STAGE 45 MITTENWALD—SEEFELD IN TIROL Mittenwald Km 19 +598 -376 Race E State Germania Land Baviera M Mittenwald is the seat of a municipality of 7.779 habitants, very close to the Austrian border, famous for lute art thanks to Mattias Klotz who learned this art from Cremona masters, and imported it here. In the museum set up in the Klotz birthplace you can now appreciate the masterpieces produced by the Bavarian masters and understand the production process of this magical instrument. The Baroque church of St. Peter und Paul stands in the centre of the village and with its characteristic frescoed façade recalls the main peculiarity of the village from the painted houses. Goethe, while travelling to Italy during his famous trip, stayed in Mittenwald on September 8, 1786 and called it "a brave illustrated book" . A plaque on the Obermarkt Street reminds of him 1 a 2 3 Mittenwald—Seefeld in Tirol 4 We leave Mittenwald starting from the Town Hall and go left on the Albert Schott Strasse; at the crossroad we go left and then turn right on the Mauthweg which we follow for 500 m where we leave it to turn right, then left to arrive on the Innsbruckstrasse. 5 We cross the Isar River and at the three roads junction we go on the right on the Riedkopstrasse which takes us, in 500 m to crossing the river again and to start our walk outside the town, as pointed out in numerous signs. A beautiful walk, a colourful ore, without ups and downs for about 5 km per circa 5 km and, after crossing the border with Austria we arrive at Scharntitz . 6 We pass through the small village of Scharnitz , cross over the Isar, which we leave on our left, and after 100 m we turn right on the Hirlanda Ellmann weg and resume our walk again in the beautiful valley of a tributary of the Isar we now proceed uphill gradually and gently: in 100 km, from 969 m above sea level we shall arrive at 1186 m, therefore a mountain trail, but an easy one, in the green through beautiful meadows. After about 3 km see find the small village of Giessenbach 7 We cross it and resume walking on the 177 which we leave after 450 m to turn right sand begin an uphill walk, in the forest; 2 km we get out of the wood and walk across meadows along a stream; we now arrive at Lehenwald and again into a forest Scharnitz 8 Continuing in the same direction and road/footpath, for a further 2,6 km, uphill, and we arrive outside the forest by the confluence from the right of the L14 ; a little more uphill then we descend on Seefeld in Tirol , sand before us will be our first stage in Austria. 9 Seefeld in Tirol 10 .