Biking the Blue Danube

Munich Memories


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Munich Germany

June 5-6 2014

 

We had last been in Munich as part of our honeymoon trip on a Laurentian Ski Zone chartered flight to Switzerland a mere 48 years ago. We looked forward to seeing the changes to the city before continuing on to Passau where we would start our bicycle trip down the Danube River.

 

Apart from having to get up in the dark and order a taxi for 5:20AM to take us to Charles de Gaulle Airport, the flight to Munich was a cinch. We even got a croissant and drink on the 1 hour Air France breakfast flight, plus, being a small plane, our checked luggage was waiting for us minutes after we landed.

 

We wheeled our bags through the airport and found the ticket kiosk for trains where we bought tickets to get to the central station in Munich and our tickets for the next day to Passau. It is certainly convenient having a fast train service from the Munich Airport right into the center of the city. We didn’t even have to wait more than a few minutes to get on the train and we didn’t have any transfers to worry about. Using a small map from a guide booklet given us at the information desk in the airport, we found our way to our hotel for the night. Pension/Guesthouse am Hauptbahnhof (central station)was just two blocks from the central railway station. We were too early to get into our room so we left our bags in safekeeping and left to explore Munich.

 

The first thing we had to learn is to look out for bicycles as we walked the streets. Munich, at least the downtown core, is a bikers and commuters heaven. The sidewalks are wide enough to support a well marked separate bicycle path. The problem for pedestrians is to realize you better not stray into the path of the speeding cyclists and to take care crossing the street. Once you learn that lesson it is a piece of cake. Our only regret is that we didn’t have bikes or enough time to explore more of the city. We had to content ourselves with a walking tour of just a few of the top spots in the center of town.

 

We were on time to see the Glockenspiel  at its 11 AM performance on the clock tower of the Neue Rathaus AKA the New (1874) Town Hall. The clock plays like a music box while two groups of figures take their turns twirling and turning around a central figure to the music. It lasts ten minutes and is still delightful. I even practised taking a video with my new camera, bought especially for this trip after my old camera started to malfunction.

 

We took photos of several of the beautiful churches, including the Frauenkircke (the huge Church of Our Lady), official buildings and statues. We had a nice lunch in a very reasonably priced self-serve health food restaurant in the courtyard of the Rathaus.

 

The Hofbrauhaus was a must for a photo op but we passed up an opportunity to have a beer inside, unlike our previous visit. Instead we had tea and a delicious rhubarb torte on the veranda of a restaurant on the same plaza as the Hofbrauhaus. That is one of my memories of Kitzbuhl, Austria on our ski trip in February 1966. The ski conditions were poor due to rain and ice so we had an excuse to sample the teahouses and enjoy the many sweet treats, and maybe a beer each afternoon.

I am looking forward to sampling many more afternoon treats on our afternoon bicycling breaks in Austria. After our tea break we found our way to the Hofgarten Park where groups of locals played informal games of Pétanque AKA boules, on a broad cinder walkway bordering the formal gardens.

 

Buying postcards proved to be much easier than buying stamps to mail them. There are conveniently located automated machines dispensing stamps outside several building. The trick is to find out how much a post card costs to mail to countries other than Germany and to have the exact change to buy them. We were unsuccessful interpreting the instructions at the first machine. You can put in a larger coin than the stamp requires but change will only be given with a stamp of the value of the remainder. If there is no stamp of the value of the change, you just get your coins returned. With the help of a local man we managed to get two stamps for our two cards at a second. When we got back to our room and googled the German Postal system, we found we had not bought enough postage. We put double stamps on one postcard and found a third machine nearby. After the machine told us it did not have a stamp of the value needed for an international postcard, we bought a larger value stamp and were successful. Ah, the joys of automated bureaucracy.

 

Ray declared he didn’t care where we had dinner as long as we could order a beer. After all, we were in the Brauhaus (brewery) center of Germany. We found a nice restaurant near our hotel and each ordered dinner. From now on, I think it would be better to share one main dish and order a salad, also to be shared. Otherwise, we may end up outgrowing our biking attire.

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