Out of the Alps: Schwangau to Munich

September 10, 2022

After a brief hiatus -- much briefer in real life than in the writing up of this journal -- it was time to start heading home. I'd spent my day off in Schwangau in a state of extreme, happy, laziness. I took advantage of the rather gloomy weather to finally (on my third visit here...) take a tour of the inside of Neuschwanstein, but otherwise passed the time in gentle pottering around. (And also, occasionally, dipping into the tv coverage of the Queen's death, which had been announced yesterday evening: it felt like a slightly odd time to be out of the country, but also it was quite a relief to be spared the excesses of the UK media. German tv was, thankfully, significantly less forelock-tugging in its approach...)

The forecast for today was also pretty bleak, but the promised rain hadn't appeared by the time I left the hotel, lulling me into an (entirely misplaced) confidence that the forecasters might have got it wrong.

I sheltered in a bus-stop when the heavens first opened, but after a while things didn't show much sign of easing up, so, since I had a train to catch, I thought I should probably push on

The next couple of hours were not, to be honest, the nicest riding of the tour; a shame, because the terrain and the trails were lovely, and on a less soggy day would have been really idyllic. But today: just something to endure.

Eventually, though, the rain eased, and the sun started to reappear. And by the time I got to the Ammersee, things looked (and I felt) significantly brighter.

From there, the ride became gradually -- almost imperceptibly -- more suburban, and then gradually more urban; and then, without any great drama (and certainly without any difficulty or wrangling with traffic) I was in Munich: only in the last 250 metres or so, on the final approach to the Hauptbahnhof, did the cycle route disappear.

My route into Munich took me past the Oktoberfest grounds, which were reaching the final stages of construction. I'd never appreciated before quite how gigantic they are (this is a tiny fragment of the whole).

When planning this trip, I hadn't quite thought through the consequences of taking a train from Munich on a Saturday night -- in particular, that this would mean having time to kill in Munich on a Saturday evening, and that this might not be the most relaxing place to be. The first Biergarten I tried, near the station, was impossibly busy (and raucous: Bavaria's worst, and loudest, 80s cover band was providing the entertainment...), though did find me a seat on the edge of someone else's table, along with an excellent plate of mushrooms and dumplings. It wasn't a place to linger, though, so I pedalled further into town and found a bit more peace and quiet (and perhaps the world's biggest Pretzel...) at the Viktualienmarkt.

Fortified, I meandered back to the station to wait for my train: the NightJet back to Hannover. A bit of confusion over platform changes and delays saw me very nearly getting on the sleeper to Zagreb by mistake (quite tempting, mind you...), but in the end the right train trundled into the station, I stashed my bike, found my cabin, was offered (and accepted) a night-cap from the conductor (in the form of a small bottle of sekt: train travel has its perks...), and settled down to be whizzed back north.

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Today's ride: 121 km (75 miles)
Total: 910 km (565 miles)

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