To Bad Aibling

September 11, 2021

We leave Starnberg for Salzburg today on a three day push to the southeast. It’s just over a hundred miles from here to Salzburg. We had originally planned to do this stretch in two days but as it got closer the thought of back-to-back 50+ milers didn’t sound as appealing as it did a few months ago when we first planned out this trip - particularly since rain has been due to return today and possibly persist for another day or two beyond that. A hundred miles in the rain in two days? Thanks, but no thanks.

So we dropped the first night of our planned two night stay in Salzburg (which we’ll also be coming back to a few days later anyway) and stared at the map and Booking to see what was still available on short notice. For today we came up with a small hotel out in the country somewhere, about halfway in between Brookmuhl and Bad Aibling. Forty miles today, another forty tomorrow, and then 25 on the third sounded more manageable for us.

In the meantime, the rain forecast just kept incrementally improving; and when it finally arrived at about eleven last night the threatened rain and thunderstorms didn’t amount to much of anything at all. The last of the showers tapered off and finally ceased at around ten this morning. Very well behaved precipitation, in our esteem. The sky was solidly overcast and the pavement still damp when we started out, but conditions steadily improved all day.

The first twelve miles were a relaxed if undramatic ride as we biked east, often accompanied by fairly significant traffic as we passed through small towns that must be essentially suburbs of Munich, just ten miles to the north.

Glads make us happy, adding splashes of color to the grey day.

The most interesting part of the morning’s ride came when we rode through Baierbrunn and saw a striking sculpture of two colorful torsos. Looking around further we saw a half dozen other eclectic but humanistic sculptures, all interesting, as we passed the large grounds of what we later learned was the campus of Wort und Bild Verlag, a publishing house that specializes in commercial brochures for pharmaceutical companies.

A few miles on we came to a path above a steep drop to the Isar River, found a bench beneath the trees, and stopped for lunch.

Above the Isar. We’re on the Via Julia, briefly.

I’ve relooked at the next mile, when we dropped steeply down to the Isar and then back out again, wondering if I’d mismapped rather route here and missed a more bikeable alternative; but no, this is a marked bike route - but a terrible one. The scariest mile we’ve ridden since arriving in Europe. Steep, narrow, switchbacks, poor visibility, busy. Terrible. If we come back this way someday we’d be happy to add a five or ten mile detour to find a safer river crossing.

It wasn’t bad on the descent since we could stay in a large gap in the traffic - but the two bike tourists biking up going the other way had ashen looks on their faces. We hoped we’d find a shoulder once we began the ascent, but didn’t. Two other touring bikers passed us at the bottom of the climb, on eBikes that helped them keep a faster pace; but at our pokey rate it felt decidedly unsafe. We did find a set of stairs that we could climb instead, but after I followed them to see how many there were that we’d have to portage the bike up (at least 60 by my count) we decided to look for a gap and brave the road.

Unfortunately by this spot the road was too steep for Rachael to start biking so we hugged the shoulder and pushed. And survived. So, this wasn’t that truck that my friend Frank keeps warning me to watch out for:

So that was the low point of the day, and of the whole last month really. Beyond that though the ride quickly improved. We soon left the suburbs and found ourselves out in the countryside again, and the last twenty miles to our hotel were beautiful. As we move south and east the sky broke open and mountains became visible in the distance. The final ten miles were especially fine, biking alongside a slender stream on a quiet, empty road listening to the water rush over small cascades.

Before the breathin' air is gone / Before the sun is just a bright spot in the night-time / Out where the rivers like to run / I stand alone and take back somethin' worth rememberin'.

We have several unpaved miles, but on a reasonable surface with the roadside lined by flowers.

At one point we passed a virtual forest of hollyhocks fronting sunflowers and corn stalks.

Gradually the country gives off a different feeling, like we are transitioning into Austria.

It’s exciting to see these mountains ahead, which I think must be the Chiemgau Alps. We’ll be near or surrounded by mountains for the next two weeks.

An interesting paddle wheel. I couldn’t tell what it was powering.

Video sound track: In Your Own Sweet Way, by Dave Brubeck

And we really are out in country we see as we pull up to Heufelder Hof, a nearly new family run hotel. The charming daughter of the family, perhaps three years old, is pedaling her trike in the driveway as we bike up. The huge garage where we’ll park the bikes is crammed with tractors, farming implements, other bikes, and bales of hay. It is totally quiet at night when we sleep with the window open - and outside the sky is filled with more stars than I’ve seen for quite a while. It all has such a warm feeling, and is possibly my favorite hotel of the tour so far. Even the WiFi is good.

Sort of cute. They look like toys in there.

For dinner we walk over to the sports bar/restaurant two blocks away, the only restaurant anywhere nearby. It’s adjacent to a soccer field, there’s a match on, and outside the tables are all filled with drinkers and smokers. We sit inside instead, the only customers there at first; until the game outdoors winds down and folks move inside, adjust their chairs to point toward the TV, and watch Munich take on Leipzig. Loyalties are clear when Munich scores on a penalty kick and a roar erupts in the room.

I like watching soccer but really don’t know a thing about it. This goal-scoring kick though, replayed in slow motion, was astonishing. His leg swung and apparently kicking to the left side of the goal, he faked the goalie into diving vertically in that direction - but he actually kicked the ball to the right, off of the side of his heel, in the opposite direction from the movement of his leg.

Which was all great. It’s like watching a foreign film, sitting here taking in the scene. My favorite moment though came earlier when I was enjoying my goulash and the crowd began moving indoors. Suddenly a hairy snout appeared just inches from my plate. A golden retriever had just entered the room and was loose for the moment and his snout was resting on the edge of our table sniffing out my meal. His owner called him off at the last second.

The match is on, at Sportrestaurant Jankica. Rachael is on the left, needing to go to the bathroom but penned in by the dog.

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Ride stats today: 42 miles, 1’400’; for the tour: 1,048 miles, 85,500’

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 1,048 miles (1,687 km)

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Suzanne GibsonWhy didn't I look at your route to Aibling and advise you!? I know open cycle marks that as a bicycle route but it's the worst place to cross the Isar. We have done it - but only once.
Glad you got a glimps of rural Bavaria and a soccer game and enjoyed it.
And the weather held up for you - perfect!
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2 years ago

Ben ParkeIt looks like the Isar crossing to the north with the rail bridge would have been a lot better place to cross. No idea why the Via Claudia uses that crossing. Maybe because there’s not as good of Radweg connections to it? It looks like there would have been some sidewalk around there, but maybe that’s what was associated with the stairs?
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Ben ParkeThat sign was a bit before the start of the descent, so I’d been assuming that Via Julia turned off before then and we just hadn’t noticed. But no, it really does follow this terrible route. Shakes your faith a bit on just blindly following a published route. And no, those stairs aren’t indicated or signed as an alternative. If they were, you’d imagine that they’d be ramped at the side so you could roll your bike up. But no.
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonYes, we talked often about this as we pushed our bikes uphill. Why didn’t Suzanne warn us about this, we kept asking each other.
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2 years ago

Ben ParkeTo Scott AndersonThat is a definite failure on the Via Julia planning. There is one section on the Tauern Radweg where there is no alternative to riding the white line in a busy road. I can understand that, but there look to be perfectly good alternatives in this case. Granted a lot of things look fine on a map and much different in reality.
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2 years ago