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.
337 km from Geltendorf to Geltendorf, about 5 h 34 of riding. It goes by way of Rose Island, Pilgrimage Church of Wies, King's House on Schachen and back through Pilgrimage Church of Wies. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 45 km this is German Alpine Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pestenacker is where the day begins. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rose Island comes up 50 km in. Next is Pilgrimage Church of Wies.
In a meadow at the foot of the Ammergau Alps, surrounded by fields, cows and a few farmhouses, stands one of the most extraordinary churches in Europe. From the outside, the Wieskirche looks fairly plain, a white building with a modest tower. Step inside and you are hit by a wave of light, colour and movement: white and gold stucco, pastel frescoes, columns and galleries that seem to float, and a ceiling painting of Christ's return that opens the roof into heaven. It is the masterpiece of the Bavarian Rococo, built between 1745 and 1754 by Dominikus Zimmermann, with frescoes by his brother Johann Baptist, and it was listed by UNESCO in 1983.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Church of Wies write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
99 km in you reach Pilgrimage Church of Wies. Next is King's House on Schachen.
This is one of the few royal residences in Europe that you cannot reach by any road, and King Ludwig II of Bavaria would have liked it that way. The King's House on Schachen stands on a high alpine meadow at about 1,866 metres in the Wetterstein mountains, south of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, below the jagged walls of the range that culminates in the Zugspitze. Ludwig had it built between 1869 and 1872 as a mountain retreat, and from the outside it looks like a modest Swiss chalet. Inside, upstairs, is a fantasy: the Turkish Hall, a room of blue, gold and red, with a fountain, peacock-feather fans, divans and stained glass, where the king liked to celebrate his birthday dressed in oriental costume while his servants smoked hookahs.
Read the complete King's House on Schachen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
King's House on Schachen, about halfway. Next is back through Pilgrimage Church of Wies.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pilgrimage Church of Wies write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Pilgrimage Church of Wies sits at 199 km, about halfway. Next is back through Rose Island.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Rose Island write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Rose Island comes up 248 km in. Next is Pestenacker.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Pestenacker write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pestenacker closes the day.
Pestenacker → Rose Island is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rose Island → Pilgrimage Church of Wies is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Pilgrimage Church of Wies → King's House on Schachen is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
King's House on Schachen → back through Pilgrimage Church of Wies is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Pilgrimage Church of Wies → back through Rose Island is 57 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Rose Island → Pestenacker is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.