It has been a tough few days for furious green ideas. We have experienced our first significant mechanical problems alongside some challenging terrain and a turn in the weather. The cycling, however, continues to improve!
After our rest day in Konstanz we took the ferry across the Bodensee to Meersburg before racing the 50km or so down to our real start point at Lindau. Lindau marks the beginning (or end) of the 420km Bodensee-Königssee-Radweg, a route that follows the foothills of the Austrian Alps along the southern German border, taking in some of the minor climbs amongst some breathtaking scenery.
The ferry crossing to Meersburg
It’s is a more challenging tourist trail than those which follow the Rhine or circle the Bodensee, but worth every climb. As ever, the route is fantastically signed – our map was only useful for picking out lunch/beer stops 20km or 30km down the road. Some signs will even have the gradient of ascent/descent marked so there are no nasty surprises. We had a Kompass map (8.99€) which marks steep gradients and has a profile overview so you can choose to miss some of the larger climbs if you wish.
Our one criticism of the route so far is that there is no distinction between minor roads and unpaved forest trails. This meant we spent around 25kms on Sunday crawling along at less than 10kph on bumpy tracks, just waiting for a spoke to snap. We even had a river crossing to negotiate!
That said, the views have been spectacular. We have climbed above 1000m, and rarely dropped below 600m since the Bodensee. It is worth noting here that if you’re thinking of coming this way, bring some more wintery cycling gear as the weather can turn quickly at this height, as we found out last night!
Bivi bag failure!
We are only able to complete half of the Radweg as we must head north to Munich, but if anyone is looking for a challenging four day/week long cycling holiday, get to Lindau and head east!
Boys will be boys..
Furious Green Ideas 