11th May 2016 (sunny, warm morning, cloudy mild afternoon with some drizzle) 70km

As we rode in last night, we saw a lot of cows with bells tied around their necks. Now, we’re not exactly sure why this occurs, but over the years we’ve seen this in various countries, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, of course and I’m sure there are probably a lot more.  Maybe it’s in case the farmers lose them from their fields, making it easier to find them. Perhaps they have some kind of cow orchestra and they have to come together every now and then to perform at religious festivals, before they are sacrificed for this fella we keep seeing hanging around on these crosses? But, whatever it is, it’s not peaceful, quaint or romantic when, at 1am, you’re trying to get to sleep. Do they not teach cows the time over here? 

Then we have the church bells. Oh yes….not just on the hour, but in between as well. Just to lull you into thinking that you might get some sleep for at least an hour, they decide, bollocks to that, let’s keep you up all night. No wonder these religious zealots have such control over the population, everybody’s so sleep deprived, they have no idea what the hell they’re doing.  The other annoying factor about this is, do they not realise that I don’t want to know that it’s 2.30am.  We have progressed, or so I thought, from the middle ages and now most humans have what is called a WATCH…..If I want to know what the time is at some ungodly hour, I look at my wrist, which doesn’t make such a bloody din!!

Always like to start the day with a little church.

Whilst I was writing the blog, Julia was buying a couple of bread rolls.  We had muesli, banana with milk and rolls with jam on.  Back to the laundry where we continued to charge the laptop and in the meantime, both get ready to leave.  Tent all packed and Julia asks if they have wifi, as we need to send a message.  Yes they did, so message sent, others received and blog pictures uploaded onto yesterday’s tales.  Pedalled out at just after 11am on our way to Fussen and the two fantastic castles, Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  We were in no hurry as we all had to do today was follow the well-signposted Bodensee to Konigsee bike path a mere 50km to Fussen.  Into Immenstadt where we got lost after shopping for lunch at a supermarket. There were detours for cyclists all over the show. Eventually we headed off, but it was to be a day of wrong turns, bad signage and a lot of climbing.

Weather to begin the day was perfect. Overcast, but warm, great for cycling. There were however a lot of hills to climb, some very big hills indeed, but the views were spectacular to say the least. We would slog it to the top, but then be gasping at the stunning vistas on offer. I have to say that our average speed up the majority of these slopes was around 6 – 8 kms.  We were certainly glad it wasn’t any hotter.  In fact it was pretty much a perfect day for cycling and the scenery made it even better.

A church in the village of Emmereis

One of the bad things about cycling at this time of year through German countryside is it happens to be silage season and the farmers are out spreading this foul-smelling muck on their fields, which I must admit seem to appreciate it as they are all full of lush looking grass and dandelions.  There are a lot more cows out in the open in these parts and they look pretty happy.

Well this is a first!  Are you seriously
supposed to slow down so you don't
hit a frog!!  I didn't think the Germans
even liked the French.

We actually happened to stop to eat our lunch in a silage pit, empty of course and very clean.  It was the perfect place to stop as we had a good strong place to lean the bikes as well as lean our backs as we tucked into our ham and tomato buns and admired the wonderful scenery.  But we didn’t linger long as we’d only done 20km so off we went again, up another bloody great hill.

About mid-afternoon as we entered the village of Maria Rain, it actually started to rain funnily enough.  It was just very light however and only lasted about half an hour.  Here our bike route appeared to go back on itself and started leading us back to the town of Oy that we had just been through.  So we returned to Maria Rain, (where it was still raining) and chose a more direct bike path to the next town we wanted.  However this quickly deteriorated to just a track so we had to return to Maria Rain again – and it was still raining.  But in our way was a bloody great truck and crane lifting stuff up and down from a new house that was being built.  They were blocking the entire road and just as they finished winching one thing, they started winching another.  We thought “Sod this” and walked around the back of one of the houses on the street seeing as it was open to meadow behind it and got round and back onto the road again. 

The dandelions are everywhere and spectacular!

We followed the bike route until we saw a turn-off to Nesselwang and took the direct cycle lane alongside the main road.  We wanted to get to Fussen before the rain really set in.  Thought we better top up on supplies so visited a supermarket in Nesselwang and by the time we came out, the rain had stopped.  So the last 10km or so to Fussen was very pleasant – aside from the odd hill.

Impressive church in Nesselwang

That's the German for you - a place for everything!

We passed through the delightful village of Hopfen-Am-See where we saw two briards – not a patch on Rufus though.  

A lovely house out in the country - the woodwork was amazing!

They looked so small!  Shortly before this town we had our first glimpse of the impressive Neuschwanstein Castle.  What a setting!  And we were still about 10km away so that gives you an idea of its size.

An old ruin we passed on the way

Into Fussen and we kept our eyes open for a campground but it was hard to keep your eyes off the castle.  In the middle of town we found an information board that showed we had passed a campground on our way in.  

So we retraced our steps only to find it was for motorhomes.  No tents – even though they had the gall to use the international camping logo of a tent on the information board!  I talked to a lady there who said she knew there was a campground about 5km north in the direction away from the castles.  But we didn’t have much option so off we went.  However on the edge of town Pete spied a place where motorhomes were stored and it was deserted, so we cycled to the back and sat down and prepared dinner.  We thought this would give us an opportunity to see if it really was deserted before we set up tent.  Enjoyed a delicious dinner of lentils, tuna and some kind of pasta, (doesn’t sound great but it was!), followed by a jam donut and a cup of coffee.  It was a lovely quiet place with the dying sun resting on us but unfortunately a guy came down in his car and so we thought we’d better move on.

Our view for the night - if you look closely you can see both Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.

Started heading towards the campsite we’d been told about and had a spectacular view across the drained Forgensee Lake to both of the castles.  So we rode down to the lake edge to get a better photo and see if there were any likely looking freecamp places there.  And there were.  We found a lovely spot by the deserted yacht club and we figure with the lake drained there’s not going to be anyone coming down here.

So we wrote up the blog and edited photos until it was dark with only the odd dogwalker in the distance on the lake bed.  When it was nearly dark at 9.30pm, we set up the tent as Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau were lit up across the lake.  Looked spectacular but my camera wasn’t up to the task.