October 2nd
Rain hit the tent hard all night but luckily it had pretty much stopped by the time we were ready to vacate. We packed up the tent in our deep forest location and wheeled the trike back to the path to have breakfast. Some hikers passed and asked if we were okay, and apart from cold fingers we said yeah.
Then we were off. Our earliest departure of the whole trip. Importantly, the wind was behind us. The sky even seemed to be clearing to a lighter shade of grey. But that might have just been my optimistic nature as Louis didn’t seem to agree. First we had to get through the forest and its gravel path, before rejoining some quiet roads.
We were then hit by some troubles. First of all it was road works after road works. The first detour stuck us up a very steep farm road, nearly at our max gradient. Or, our legs just weren’t warmed up properly yet. The road works continued but by following another cyclist we were able to rejoin on an unfinished part. At first it was smooooth fresh tarmac but then turned to essentially mud. A bit later and a few barriers moved we were back onto the real road. Mere minutes later we were hit by more road works. The detour this time was very very long around the houses. Including more gravel off road parts. Louis was fuming.
This all led to our first hour being terrible progress. Only about 8 miles done and not all direct. ETA for Munich at this rate is late late night.
We then picked up more of our favoured rolling, tarmaced hills, and out the pedal(s) down. We were soon into the very nice little town of Bad Wörishofen and then Landsberg am Lech where we stopped. A butchers also selling hot sandwiches, right next door to a bakery. Our ideal stop. Even with our improving pace, we didn’t fall into our usual trap of stopping for an hour or more inside a warm bakery. We instead opted for our second course “to go” and were back on the trike.
Turns out Landsberg am Lech is actually a lovely city with castles and big old holdings, but also traffic and, a new norm for Germany, steep climb out of town.
With the climb over we were onto a fabulous quiet road that threaded through the villages. Here we really put the pace down, pace for the trike anyway not normal bikes, and were flying. In no time we reached Eching am Ammersee, on the north shore of lake Ammersee. Here we stopped, with smiles on our faces as confidence was high. We delved into our snack pannier as we had a lot to get through. But again we didn’t dare count our Munich chickens just yet, and hopped back on the saddles rather quickly. Another climb out and then we were on a side road following the motorway into Munich.
We clocked 50 miles (80km) by 2:30pm, by far our earliest of the trip. Things were looking good. Louis’ % progression updates towards Munich were a lot more frequent and palatable than they had been this morning. We started to feel fairly confident that we’d make it there today.
The road then turned under the motorway and had a nice surprise. Some very localised flooding. It was tough to tell how deep but there was a fair amount of water. Luckily, there was a footpath next to it that was only a little flooded. We squeezed onto that and inched our way through. At the end, trying to get back onto the road we hit a hidden, flooded ditch, and the trike heaved to the right, way over 45°. I somehow got my right foot down. Submerged up to my ankle but then found firm ground. And managed to halt the tip. We just about got upright and then laughed our heads off. The absolute closest we’ve come to falling off this whole trip. Luckily it was my right foot needed to be the saviour and not the left, as that’s swollen to elephant size after the standing on the wasps’ nest.
With that dealt with we were back and reaching the suburbs of Munich. We stopped again at 3pm for more snacks. Fuelling our time trial into from to the centre. A look at the front tyre and it seems the end is coming at the right time. The tread virtually non existent on it. But it is the only original tyre to make it this far of the starting three. In one suburb we racked up quite the queue behind us so absolutely cranked it through, sprinting until we hit red lights and then a cycle path. With this we were then really on the home straight. We were already encountering more cyclists, cars, curbs and bumps. With small chaos ensuing. Meaning the centre could well be carnage.
As we got closer, our usual ultra-conservativeness around corners, up curbs and over bumps and pot holes, to not buckle tyres or puncture, was thrown away. We were racing through the streets. Our trike was approximately the width of the bike lane and we were squeezing through. Luckily German pedestrians are very strict and good at not walking in the lanes and the cars respecting the right of way. Which saved us from more issues. At every red light, a cyclists would look at the trike and talk to us about it, where we’d come from, who made it. Then we’d be off again. Usually awkwardly meeting them at the next red light. As we got closer heaps of people were heading to Oktoberfest all dressed in their lederhosen.
We were soon into the heart of Munich, the sun was out and we were all smiles as we bombed on. Louis nearly Louis a finger didn’t even spoil the mood. scaffolding covered the cycle path, I said should we slow down, Louis said nah we’ve got it and kept pedalling. We ended up clipping a pannier on one side and his handlebars on the other. But no harm was done and we squeezed through the rest. A cyclist we’d chatted to at the lights, laughed from behind. Vibes were high.
We then navigated the heavy crowds of the pedestrianised centre into Marienplatz. We parked the trike in the centre. Possibly ruining many a tourists photo of this iconic square. Helmets off we had a contented smile. And a stroopwafel as I was starving.
We met my sister Rachael who lives in Munich, got back on the trike and cycled her one last time, to Paulaner Brewery.
That’s all she wrote folks. Starting off with no set destination, except making sure we made our free ferry at Dover, we ended up putting quite the journey together. We clocked up 1,506 km. 6 different countries. Some of them multiple times. 12,383 m of elevation gain. Every meter of that earned with the sheer weight of our trike. More highs than lows. Overall pretty good weather for this time of year despite getting really wet some days, and thinking frostbite was possible on others. Obviously a few mechanical issues but actually made it to the end with relatively few troubles. A real testament to Louis’ engineering design and skills. Being able to throw it all together, only managing our first test ride the day before the trip started. Our tiny lightweight tent was surprisingly roomy enough. And despite all those bakery visits we seem to have both lost weight. Louis thinks more than 8kg for himself. The distances covered versus the days and time cycled aren’t really impressive compared to normal bikes designed for these trips. But for us, on this one of a kind trike, they’re pretty bloody awesome.
Most importantly, that was all kinds of fun.
Daily stats
114 km. 799 m elevation gain. 6 hr 20 mins moving time.
Cumulative trip stats
1,506 km. 12,383 m elevation gain. 89 hours, 48 mins moving time.
