Day 32: Schliersee to Munich

 

We woke up to overcast skies and still a threat of rain. As we left the bed and breakfast, it was still drizzling. I usually used an alternate route to get back to Holzkirchen/Munich, but with the threat of rain decided it was better to forgo that and find the most direct route there. Never having ever taken the direct route, I was pleased to discover that from Schliersee to Miesbach was a fast descent along a well marked bike path.

Once in Miesbach, however, we lost the bike path and circled around a few times in vain before a kindly street sweeper told us to make a left just before the railroad tracks at what appeared to be a walking trail. There was no way we would have found this without help: the "bike path" was up on a berm, without a ramp to hop the curb!

We were now following the Mangfall, the tributary of the Inn that came out of Tergensee. The bike path soon became the Wasserweg, the water way path that goes all the way to Munich. We followed signs to Holzkirchen, however, as I wanted to use the paved roads to Pullach and follow to Isar downtown instead, revisiting the commute I had for so many months while I was in Munich.

From Tour of the German Speaking Alps 2010

The climb up to Holzkirchen was steep and unpaved, though not steeper than the 20+% grades we would climb if I was on what I considered my "normal" route back from the Schliersee.

It was too cool in Holzkirchen for ice cream at my favorite place, so we elected to ride on. This section was unfamiliar with me until we made a left turn from highway 13 onto Oberhaching. At that point, things started looking familiar to me even though I had never ridden on that road before. I was puzzled until I realized that I had navigated this stretch with Phil from our 2008 trip to Rosenlaui.

We had a miserable time at first on the road to Grunwald. Traffic was somewhat heavy and the road was narrow. Upon approaching a tunnel that was closed to bikes, however, we were redirected to a parking lot where the bike path into Grunwald began, and from there on it was smooth going. In Grunwald, we took the descent to the bridge over the Isar, but just before the bridge proper turned right onto the Isar bike path. I had never commuted on this side of the river, and it was wild, undulating greatly. This was now the province of the casual biker, and we found ourselves over-taking unloaded cyclists with regularity.

At the first bridge across the Isar I was once again into familiar territory, and from then on the ride into downtown Munich was routine for a cool summer day. Lisa wanted to visit the soup kitchen at the viktualienmarkt but it was closed on Sundays, so we ate at one of the local restaurants instead.

Arriving at Chris's place, we could not gain access to his apartment because the common entry way was locked! We waited until someone exited, whereupon Lisa went in and picked up his key from the hiding spot. We rolled the bike in, parked the tandem, and sighed. The longest tour (in terms of the number of days) we had ever done was over.

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