We had a great sleep at our wonderful Gastehaus in Bad Tolz. It was such a quiet spot. Breakfast was excellent, and we were on our way to the old town and the pedestrian area at our usual time. We had errands!
Keith needed to get a new German SIM card, we needed to go to the bank, and of course, we needed a bakery. We picked up the SIM at Vodaphone. The young guy was great and for 20 Euro we have everything we will need for the rest of the trip. Bad Tolz has a beautiful old town, and the shopping was tempting. We stuck to the bakery and a fruit stand though.
Looking back at our room. Too bad the weather wasn't better. We could have enjoyed our picnic dinner on the terrace. We had a little apartment here, which was perfect given the clothing we needed to hang to dry after yesterday's cloudburst.
Our weather was interesting today. It reminded us of Kelowna in the winter. Really low hanging clouds and very gray, but we were never really rained on in any significant way. The views were OK, but we think they would have been spectacular in the sunshine. Today's ride, unlike yesterday, was pretty consistently uphill. We think we gained close to 700 metres in elevation. The climbs were never steep, just long. Early in the ride I asked Keith to check that my brakes weren't rubbing. I felt like I was pedalling hard and going nowhere. He laughed and told me he had had the same thought...we were just steadily climbing, and that was the problem.
Just outside Bad Tolz, and going up. They have just resurfaced the bike path. Oh my, it was lovely.
Just in case you need a cigarette at any time. These are conveniently located. This was in an almost rural setting, right along the bike path, so if you run out of cigarettes while biking, no problem! We see them on street corners in neighbourhoods, across from schools, in front of stores, etc. etc.
Shortly before lunch we made a navigational error. The bike sign was lying on the ground - I don't think it was vandalism, I think a random tractor cut a corner a bit too close. It was out in the middle of rural Germany. At any rate, it rendered the sign useless to us, and the chief navigator was a bit cavalier about checking his trusty Galileo. We rode on a surface that started out well, and deteriorated to full on mountain bike mode. And then became single track. I was muttering to myself about the creators of the Bodensee-Konnigsee Radweg, when Keith suddenly stopped and said "Oops". Well, it was something like that. We had gone so far, we decided to carry on regardless, as he could see we would eventually reconnect with the Radweg, and as luck would have it, within a kilometre we were cruising on asphalt. The CN is pleased to point out it even shaved a few kilometres off our day!
It started out well, but by this point I was starting to wonder about the surface.
The exposed tree roots which would extend all the way across the path made me feel like I was riding a jackhammer. The Surly ponies performed incredibly well though.
We emerged unscathed after our bone rattling ride at a small village, and there was our bike signage, but we were puzzled. It was telling us that the town we were shooting for was seven kilometres in the wrong direction. After a little paper map consulting we realized that it was seven kilometres back...we had cut the corner and our mistake really had been a short cut!
We had our picnic lunch to fuel up and carried on. You know, when you bike tour you never know what you will see. We came around a corner and there were dozens of magnificent horses, just being put out to pasture. It was a stunning sight. These animals were really, really beautiful. We rode in to see if we could get a picture, but just missed them. However, we were warmly welcomed to Haupt und Landgestut Schwaiganger, where they breed warmbloods, Haflingers and South German draught horses. Oh my goodness, I was in heaven. We were told to make ourselves at home, tour the stables, and we watched a three year old stallion being put through his paces in the ring. It was just absolutely wonderful, and our pictures don't do it justice. The people were so great. It was just a real treat.
These horses were beautiful. This is the southernmost state owned stud farm in Germany.
The grounds were amazing as well. I was given the most wonderful gift, a book with the history of the farm, in English, and I will finish reading it just as soon as I finish writing this.
Keith had to drag me away. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The gift of the literature about the center will be coming back to Canada in my pannier. I cannot say enough about how warmly two Canadian tourists were welcomed.
After that it was back to earth. I rode along dreaming that my bicycle was a horse. We knew the last few kilometres of the day were the most difficult, and soon enough the climbing began. It was actually never really hard, it was just slow. I enjoyed it though, and feel like I earned my supper tonight.
Leaving the Schwaiganger Stud farm. I wanted to trade my bike for one of the horses.
We found our bed and breakfast in Bad Kohlgrub and treated ourselves to a soak in the bathtub. A bathtub! That is so rare in Europe we had to take advantage of it. Then we treated ourselves to an Italian dinner, which was excellent. We are full, happy and ready to ride tomorrow. I do wish it was one of those horses though!!
Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles) Total: 1,845 km (1,146 miles)
