A walk to the beach at Titchwell...

Today I'm sharing some greenery with a difference, and that's because it's the walk along the West Bank path at the Titchwell Marsh nature reserve. It's just 1km to the beach, but there's so much packed into that short walk.

And it doesn't have a bad view either!

The nature reserve is to our right as we walked along and quite soon we passed the Reedbed pool, where often bearded tits, marsh harriers and bitterns can be seen.  Sadly we didn't spot much, either because we weren't looking well enough or because there wasn't anything to see - I'm not sure which!

Following the Reedbed pool there's the Freshwater marsh with its two hides, that's quickly followed by the Volunteer marsh and then the Tidal marsh. And I bet like me, you just thought there was just marshland, not different sorts - it seems there's more to it than that. The main difference here is saltwater and freshwater, I was paying attention!

There were plenty of benches along the way to sit and enjoy the view, or for the twitchers a chance to rest their equipment and capture some beautiful shots of both the landscape and wildlife alike.

With the dunes in sight, our walk to the beach was almost done and I think this has to be one of the most scenic walks to any beach I've ever been to. And that sky, blue but sadly not quite as warm as it looked, but if the temperature's right I'm convinced that Norfolk could rival any Mediterranean beach resort.

And with that I'm leaving you wondering what's over the dunes, I'll share a post in the next few days of what I found on the beach.  

The last day of cycling on our Bavarian trip

We woke on our last morning in Murnau refreshed despite the overnight storm, but surprised that it was already our last day of cycling on this holiday. How did that happen - how did it go so fast? I'm not sure but ahead of us lay a long cycle back to Füssen, after a short train ride to Oberammergau with our bikes. Visualising the hassle that taking a bike on a train in the UK would be, to say we were wary was an understatement. However, as with everything else cycling in Germany is much further advanced than it is here at home, including taking bikes on trains, but more on that in a moment.

Today's cycle was billed as a 45km route starting in Oberammergau, famed for its Passion Play. Ahead of our trip, this was the only smaller town that I'd heard of, and that was because there was a school trip there while I was at Senior school, but it was a trip I didn't go on. It's a pretty town and I'll share photos from there another day.  Taking the train meant we started our ride amidst the soaring peaks which surround the village.

We headed north along the Ammertal through Unterammergau and Altenau before heading west and away from the river valley through a forest. Then we would rejoin the Romantische Straße and once again see the glorious views of the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles proving what an aptly named route it is.

But first we needed to catch the train!

HOW CLEVER?

Very clever indeed.  In our part of the carriage there were at least eight bikes, some parked like mine above in the bike racks incorporated into the folding seats. And while this was good, what was even better was that there wasn't a single tut about us having bikes on the train. 

Once in Oberammergau we had a quick and impromptu cycle around the town, despite knowing we had a long cycle ahead of us. It seemed a shame to get so close and not see it and I'm glad we did as it really is pretty as you can see:

Leaving Oberammergau we had these views ahead of us as we cycled towards Unterammergau.

We had a couple of stops along the way, one to admire this cobbler who sat on top of a fountain in the middle of one village. To me it has a look of Pinnochio to it, but that could just be me. 

On a later stop I spotted, admired and snapped these fungi and some logs. As it turned out it was going to be a day of logs - in fact the best day for logs this holiday, so please excuse the numerous photos but I'm fascinated with them.

Before heading into the forest we stopped here at this Gasthaus in Unternogg for a drink and some cake. It was one of the only places along the route to do so, and as it looked so pretty we thought it'd be rude not to!

Back on our bikes, we headed into the forest and it wasn't long before there were piles of felled logs, which was heaven for me!

There were also more fungi, and the ones above caught my eye and made me smile because they just looked so odd.

Our cycle notes said to continue straight ahead for some time and cross two riverbeds. Got that. We spotted the first one and crossed that ok and then we reached the second one. We weren't quite expecting that, and no doubt the day before it'd also been dry but the overnight storm had most likely caused this

We crossed ok and even managed to keep my feet relatively dry and went on our way. Just before we left the forest we saw this unusual shaped tree, almost pointing the way...

By now we were back on familiar territory and following the route we followed back on day 2. The weather by now was overcast and rain looked likely. We decided to take our chances and stop for lunch, and on our day of logs, what else would our lunch view have?

I couldn't resist a closer look and I am still intrigued how these stack so neatly. 

We cycled on and headed towards Schwansee (Swan Lake) and look... It's the castle in the distance, how beautiful does it look nestled in the valley. We headed towards Neuschwanstien Castle but diverted towards Schwansee and spent some time there. I've some pictures from there which I'll share another time, but it really was an experience not to be missed!

