Hello and welcome to the Alps and Lakes Tour, it's the last one for this year, Markus and Chris booked the guided city tour in Munich the capital of Bavaria. 

On the train station we already get in touch with the typical  Bavarian dress code, it's Oktoberfest so the most people are wearing dirndl or leather pants. 
Directly out of the train station we have our first sight the Isargate one of three remaining gates from the 14. Century, we take a short walk to Bavaria's oldest wheat beer brewery from 1872 where we have our second breakfast, what else could it be then white sausage, pretzel and a fresh wheat beer. 
With a filled stomach we can easily resist the specialities, and delicacies on the Viktualien market, which take place here since 1807. 
At the Marienplatz we listened to the chimes which contains 32 figures and 43 bells in it, right next to it is the St. Peter's church from the 12. Century it's the oldest church of Munich, but the Frauenkirche munichs No 1 landmark is also worth to see so we do, and stept directly on the devils footprint inside. 
In munichs most famous hotel Bayrischer Hof where already many celebrities stayed and King Ludwig the I. came only to take a bath but never slept there for a night, we can also see the Michael Jackson unofficial memorial in front of it after he died people just brought pictures, flowers and candles so that's how they created it on the composers Orlando Di Lasso memorial.

From Viscardigasse, to Odeonsplace we stop for a great Italian coffee and delicious piece of cake at Café Tambosi their business dates back to 1775. A nice walk thru the Hofgarten leads us to the end of the tour into the worlds most famous pub Hofbräuhaus where you perfectly get in touch with the bavarians way of enjoy good food and drinks. 

It's time to ride!

On the soft winding Bavarian country roads we get used to our bikes and the local traffic, at our first viewpoint we have a nice view to Wasserburg where we rode thru the Brucktor a gate from the 14. Century which was used for salt transportation. 

We reach soon our next stop Prien am Chiemsee, where we take a boat to the Herreninsel the largest island on Chiemsee also called the Bavarian sea. There we go to the Herrenchiemsee castle from 1878 one of the largest and the last building projects of the fairy tale King Ludwig II based on a model of Versailles. The tour in the castle shows us the impressive halls and bedrooms of the king, and also the unfinished rooms because he ran out of money. Before we take the boat back to our bikes we had a great lunch to fill up our batteries, the sun showed up for a bit and let us enjoy the moment. 
The ride continues around the lake where we got catched by a really really hard rain and when I say hard rain I mean a waterfall came down! But every one take it like a champ, that impressed me already on the first day ) 

Soaking wet, we arrived in Salzburg the Mozart city where we are going to St Peters Stiftskulinarium the restaurant dates back to the year 803, so it's the oldest in Europe and also the oldest still consisting company in the world. In this wonderful, historical nice atmosphere we have a very unique and special dinner. 
Well deserved after that long hard ride in the rain, it let us forget about every raindrop we catched today. 

Off to the Alps we go! 

We are exited for the ride with two more riders joined our group at dinner yesterday, Steve and Vivian on their RT.
So we leave Salzburg and head directly to Kehlsteinhaus/eagles nest our first sight of the day. The building is on 1834 meters and we can reach it only by bus, the panoramic view is hidden by many clouds that doesn't want to move from the mountains today. To get into the building from 1937/38 we walk thru a 124 meter long tunnel and a elevator goes 124 meters high, back then it was used for government and social meetings of the Nazi party.

With a mix of sun and clouds we ride off to germanys highest panoramic road the Roßfeld Panoramastraße we don't have a view on top of it but on the way up and down of this pass road it clears up a bit to give us a glimpse of the scenic landscape, on this really fun twisty road. 
We don't have to wait long to ride our next pass the Postalm, we head there from a wonderful narrow side road and barely no traffic. 
In one of the typical Alm in this skiing area we got awesome served, and tried many different types of the local specialities, we only have to resist their homemade Schnaps

Down the mountain pass we ride thru the alley, on wide turns to our next destination surrounded by the mountains directly on a lake. 

Captain Claudia and her ducklings

As the name of the Tour is Alps and lakes, we leave the lakeside of Gmunden and ride into the mountains on small windy roads where we stop first on the lake of Hallstatt and then we go off to the cable car which brings us up to the Saltmine.

The city is known for its production of salt, dating back to prehistoric times. We're going on a tour to explore the inside of this 7000 year old saltmine this is the oldest one in the world! Dressed up in our white overalls, the visit can start. Our tourguide gives us all the knowledge in a very funny and entertaining way. First we walk in thru a small tunnel, before we slide down twice to the next levels, a great experience and very interesting. Nearby we have lunch, right next to the skywalk with a world heritage view over Hallstatt and its lake. After the day started rainy and the sun showed up for a short time, we where delighted about that too early because on our way down the rain started again, luckily not too heavy. 

We ride up on a nice little mountain pass and right after that down in the valleys sourrounded by the great alpine mountains the sun came out again and gave us parts of almost dry roads, a totally different experience for us on this tour because we're more used to ride in rain now

Our destination Kaprun is underneath the Großglockner a very lovely little city in the mountains, when we arrive at the carport where we parked our bikes and a refreshing boot beer awaits us!

Bad news first, the Großglockner high alpine road is already closed for two wheels and cars need snow chains so no restday ride for us today.

So we visit the Oldtimer Museum of Kaprun which is directly in the basement of our Hotel, the owner Helmut Vöttel had already in his young age the passion to restore old vehicles and then it started to get bigger, so he collected them and we find them now in his Museum this well kept vehicles and the history behind that is worth to see.

After a little rest, well not for me and Paul we're not on vacation, it's lunchtime and what can be better then a picnic in the garden on a sunny day. So now we go and explore Kaprun a bit and some of us going up on 1570 meters altitude with the cable car and enjoy the Mountain View over Kaprun and the sourroundings. Underneath we can see the alpine coaster tracks and of course we have to ride that, direct in time at our coffee restaurant Kevin and Teresa passed us and they had the same plan, so more people makes more fun to share! The only thing I didn't liked was that the coaster automaticily braked, of course a security thing, I never thought about using the brakes :P

So restday can be a restday some went to the spa, or had a massage, the others joined my offers but at the end of the day we all together walked thru the town in a cozy restaurant with outstanding food. 

Our last riding day, sad but true it's always over too fast and with this great company even faster. 
So we enjoy the ride today on dry roads, no real sightseeing stops but more riding fun.

We start along a couple lakes with long wide turns, taking a nice narrow side road with never ending beautiful scenery, the clouds are hanging in between the mountains the white peaks are showing up and the trees changing into autumn colors. 
After we leave Austria we're riding up along a small mountain roads to Sudelfeldpass, this pass road in a ski area gives us the nice twisties up and down we deserve after that much rain we had the last days. For lunch we can sit outside and enjoy our delicious meal in sunshine.
Behind us we leave the alps and the small mountain roads, coming more and more to larger city's thru bavarian country roads. 
Erding is becoming closer but the rain also, so before we reach our Hotel the rain catches us again but after we already had waterfalls above us this is like cute little baby drops. 
The Alps and Lakes Tour in autumn can be changeable in weather conditions but never with our optimistic and always good mood!! 
 
Thanks for that my ducklings, my lovely bunch of riders:

Steve & Tiff

Kevin & Teresa

Mike & Crystal 

Chris

Markus

Pablo & Kiki

Steve & Vivian

It was a big pleasure for me guiding you around, hope to see you again, anywhere in the world with the big smiles you gave me! 

Your Captain 

Claudia