April 19, 2025 to April 22, 2025
Three Days in Munich getting organized
And Watching Tennis
Normally we arrive in Munich and spend three days here doing chores and recovering from jet lag. This is a luxury afforded to us because we are retired. When I worked, our pattern would be to arrive, put the bikes together, organize ourselves and our gear and get on the road the following morning. Taking a few days before embarking is far more civilized.
On our first day we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast and took the bikes out for a spin up to the famous English Gardens. We had glorious spring weather and it was wonderful to be back on our bikes. On April 20 (Easter Sunday) we have tickets for the final of the BMW Open - a 500 level ATP tennis event. We decided to ride out to the tournament site to make sure we could find our way to the tennis venue and to insure there would be adequate bike parking. It was a good thing we did so. A main bridge near our hotel in Munich is undergoing construction and the ride turned out to be messy with detours. Hopefully the recon will save time and stress for us on Sunday. By the time we did the ride and stopped for a late snack, it was afternoon and after a short rest (Dave) and nap (Jill) we walked to L’Incontro for an early dinner. The restaurant is close to our hotel and is a good neighborhood place. We like Munich City where our Novotel is located and enjoy the lack of US tourists there, but the dining scene is more limited compared to Old Town Munich. L’Incontro is a good find and we even got a complimentary grappa and limoncello, which tasted great at the time but not so great in the morning. Jill is a lightweight.
It’s been a trying 4 months. Dave chipped off a piece of bone in his knee last September while rafting the Grand Canyon and he had to have arthroscopic surgery January 20. In addition to repairing a torn meniscus, the surgeon did a micro-fracture on his knee and the subsequent rehab was more difficult than the medical professionals had predicted. All winter. we were nervous he would not recover in time for this trip. He thinks he is okay as he can ride pretty comfortably but he still has some pain—especially walking down hill or stairs—so the issue hasn’t entirely gone away. Another consequence of the surgery and recovery was we haven’t gone anywhere in 5 months. We mostly stayed home to work out and do extra rehab. Needless to say, we were more than ready to get out of town and start our yearly tour.
The need for knee surgery brought home our concern about how long we can continue to cycle tour. This is a common discussion on cycleblaze and one we relate to. Dave is 75 and I turn 65 in May. Cycle touring gives us so much joy we will be heartbroken when we decide we can’t manage it anymore. It’s interesting to see how others are finessing that situation by reducing mileages, doing more hub and spoke touring, forgoing camping in favor of staying in hotels, and accepting e-bikes as an option. Of course, we have already opted for e-bikes and we don’t camp, so those ships have sailed. We shall see. For now, we're raring to go!
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