Sunday 2nd September (Day 47): Bad Kholgrub to Hopfen See (51km)

After a very good night´s sleep we woke to views of the mountains, and blue skies with only a few clouds around. We could clearly see the ski fields which must be gorgeous in the winter. The first thing that we faced was the resumption of the climb that we had started the day before. We had an easy day distance wise so we didn´t hurry, and took plenty of photo and cake stops.

An excellent cycle through woodland, was followed by farmland with huge green pastures, which gave away to trees and then mountains covered with chasing cloud shadows. Lunch was in a picturesque stop where we watched paragliders throw themselves off the tops of the mountains, put to shame only by the eagle that was also soaring on the thermals.

We were both pleased to realise that the castle that we could see on a distant crag was Neueschwanstein, a startling folly of turrets, towers, and crenellations.

The campsite had amazing views of the lake surrounded by mountains. It made John´s job of replacing yet more of my spokes a heap more pleasant. It also just happened that a couple of guys who cycled in after us were bike journalists and mechanics, so they very helpfully checked John´s handy work, and gave us a top tip for cycling in Switzerland. They had just been to a huge bike expo (Euro Bike I think it was called), and one of the guys (Torben Finn Laursen) has his own Web site (http://www.cykelportalen.dk/) which is in Danish but has some excellent links on it. The other guy who helped us with the wheel - I´m afraid his name escapes me, but I would like to say thanks anyhow. The bike has been great so far...fingers crossed.