The Alpine road

In village squares, beer festivals might be in full swing. Men in felt hats and women in brocaded dirndls sing along to brass bands. Chalets cascade with flowers and above pop onion-domed churches. Beyond, towering peaks and lakes give way to rolling vineyards tinted with the orange and red of autumn.

This is Bavaria in southern Germany but right in the heart of Europe. An independent kingdom until 1918 and now Germany’s largest state, it retains a strong sense of nationhood and is rich in merry traditions, while high-tech capital Munich regularly tops national surveys as the German city with the finest quality of life.

Although you could spend several days in Munich, save time for Bavaria’s alpine edge. South of the capital and along the border with Austria lies a string of grand alpine peaks and forests linked by the 465-kilometre Alpine Road, which runs from Königssee in the east to Lindau on Lake Constance in the west. Despite its relative shortness you might want to take a week to properly appreciate the scenery.

From Munich, an hour’s drive south of the city brings you onto the Alpine Road at relaxing Tegernsee, tucked right against the foothills of the Alps. Monks and noblemen once retreated to the shores of this little lake, but these days you’re more likely to encounter windsurfing industrialists from Munich. 

Munich’s wealth gives the Alpine Road great hotels. Stay at Althoff Seehotel Überfahrt, which has a wellness spa, Michelin-starred restaurant and lovely lake views. Rise early, and you’re treated to stars over the church steeple even as the sun comes up over the pale blue rim of the mountains.

Drive west and you’re into the traditional Bavarian heartland, with its frescoed houses and jovial, back-slapping inhabitants. Dawdle in villages like riverside spa town Bad Tölz and hustle down to beerhalls in the evening for enormous tankards of beer, Frisbee-sized schnitzels and an accompaniment of accordion music. Sharing trestle tables is expected in beer gardens and you’ll meet Bavarians at their relaxed best, confounding the stereotype of the serious, all business German.

Heading south to pass another stunning alpine lake at Walchensee, you might want to indulge at one of Germany’s best-known hotels, Schloss Elmau. It sits in its own lush alpine valley and has magnificent spa facilities where you can be scrubbed, massaged and exfoliated, or simply wallow in hammams and swimming pools.

Beyond, you’ll find yourself in Mittenwald, which has a long history of violin making and many prettily painted houses. The main town in the Bavarian Alps is nearby Garmisch-Partenkichen, which became famous as a host of the 1936 Winter Olympics.

The surrounding landscape of mountains and waterfalls is best appreciated on foot – some 300 kilometres of hiking tracks are well marked – but you can take the easy option and ride the rack railway up Zugspitze, at 2966 metres Germany’s highest peak. The teeth on the train’s cogwheels click as you’re pulled around dizzying loops and across viaducts. The sun catches the mountain peaks, tingeing the rocks and snow with gold to create another glorious Bavarian panorama.

Back on the Alpine Road, stop at Ettal Abbey, where an enormous baroque monastery hunkers under dark hills, before sliding into Oberammergau. Here wood-carvings and cuckoo clocks compete for attention with house facades frescoed with peasant scenes and flamboyant historical events.

Nearby you’ll find the first of several famous palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the nineteenth century. Linderhof was his favourite, a miniature baroque mansion with just 10 rooms groaning with gilt, plasterwork and cherubs. Formal gardens give way to informality and come with eccentric additions such as a Moorish pavilion, artificial cave and romantic waterfall before dissolving into misty mountain foothills.

Cutting through a corner of Austria to avoid a big detour north around the mountains, you come to mad King Ludwig’s most jaw-dropping and famous creation, the improbable pseudo-castle Neuschwanstein, which sits on a crag against a backdrop of snow-capped mountains.

The castle seems small from below but, as you approach, the vast white building with its red keep looms large and bristles with Romanesque windows, turrets and battlements. The interior reflects Ludwig’s eccentric tastes – dragons hold up roof beams, the throne room is Byzantine in style and symbols from Wagnerian opera appear everywhere. It feels like a fairy tale and it’s no wonder Walt Disney used Neuschwanstein as a model for Snow White’s castle.

Neuschwanstein is by far the most tourist-packed place on the Alpine Road and yet few tour coaches stop at Füssen a few kilometres across the meadows. Do yourself a favour – this town sat on medieval north-south trading routes across the Alps and is a delightful huddle of merchant mansions, monasteries, Gothic chapels and fortified towers.

Füssen could provide your escape route back to Munich but, if you have time, the Alpine Road continues 100 kilometres west to Lake Constance where the borders of Germany, Austria and Switzerland intersect. The German lakeshore is pleasantly draped in vineyards that produce Müller-Thurgau grapes and crisp, fruity white wines.

The road ends at Lindau, whose stately old town sits on an island with marvellous views over the lake to the Swiss Alps. The Alpine Route doesn’t just peter out – it ends as it began, with scenery to stir the soul.