Sylvensteinsee – Saturday 18 May

Sylvensteinsee – Saturday 18 May

Today we had another beautiful ride – 59 km from Achenkirch in Austria to Bad Tolz in Germany.

We first rode through Achenkirch township which extends for a while along the river at the top of the lake.
Then the cycle path took us off road, on a compressed gravel road in the mountains. The road contoured up and down through the Achenwald forest towards the Sylvensteinsee, another alpine lake.

Achenwald forest path – compressed gravel

The German border was around 13 km into our ride. Once again, the only sign that we had crossed was the old abandoned border post building. The picture is too boring to even put in this blog.

On German side – more compressed gravel

We first caught glimpses of the beginning of the lake between the trees. The path then veered away again into the forest and we did a bit of a climb over a neck before reaching the lake again – we crossed at a high bridge with a magnificent view – including someone catching fish from a boat below.

View from high bridge above lake

Then we were back onto more gravel road into forest to the small outpost of “Falls”, where we really started encountering a lot of Saturday day trippers, many on bicycles.
There is a large bridge crossing the narrowest part of the lake at Falls. An advantage of being on a bicycle is that you can easily stop on a bridge to admire the view.

View from Sylvensteinsee bridge
Sylvensteinsee bridge

A little further on was a dam wall, with many motorists, cyclist and motorcyclists (smokers) stopped and admiring the view. (tip – right click on any of the photos and chose ‘open in new tab’ for a closer look)

View from Sylvensteinsee dam wall

From here, the cycle path went through a little (lighted) bicycle tunnel. This was where we joined the Isar cycle route. After this, the route was an easy, well surfaced cycle road, mostly downhill into Bad Tolz

Bicycle tunnel
Bad Tolz, view from cycle route, Isar river in the fore ground

We arrived at around 12.30 and had a look around before going to our hotel. The main street in the old town is a pedestrian only, rising up from the river with many painted facades and outdoor restaurants.

Bad Tolz pedestrian street in old town

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