Innsbruck to Bad Tolz: A Great Downhill Ride...and Surprise! Mostly Dry! But Ending Very Wet.
We had one last filling breakfast at the Hotel Zach in Innsbruck, and rode the half kilometre to the train station. We bought our tickets to Scharnitz yesterday, but given the abysmal weather forecast decided it might be best to continue on the train to Mittenwald. I went to reservations to inquire about extending the ticket, and the young man helping me said that we could buy the extension (3 Euro each) on the train, although the conductors don't like it, so it might be better to buy it from him. Keith was watching the bikes, and I reported back. We decided to spend the 6 Euro as insurance. Back to reservations I went, and got a different clerk. She told me to buy the tickets on the train, and that the conductors were lazy! It became clear what she meant on the train. When I asked the conductor what to do if we wanted to keep going, he just smiled and said to stay on the train. He then shrugged and added that it is only 7 more km! So, we stayed on the train, and saved 6 Euro.
It was raining in Scharnitz, and still raining in Mittenwald. That was too bad, because we headed straight out of town, when otherwise we would have done a bit of an explore. Mittenwald is clearly tourist oriented. Lots of tour buses, horse drawn carriages etc. I would have enjoyed checking it out.
A respectable sized train station in Innsbruck. I was in reservations making inquiries.
Scharnitz. Yup, it is raining. The Scharnitz Pass is here, and by taking the train we avoided a considerable climb of about 400 metres over a short distance. I think it would have been OK in the sunshine, but not today. And yes, we stayed on until Mittenwald.
Off we went down the Isar Radweg. It was so well signed we could hardly believe it, and we are used to good bike signage. It was raining, but very lightly, and we were comfortable and loving the mystical mountain views...pun intended. Then about 45 minutes into the ride, the rain stopped. Since I had psyched myself up for rain of biblical proportions, this was a bit of a surprise. A most pleasant one. This is a beautiful, beautiful ride that we would highly recommend.
There was obviously more rain before we arrived. Little river on the bike path.
The well signed route through to Wallgau was almost all paved. We knew from our map that when we got to Wallgau we would be sharing the highway. What we didn't know is that it is not the main highway, but a toll road through a park, and we pretty much had it to ourselves. I am sure that wouldn't be the case in the summer, but today, it was all ours, and it was absolutely beautiful. We were in cycling heaven. What a ride! The rain continued to hold off and we cruised primarily downhill on what felt like our own private road.
At a tiny village called Fall the rain started again. It was lunch time, and we made the wise decision to have lunch in the warmth and comfort of a restaurant, and save our picnic for supper. In this small, small place there was an enormous resort. We honestly couldn't figure it out, so we asked. It is primarily used as a retreat by corporate groups for team building. No city distractions, and lots of team building exercises. Some examples she gave were hiking, kayaking, slack lining, climbing etc. They have a director of recreation who organizes the events. It was a good lunch, and by the time we emerged the rain had become a drizzle, and then stopped. We had a little consternation over my brakes, which were locking up when I turned my wheel to the right. On close inspection we discovered it was because I had strapped my front light over my brake cable. Doh! Once we got going we were briefly on the actual highway, but were passed by exactly seven cars going in our direction. Not an issue at all.
Then we went through a tunnel that had been carved out of rock, and boom, we were on a paved bike path, in the most beautiful setting imaginable. Why is it there? It can't simply be bike tourism. It was a fantastic ride, and it had stopped raining. It was so unexpected, and so much fun.
The bike path. Just kidding! This is one of the torrents heading into the river. This is what the bike path looked like in my worst imaginings yesterday.
At Wegscheid the path surface changed to the hard packed fine gravel that we are so familiar with. The sun also struggled to put in an appearance and we saw a rainbow. We were fooling around and taking pictures. When we started out again Keith said he thought we might get wet. We were only twenty minutes from Bad Tolz...I could see the church spires for goodness sake. I really didn't think we would. I even switched out my wet gloves for dry ones. Well, the monsoon started 30 seconds later. I was riding my little heart out, head down, in the drops. There wasn't really anywhere to take refuge until a bridge in Bad Tolz, and by then we were so wet it didn't matter. The good news is we are in the most delightful little Gasthaus and have a little apartment. We made peppermint tea, ate our picnic supper, and are drying our stuff. It was a fantastic day.
We were totally dry. The sun was peeking through. Only my gloves were wet, so I put on my dry ones. That was a mistake.
The last time we cycled in rain like this it was in Provence. Ken and Val, where were you today? We thought you might appear under the bridge. Keith and I were laughing just as hard as we did that day last year. After a certain point you can't get any wetter and it doesn't matter anymore.
