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.
From Lindau it runs 227 km to Bad Tölz; allow about 3 h 22 of riding. The stops in between: Oberstaufen and Garmisch Partenkirchen. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,550 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Scenic road chapters
Romantische Strasse
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 129 km this is Romantische Strasse, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
Length
129 km
Named road
Romantische Strasse
Pass
Gaicht Pass
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Lindau
Lindau is an island that behaves like a postcard. The old town sits on a small piece of land in the eastern corner of Lake Constance, linked to the mainland by a causeway and a railway bridge, with a harbour entrance guarded by two monuments, a stone lighthouse and a tall statue of the Bavarian lion. Boats cross to Bregenz in Austria and to the Swiss shore, and behind the harbour wall are cobbled streets, painted houses and cafés that spill onto the quay. The Bodensee, as the Germans call it, is the third largest lake in Central Europe and the surrounding land is orchard country, apple trees and vineyards, with the Alps rising over the south shore on a clear day.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lindau is where the day begins. Next is Oberstaufen.
2. Oberstaufen
Oberstaufen is a spa town with a taste for fasting. Its fame comes from the Schroth cure, a regime of dry days, wet days, wraps and very little food that visitors have been putting up with here for generations, and the place wears its wellness reputation with a certain Bavarian shrug. You see it in the clean flower boxes, the Kneipp-style water basins in the park, and the clinic-like hotels. It is also a proper Allgäu town, and a pleasant one, with about seven thousand people, cow bells in the background, and a brewing tradition that makes the fasting look like a very optional part of life.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Oberstaufen comes up about 40 km into the recorded legs. Next is Garmisch Partenkirchen.
3. 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 169 km into the recorded legs you reach Garmisch Partenkirchen. Next is Bad Tolz.
4. Bad Tolz
Bad Tolz grows from the Isar, the river that rushes down from the Alps toward Munich, and the town's main street, the Marktstrasse, climbs a steep slope above the water, lined with painted houses with gabled fronts and carved signs. At the top stands the Kalvarienberg, a hill with a baroque chapel and a view across the roofs to the Alps. The name Bad means spa, and it was the tapping of iodine-rich springs in the nineteenth century that gave the town its status, though the mountains and the old town are the real draw.