What a fabulous day today was. But first a last look at our hotel, Pöltner Hof, which we liked a lot. As I mentioned yesterday, there were originally a farm house and stalls where this modern hotel stands. Some of the elements of the old cow stall have been preserved, in a very cleaned up way.
More cow portraits in the dining room. What I forgot to take a picture of were the windows of the dining room. They could be easily recognized as typical stall windows.
It felt much warmer than yesterday but again we didn't have blue skies. It was a hazy day and we missed out on many a mountain view. But the route was wonderful. It was a revised and improved version of what we rode in February.
We started out on a quiet road, but not quite what you would call a country road. It reminded me of Spain where we often had wide roads with surprisingly little traffic. After about 5 km our route left the road that we were quite happy with and were on an even quieter country road through what I would call gentle landscape.
So lovely, but I guess planted, not what grows wild in the meadows.
They were trying to nibble the grass outside the fence but looked up for a picture. Maybe they thought I was coming to feed them. They did look well fed though, I'm sure they are well cared for.
About midway and at midday we were in Ifffeldorf. As we rode by the small garden cafe Vitus I recalled that we had eaten there before. Actually all day long we were having deja vu's, asking ourselves if we hadn't been on these roads before. But we were sure we had stopped at this little garden restaurant and we stopped again for a light lunch.
Outside the church is a fountain crowned with a statue of St. Vitus being boiled in oil or tar or something worse which as the legend goes did him no harm.
After lunch we continued through more of the same, small roads threading their way between fields and meadows. We had successfully avoided Penzberg which we had found unpleasant on our winter trip. Our present route further north cut through some of the marshland typical for the area surroundning a series of little lakes at the southern tip of Lake Starnberg. There are many walking paths and few roads around the lakes. I'm sure it's a good place for birding.
We only had two little complaints today. I already mentioned that it was too hazy to see the Alps, but we also had to endure 2 kms of gravel. Once it's over you know it wasn't that bad but if it had gone on forever it would have been. It was loose gravel and unpredictably deep in spots, just not fun. I was relieved and thankful when asphalt returned.
The final kilometers of the day involved a substantial climb. This wasn't a déja vu, this was the same road where Janos ran out of battery in February and had to hike his heavy e-bike almost all the way to the hotel. Today he still groaned at the climb but he had plenty of battery left.
Tonight our hotel is simpler and older, but costs the same as yesterday's lodging. Bad Tölz is a spa town and is also home to numerous rehab clinics. You see a disproportionate number of people hobbling about on crutches, presumably after knee replacements. I don't have any statistics to support my theory but our neighbor was also here after her knee surgery.
We arrived at our hotel with plenty of time to get cleaned up and work on our entries for CycleBlaze, the journal and the video. For dinner we had a short walk to the very pleasant local beer garden.
A mild evening with temperatures perfect for sitting outside
Today's ride: 39 km (24 miles) Total: 85 km (53 miles)
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Nancy GrahamLoving ALL of your trip Suzanne, and the photos comparing winter and now are great to see. As well, Janos sure does a great job with his drone photos. Reply to this comment 4 days ago
