houses a remarkable collection of works by Heinrich Campendonk, a member of the Blue Rider group of painters, with his colourful, dreamlike paintings and glass works. It is an unexpected treasure in a small town at the edge of the Alps.

   The landscape around Penzberg is a mix of meadows, forests, moors and lakes, with the Alps rising to the south. A short ride away lie the Osterseen, a chain of small, clear lakes in a moorland nature reserve, and the larger Starnberger See and Kochelsee. Beyond Kochel, the road climbs the Kesselberg to the Walchensee, one of the most beautiful lakes in Bavaria, with deep turquoise water surrounded by mountains.

   The riding here is excellent. The roads roll through the meadows and forests, with gentle curves and views of the mountains, and the Kesselberg road, with its hairpins, is a classic. Note that the Kesselberg has had weekend and holiday restrictions for motorcycles in one direction because of noise and accidents, so check the signs. Traffic can be heavy on summer weekends, and the roads are popular with cyclists.

   Penzberg has fuel stations, shops and restaurants, making it a good place to fill up before heading into the mountains. A visit to the Campendonk museum is a fine way to spend a rainy hour. The Walchensee and Kochelsee loop continues south into the mountains.

5. Near Grünwald finish

   It is one of the wealthiest suburbs in Germany, a place of large villas hidden behind hedges, and also home to the Bavaria Film studios at Geiselgasteig, where films and television series have been made for over a century. The studio tour is a classic Munich day out, with sets from famous productions such as Das Boot.

   Grünwald has a small medieval castle, perched above the Isar, which served the Wittelsbach dukes as a hunting seat. The river below is a playground for Munich: on summer weekends, wooden rafts carrying groups of revellers, a brass band and a lot of beer float down from Wolfratshausen to Thalkirchen, a tradition that goes back to the timber rafts that once supplied the city. The riverbanks are lined with gravel beaches, forests and walking paths.

   As a starting point for rides south to the Alps, this area is ideal. It lies outside the city centre, with easy access to the roads south through the Isar valley and the forests of the Munich gravel plain. The quiet road through Straßlach and down towards Wolfratshausen and Bad Tölz is a pleasant way to warm up, avoiding the motorway, with forests, fields and occasional glimpses of the mountains on the horizon. From Bad Tölz, the German Alpine Road leads east towards Tegernsee, Schliersee and beyond.

   There is fuel and food in Grünwald and the surrounding towns, and plenty of beer gardens for the end of the day. On a clear day, the Alps are visible from the high bank, especially when the föhn wind blows, bringing warm, dry air and unusually clear views, a phenomenon that Munich people both love and blame for headaches. Early morning on a summer weekend is the best time to leave, before the traffic builds up and the day-trippers head for the lakes.

6. High point near Tuntenhausen pass

   The twin towers of Tuntenhausen's pilgrimage church rise above the meadows between Bad Aibling and Rosenheim, visible from miles around. For centuries, pilgrims have come here to venerate an image of the Virgin, and the church, rebuilt in the seventeenth century, is richly decorated inside with stucco and paintings. It is a quiet place, surrounded by farms and fields, with the Alps rising on the southern horizon.

   The landscape here is the Alpine foreland, a land of rolling hills, meadows, forests and lakes, shaped by the glaciers that flowed out of the mountains during the Ice Ages. The views from the hills around Tuntenhausen stretch south to the Wendelstein, the Kaisergebirge and the Chiemgau Alps, a magnificent panorama on a clear day. The meadows are dotted with farms, and the villages have onion-domed churches, typical of Upper Bavaria.

   The roads roll over the hills and through the villages, with gentle curves, good surfaces and moderate traffic. They are a fine warm-up for the mountain roads to come, and the views of the Alps are a constant companion. Watch for agricultural vehicles, cyclists and cows being moved between pastures. The weather can change quickly, with thunderstorms common in summer.

   Tuntenhausen has a village inn, and fuel and food are easily found in Bad Aibling or Rosenheim. Bad Aibling is a spa town with a thermal bath and a pleasant centre, and Rosenheim is a lively market town on the Inn. The German Alpine Road continues east towards Berchtesgaden, with lakes, passes and the mountains ever closer.

7. Scenic stretch near Ebersberg scenic

   The Ebersberger Forst is one of the largest continuous forests in the lowlands of Germany, a vast expanse of spruce, beech and oak east of Munich, crossed by straight roads and tracks. It was once a royal hunting ground, and it is still full of roe deer, boar and many birds. The town of Ebersberg sits on its edge, with a large church that holds a relic said to be the skull of Saint Sebastian, the object of a pilgrimage for centuries.

   Ebersberg is a pleasant market town with a lake, an old centre and views over the surrounding countryside. A wooden lookout tower on the Ludwigshöhe hill above the town gives a wide panorama over the forest and, on clear days, the Alps. The landscape around is a mix of forests, meadows and small villages, part of the rolling Alpine foreland.

   From the saddle it is relaxed and pleasant. The roads through the forest are straight and fast, but speed limits are enforced, and wildlife can be a hazard. The roads around the town and towards the south are more winding, with gentle curves and views of the Alps. Traffic can be heavy on the main roads towards Munich, especially at rush hour. In autumn, the forest is beautiful, with the beeches turning gold.

   Fuel, groceries and somewhere to eat are all easy in Ebersberg. A beer garden or a café by the lake is a pleasant place for a break. The German Alpine Road and the Walchensee lie to the south, with the mountains growing closer with every kilometre.

8. Back to German Alpine finish

   Flat as a table and wide as the sky, the land around Moosinning and Oberding is the gravel plain northeast of Munich, a former marsh called the Erdinger Moos that was drained over a century ago and is now mostly fields, villages and the long concrete ribbon of Munich Airport. For a rider coming back from the Alps on the German Alpine Road, the mountains are simply gone, and the horizon is a line of trees, a church spire and the occasional aircraft banking in.

   The German Alpine Road itself is a long tourist route that runs along the northern edge of the Alps from Lindau on Lake Constance to Königssee near Berchtesgaden, about four hundred and fifty kilometres in all. The eastern portion, part of which this ride follows, passes lakes and meadows and the foothills of the Chiemgau, and has a few real highlights, but this last leg is strictly commuting country. Roads are straight, speed limits are strict, and much of the traffic is airport-related, so expect delivery vans and taxis.

   If you want some relief, Erding is close and has a handsome old town with a long main street and a famous wheat beer, Erdinger Weissbier, which is brewed here. It also has one of the largest thermal spas in Europe, popular with Bavarians after a cold weekend. Freising, to the west, has an old cathedral hill and is the seat of an ancient bishopric; Bavarians say Munich owes some of its faith and brewing to this town.

   Small towns here are well supplied. Moosinning and Oberding have little of interest beyond the practical, but Erding and Freising have filling stations, supermarkets, bakeries and cafes, and the airport region has twenty-four hour fuel. The Isar and the Strogen canals add a few green corridors for a short walk.

   Because the land is so level, the wind can be sharp in spring and winter, and fog sometimes settles over the Moos in autumn mornings, cutting visibility. In summer, the evening light across the fields is warm and soft, and the Alps will sometimes reappear, rows of pale teeth to the south, as a reminder of where you have been.

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