The bikes were splendidly turned out. All in perfect nick equipped with panniers, top box and tank bag.
I ditched the gigantic expanded panniers and tank bag on the Multistrada - quite unnecessary. All my rain gear, water and other bits and pieces fit comfortably in the top box. There was great excitement as we set off. It was already in the high 20's by 9 am with temperatures forecast to be between 32-35 degrees depending on altitude. Really hot.
This is the first week of the European summer holidays, and so there was a lot of traffic. Cars, camper vans and many bikes. The Austrian and southern German countryside is quite beautiful. Very green, rolling farmland, small villages and forests. The villages are very quaint. Beautifully presented, neat, tidy and very clean. Almost all the homes and the many guest houses and hotels have colourful gardens and window boxes at every window - bursting with colour. Pink, orange, red and mauve.
The route is generally on B and C grade backroads. Highways and main arterials are avoided. Today the route took us alongside the Walchensee, a large azure lake - lots of boats and swimmers all enjoying the hot weather. The roads are amazingly good. Although quite a bit narrower in general than Australian roads, the surface is like a tennis court. The road camber is always confidence-inspiringly perfect. Traction is as good as you can hope for which all means you can push hard through the corners. :-)
This particular tour is mostly about riding with a touch of site seeing added on. The Linderhoff Palace near Ettal built in the late 1860's was our sight for the day. This was not one of the major sights that I wanted to see before I die, but seeing as I was there, I took the €8.50 tour which was surprisingly fascinating. The palace is supposedly an imitation of the palace at Versailles (on a much smaller scale). Whilst spectacularly decorated, the accommodations while sumptuous, are not anywhere near as extensive as one expects from a palace - only about 10 rooms in all. Peh....
Out sojourn at the palace ended just as the rains came, thankfully cooling everything down. After about an hour driving through the rain, it stopped and we turned onto a beautiful road with almost no cars. Lots of bikes though, and lots of twisty stuff. The gap between Mathias an I and the other riders really started to open up. Fabulous riding. We had to stop and wait for the Harley riders to catch up several times. By the end of the day, they started to understand just what they have been missing all these years riding American Iron while some of us have taken Latin lovers.
The overnight stop is the Jagerhotel, Warth.
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