Well hello you beautiful Steemians

I am back in Germany and back to training for the cycle tour to Italy.

Two days ago it was Saturday and beautiful sunshine so we decided to do a longer tour to the Starnberger See.
From the southern suburb where we're staying it's only a few minutes until you reach the extensive forest called the Forstenrieder Park. It stretches around 15 kilometres along the autobahn almost all the way from Munich to Starnberg.

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It is a pleasant and quiet ride on forest roads mostly paved but also gravel roads towards the tiny village of Leutstetten, there we stopped at the lovely beer garden to have a rest and drink and eat.

Refreshed we continued our way through the beautiful landscape that has been shaped by the last ice age. Lovely ondulated hills and moors with trees of many kinds that provide shadow to the sweating cyclist. In some places we ride over wooden boardwalks because the ground would be too marshy.

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We stop at the Villa Rustica where the remains of an old roman settlement are on display.

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A short while after that we reach Starnberg only to realise there is no place that sells ice cream any longer. Oh the good old days when we would come here on our motorbikes almost every other day during summer and eat the best ice cream at the cafe Venezia. (Long closed now and replaced by an apartment building) :(

So we take the route back along the road to make some pace but around half way we turn back onto the forest trail as the cycle track beside the highway is just too busy and too loud.

All in all it was a great outing, a little over half a day, making about 40 kilometres, that's about the pace we're aiming for. We're planning to do between 50 to 70 kilometres per day. It's called a holiday for a reason! Already cycling comes so much easier than 10 days ago meaning the light training rides are showing effect.

We want to get in some more rides til the end of the week and if we do, I will write about it here.