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Bavarian Castles and The Zugspitze

PHOTOS: If you want to see the photo’s full-size, click the photo, it isolates to a new page and click it once again.  Use browser’s “back” to return to blog.
CURRENT LOCATION:  Upper right corner is my SPOT Satellite track provided by SPOTwalla.  When activated, it provides a real time track of my travels.  The tracks are archived back to my arrival in Heidelberg, April 25.

Use the zoom slider on the left to open up the map to see our entire route.  The “History” allows you to see day-by-day routes.  “Satellite” replaces the map illustration with satellite photos.

We are ugly American tourists
Date: Wednesday 12, 2013

Location:  Bavaria – Füssen & Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Lodging: Euro Park Hotel, Füssen

Money Conversion:

€1 = $1.327 USD or $1 USD = €0.77537

Gas/Fuel: €1.609/l or $7.89 USD/gal!

After 4 weeks on the road, our “All the Gear, All the Time” is quite the sight.  In Europe most moto riders wear slick leather race-style gear.  After 2 years my Kilm Gortex Riding Suit has performed excellent.  During the wet Dolomiti and Slovenia days I was dry while the racing leather boys were soaked.  But, walking around in ATGATT gets lots of looks.  We are ugly!  And we might smell too.

Today is tourist day in Bavaria.  Robert is a Bavaria virgin so he gets the quick and dirty tour.

The interesting thing about Europe is that American fantasies are European reality.  Most of us have seen the wonder of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at Disneyland.  My granddaughters love the vision as they enter Main Street and see the Castle at the other end.

Disney’s castle was inspired by the Neuschwanstein Castle (German: Schloss Neuschwanstein).

Schloss Neuschwanstein (Neuschwanstein Castle)

Fussen, Germany is on the border of Austria and the fastest way to the Linderhof Palace (German: Schloss Linderhof) ~40 km away, is into Austria and back up into Germany.

This classic Vespa scooter and single-wheel trailer was in the Linderhof parking lot.

Touring on a Vespa!

Schloss Linderhof (Linderhof Palace)

Next we ride south to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen area to ride a gondola to the top of the Zugspitze, at 2,962 m above sea level, is the highest mountain in Germany.

On top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany. 2,963 m.

The view from the Zugspitze.

Enough of Bavaria!  I wanted to see the Black Forest.  Is it really black?

We ride west to Lindau and find lodging at Seevital Hotel Schiff Langenargen.  This was our last night out so we splurged!  My share was €60 which included dinner and libations.

Total day’s ride – 300 km
How Black is the Black Forest?
Date: Thursday, June 13, 2013

Location:  Langenargen (on Lake Bodensee) up north to

Lodging: Bamberg, Germany

Money Conversion:

€1 = $1.327 USD or $1 USD = €0.77537

Gas/Fuel: €1.609/l or $7.89 USD/gal!

We are on the road at 8:30AM heading due west to Freiburg, Germany.  The Black Forest is famous for Cuckoo Clocks and since it was a forest the riding should be good.  Freiburg was recommended to us as a Black Forest stop.

Our route is mostly main roads.  The first thing we encounter is … traffic!  Lots of traffic, congestion, big 18-wheeler trucks, farm tractors, and construction.  If you see our route you will see how we tried alternate roads to get away from traffic but it was slow going all the way!

At a gas station we are told we cannot ride into the center of town without a special window sticker!  In the mean time H talks to some tour bus drivers and they recommended Triberg.  We ride northeast out of Freiburg and again … traffic!
The map shows a twisty-turnie “L186”.  This got us away from traffic and at the top – a hang glider, para glider launch.

This hang glider has a little tail flap.

Hang gliding set-up area.

Almost center is a hang glider a couple seconds after launch.

Triberg, this little Black Forest village is packed with cuckoo clocks!

We lunched in Triberg, saw many cuckoo clocks and it was 15:00.  Time to head to the barn – Bamberg.

Oh by the way, there is nothing black about the Black Forest.

It was autobahn all the way.

Total day’s ride – 600 km

4 comments to Bavarian Castles and The Zugspitze

  • Tom B.

    That’s a great area you just went through. We have relatives in Freiburg, just visited them last year. Loved the Vespa!

  • Brother Tom

    That’s what happens when modern man gets into the forest and starts to clear cut….the forest is no longer shielded from the sunlight.

    • Dean

      Tom, very little clear cutting in the forest areas. Saw plenty of logging but it was selective cutting. Saw one man on a back-hoe type tree harvester that cut the tree, stripped all the branches and trim the top to a measured length (logging truck length). This whole cycle was very fast.

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