clairedavieswriter

Oberstdorf is Team Bernard’s last stop on this, our 10th European end-to-end. Tomorrow I’ll ride up (operative word) to the border, or as close as I can get by road, and then come back here for another night. The day after, Tuesday, I start my two-day train journey home.

This place has been on my horizon for so long – first through the planning process and then, for the last three weeks, on the journey itself – that I’m finding it hard to compute I’m here.

Those mountains on the edge of the photo first began to show themselves a couple of days ago, and even this morning they looked a long way off:

So it came as a bit of a surprise at 9am to suddenly find myself in them:

I say suddenly, but it was actually after two and a half hours of solid effort – that picture was taken at around the 35k mark, so there was still a bit more work to do:

I was up with the larks again to enjoy the early morning cool:

And by 10am I was feeling quite chipper: all the hardest climbing was behind me:

Hold my bier! Said the road to the border:

We’ll worry about that tomorrow. In the meantime, highlights today included this lederhosen-clad chap in the village of Wald. I liked how they’d included his kneecaps, though I did think the hose would attach to a rather unfortunate spot in his hosen:

I loved this startled-looking church in the tiny village of Wagneritz. Onion domes are the spire-topper of choice around here:

And I enjoyed seeing so many cyclists – stupidly, I hadn’t realised it would be such a popular pastime here. The vast majority of riders were on e-bikes, and I started to see how mad I must look, choosing to climb these hills with panniers and no electrical assist. But there were other masochists out there to reassure me, albeit not many with luggage:

But the main highlight of the day was the scenery. This alpine meadow was giving Sound of Music vibes, but I resisted the temptation to do a twirl:

Bernard enjoyed the downhill after this one:

And just a few miles short of our destination we both enjoyed the sound of the bells announcing the midday mass here:

After that we followed the river Iller (upstream, of course) to our destination. This was such a cooling sight on a boiling hot day, and there were quite a lot of people enjoying the water:

Tomorrow is shaping up to be much the same, so I’m planning another early start.

It’s not a long ride, just 35k in total, but as it’s a there-and-back, all the climbing is compressed into 17.5k. Bernard is raring to go, but I’m slightly worried I’ve bitten off more than I can chew:

However, the hotel has provided some excellent motivation: I’ll be leaving before breakfast starts (don’t worry, I’ve bought supplies) but they said I’m welcome to have it when I get back. Will I get the ride done by 10am? Tune in tomorrow folks to find out.