ON OUR WAY TO THE ALPS Tuesday, September 2nd, we awakened early and peeked out the window.  Cloudy, but no rain.  So, we got up and started a load of sheets in the washer.  After breakfast we started cleaning house, took our showers, packed our bags, got the towels into the washer and were all done with the cleaning by 11am.  Still no rain, so we jumped in the car for a quick trip into town for a visit to Citibank for cash and then to fill up the car with gas.  Then we went back to the house for one last look around, and a splash of food for the koi in the pond, and then we said goodbye to Wallgauer Weg 4C.  We are officially on the road. The first day of our trip we went through many of the towns we had bicycled through over the last month—Kissing, Mering, Prittriching, Ummendorf, Vilgertshofen and Apfeldorf.   Don worked out a wonderful route on little country roads through little country villages.  We had little traffic and no rain. We finished up our day, after 67 kilometers, at the village of Hohenfurch, where we arranged a very nice zimmer (room).  We had a kitchen/sitting room, two bedrooms and bathroom with shower and an entry hall.  After getting settled and taking our showers we walked into town for dinner at the local Gasthaus.  When we got back to our room Don worked on his photographs and I tried to watch tv, but fell asleep by 8pm.  The beds were comfortable and warm and it was verrrrry quiet.  We slept like logs. In the morning we had our breakfast of rolls and cold cuts, packed up and headed out along the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Route).  There are numerous bicycle routes all over Germany and they are very well-marked and usually very well suited for cycling . Now we are in hillier country and we soon were climbing a pretty steep hill, through the old town gate into Schoengau.  The route out of town was another steep hill—18% grade—so Don decided to deviate from the route and we took another descent along little paths and gravel roads, along the side of a lake and gently up through a forest of fir trees.  When we came out of the trees we both had to gasp, the scenery was so beautiful.  We rode along more quiet little country lanes, passing farmers cutting fields of clover and cows grazing. Eventually we arrived at the town of Steingaden, where we stopped and filled up our water bottles.  There we saw the signpost for a famous church, Weiskirche, but we decided not to do the extra miles to visit it.  Leaving town, we had two pretty steep climbs.  We stopped for picnic lunch at one of the many little benches we see everywhere along the route.  After lunch we had a few more hills, and we got our first glimpse of the jagged Alps looming in the distance. As we were riding along in the peaceful countryside traffic started to pick up, then we turned onto another little country road and all of a sudden there were huge tour buses passing us. Soon we came to a little town with hordes of people bustling this way and that.  The town was called Weis, and guess what—this is the town of Weiskirche.  So, we got to visit the famous church after all.  It was right on our route!  The reason this church is famous is that it is the most elaborate rococo church in Germany.  The reason this fancy church is in Weis, miles from any significant town, is that once upon a time back in the 1700s some monks wanted peace and solitude, so they established a monastery here.  For their monastery they made a rustic carving of Jesus on the cross.  After the monastery closed a local hausfrau moved the carving to her farmyard.  The very next day the miracle occurred and the carving started weeping tears.  Because of this miracle people began to make pilgrimages to the town of Weis to see the weeping Jesus, and with their donations a church was built, and over the years the church became very elaborate, with gilt rococo wall decorations and beautiful paintings on the ceiling and walls.  Even today thousands of people come to this church. When we pulled up to the church and went around the side to park our bikes we came upon an entire bike tour eating lunch.  We also me a very nice young German family who were bicycling.  They spoke very good English because the father had done 2 years as an intern at the Mayo Clinic.  So, we had a nice talk about bicycling in Germany and their stay in the US, and our bikes and our trip. We finished up our day in the town of Burghof and arranged a room at the little Gasthaus.  From the deck we can see Neuschwanstein Castle nestled on the mountainside.  We had dinner at the Gasthaus, and as usual it was hard to decide what to order.  Schwein mit spaetzle (pork with noodles), and Schwein mit kartoffeln (pork with potatoes), and Schwein mit kraut (pork with vegetables) seems to be what is available.  I for one am tired of schwein!  So I ordered the mixed grill and Don was quite pleased to see meat loaf on the menu.  Well, the mixed grill was mixed schwein (schwein hot dog, schwein cutlet, ground schwein.  But, the meat loaf turned out to be a nice big slab of spam, or something like it.  Don ate it all up anyway, and then treated himself to apfel strudel and vanilla ice cream.  Well, that strudel was a find.  It was a big fat roll of flaky pastry filled with spiced apples and raisins.  It smelled like heaven.  I have been very good this whole trip, sticking to my diet, but boy! Was I tempted on the strudel.  I held fast though, and just had Don describe the gastronomic experience to me as I enjoyed the wondrous aroma wafting across the table. Back in our room Don could barely get his photos processed before falling asleep and I took a bit of time to write up this report, then it is bed for me too.