Interlaken to Munich

Well, I got my nice day in postcard switzerland, and I spent the morning heading up into the mountains. This time I took the train from interlaken to Lauterbrunnen, then the cable car and train to Murren, then the cable car to the Schilthorn. All told it was about 85 swiss franks to make it to the Bond restaurant.

Lauterbrunnen in the sun:

 At the top:

Leaving Interlaken, I had a nice ride until around 6pm I ran into the Brulig pass, which left me walking the bike 5km up a 10% unpaved grade as the sun set.

The most swiss picture I have taken:

Not finding anywhere to camp, I started heading down the other side until I got the feeling I was missing a decent view, and finally set up camp next to a farmhouse about 100m from this scenic overlook:

Of course I paid for my one nice day with the next 4 days being nonstop rain or snow. This was the first time riding in a downpour since I tore my rainpants in half outside Dijon by catching them on the crankset. I made it through Lucerne and Zug and foolishly tried to camp when all my clothes were wet. I awoke to still being soaking wet, and stayed in my sleeping bag half the next day knowing that I would have to break camp while it was snowing, in wet gloves and wet everything. I made it about 10-15 miles before I stopped in a hotel to warm up my hands and dry out everything. It also turned out that after 2 months of rain my phone finally seemed to have given up after getting too much water in it to turn on. Next day was another day of all day rain while the temperature hovered at about 35 degrees. I put in my 50 miles and found another hotel to stay at since everything was again soaking wet. I stayed across from this lake:

Since I was using my phone as a map and I had no other map of switzerland, I had to be extra careful at each turn. I opted not to buy a map of switzerland however, since they mark the trails quite well with signs and maps like this posted:

Next day was Easter Sunday, and despite snow and annoying headwind most of the day, I made it to near Bregenz. I even crossed this river/canal to spend about five minutes in Liechtenstein:

Finally making it out of Switzerland, I had bought a map of Germany anticipating that their cycle routes wouldn't be marked as well. I followed the Bodensee-Konigsee Radweg, which is probably the worst designed cycle route I've been on. I spent the next two days climbing my way up and down through tiny German towns, weaving all over the map with no apparent direction. It was also still about 40 degrees with plenty of snow on the ground. At several points I noticed I was riding on the main road and there was a cycle path to the right that I should be on, so I of course aimed for safety. I may have underestimated how deep this snow drift was:

Random scenic overlook of Nesselwang:

After two days in Germany, I set up camp within sight of Hohenschwangau, hidden (fairly well I’d say) in what I’m fairly sure was a park of some kind. Someone needs to give Germany the memo that spring has started.

View from about 20 feet away from my tent:

Spent the morning at Neuschwanstein, which was fairly underwhelming. After ~17 years of being built, the castle was never finished, and never lived in. The king financing it was killed and 6 weeks later it was open to the public. They only allow you in the castle as part of a guided tour that takes about 30 minutes and they rush you through without time to admire the paintings and woodcarvings which were actually finished.

After that it was off to Munich. My phone apparently is working after all, just the power button is unreliable, and I've replaced my rain pants. I’m staying in an enormous hostel that has way too many people trying to use the internet connection, so it’s very slow.