Enjoyed a lovely ride to Fussen in the early morning - the trail at times was a good gravel surface alongside the lake. It was simply beautiful. ..and that's saying something as we hadn't taken time for coffee! We had to leave our bike at the shop for the morning, so we took the opportunity to wander in the old town. Fussen is a huge draw for tourists due to its location, history and the magnificent castles in the area. Since we are staying out of town, it was good to explore before the crowds came.
Reiner, the mechanic at Radsport Zacherl & Muller, gave us excellent service - fixed the brakes, installed the chainring (wow, what a difference) and identified an issue of needing to replace the bottom bracket. He was too busy to fit that in, but declared our bike sound for crossing the Alps, thank you Reiner (and Alexandra for setting up the appt.).
It wasn't until after the bike was fixed that Barry admitted that we have been riding increasingly with no rear brake - yikes. As a tandem with a trailer and panniers, we need good brakes. Enjoyed riding today with a load free bike. The scenery continues to be impressive.. Had a quiet afternoon, organizing our gear and writing postcards. We'll push on tomorrow. Next stop the Alps!
Reiner, the bike mechanic in Fussen, installed a 42 tooth chainring to improve our granny gear and also restored our disc brakes to working order. Thanks for your fine work Reiner.
The "new" trail from the campground to Fussen. It is quite beautiful and follows the lake. However, we think that when fully loaded, the paved path along the road is preferable. Since our bike was unencumbered with bags for our day trip, we enjoyed the trip.
Interesting Tout-Terrain trailer with an even more interesting strategy of loading it. It looked a bit precarious to us. This trailer is easily adapted for road or mountain bikes.