Rather than follow the route notes back the way we came, we headed up the hill and through the forest and across country. And I should say I chose to go up the hill, and as hills go it wasn't too bad. We emerged near the Lech Falls.

These manmade falls were built between 1784-1787 following devastating floods in the area in 1762.  

Having paused to admire the river and surrounding scenery, we got our bearings and were soon back on the bikes cycling into Füssen from a different direction before and heading back towards the hotel where we started our adventure some six days earlier. The mileage for our last day was 52km, so 7km more than the planned route.

Back at the hotel the realisation that I did a 50+km cycle was starting to sink in. And you know what? I did it through choice. I chose to go around Oberammergau, to Schwansee and to take the unsignposted (and unknown) route home, and that was up a hill! I think I may just be getting the hang of this cycling lark...

The cycling part of our holiday was all but over, all that remains is for us to return the hire bikes in the morning. And then we're off to Munich for a few days, but before I share photos from there I've a couple more posts to complete our visit to this beautiful part of Bavaria, and one that certainly captured part of me.

A circular route around Murnauer Moos, with a 10km warm-up

For our fifth day of cycling we expected to complete a 30km circular route around the circumference of the conservation area known as Murnauer Moos (Murnau Marsh). Our notes said it was a "generally flat and leisurely circuit" so that sounded good, and even better there was a Gästehaus on the route which the notes said served "wonderful" cakes. 

Murnauer Moos is quite unique in Central Europe, both because of its size, unity and landscape as well as it's flora and fauna. Peat was extracted from the marshland until the middle of the twentieth century and in 1964 it was declared a conservation area.  It's home to over 4000 difference species of fauna and 800 plants, which is quite a lot!

We cycled out of Murnau and the plan was to head towards Eschenlohe but as you can see from our route on the right we had a slight detour towards Ohlstadt first.

The views as we unknowingly cycled towards Ohlstadt were amazing and our detour was almost worth it for those alone. We reached the main road and checked the notes, when Ohlstadt wasn't mentioned at all we realised we'd missed a turning somewhere. 

So back we went and tried a path alongside the railway line. We weren't sure, but carried on anyway and soon came out at that same main road just further down.

Hmmnn...

Ah well, let's just enjoy the views we weren't supposed to see. And I got my wood pile fix in early too, and with some farm equipment too.

We headed back the way we had come and back to the main road we'd left Murnau on. From here we retraced our tracks and realised we'd missed out an instruction, missing turning left before we turned right. Finally we were on the track that related to our notes, but not first without clocking up  ten kilometres as our warm-up.

The route notes were fairly sparse and included "at the industrial zone turn left at the fence and follow the Radweg sign" - when we got to the fence it made perfect sense, but perhaps some more clues on how to reach the industrial zone might have helped!

Although it was threatening to rain as we approached the river, it never really managed it. And yes, the river really was that colour.

It wasn't long before we were heading towards the village of Eschenloe, and the only village of notable size since we left Murnau (despite our diversions). Two of the road tunnels to the south of the village were used during the Second World War in the production of the Messerschmitt. Tunnels were used as they weren't easily detected by airborne reconnaissance missions. 

While looking for and failing to find toilets, as the Rathaus was shut on Saturdays we watched this farmer expertly reverse his tractor up a small slope into the barn - something he'd clearly done before!

Heading back towards the centre of town, past the highly decorated Rathaus and onto the Second World War Memorial.

Unsure of how much further along the village of Grafenaschau was we decided to stop by the side of the road to eat our lunch and watch the world go by. At the top of a smallish hill it was actually a great place to stop as we watched cyclists of all abilities tackle the hill.

Fed and ready to go again we went down the hill, around the corner and was almost upon the village and the cafe with the wonderful cakes. It'd be rude not to stop wouldn't it, so we did. We ordered a beer and followed that by a humongous slice of cake and a coffee.  And sat and admired these views.

We could have sat here for much longer, and eaten more cake. And I think we would have done had it not been for the bikes and having to cycle back to the hotel. But as we did, it was time to go.

We cycled back through more of the marsh area alongside the Lindenbach stream on gravelly paths. It was warm by now and we decided to push hard to get back to the hotel. It turns out that doing this and upping the speed on winding, gravelly paths wasn't such a good idea. At one corner I was almost off my bike, but somehow I saved it at the last minute - and I'm glad I did.

Before much longer and after a few more hills we were back at the hotel, but not before clocking up 42.6km - not bad for a 30km cycling day!