Day 70: Munich (Day Two)

June 21, 2022

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Since we claim to have seen all of Munich's "concrete" sights of interest yesterday, we resolved to visit its "green lungs" - the Englischer Garten - said to be one of the world's largest parks at 375 hectares. The garden lay about 4 km from our hotel, across the city. Even though there are bike lanes in most places, Dodie requested a track to lead us through the built up areas. I made some tracks from various software, but none found favour wth Dodie. Either they took us through pedestrian areas, where police have repeatedly harassed us for riding, or they went through difficult traffic sections that we had been warned off by Claire yesterday. We did set off, though, with some sort of track in the GPS.

The track took us in the tunnel under the bahnhof , a routing that all agree is the best way to start.

In Munich, cars are not really much of a problem. Traffic is light and drivers are careful. But cyclists can be a menace. I hope I don't get into trouble for observing that young women are pretty darn aggressive. Dodie points out that in her capacity as an old woman, they have her terrified.

Before this trip my only involvement with Munich was in 1967 when I worked at a Bavarian restaurant at Expo 67 in Montreal. The restaurant had a giant lion on the roof that raised and lowered a beer stein and said "Lowenbrau!". Now here I am, maybe at Lowenbrau central.

Even the best laid tracks can be screwed up by road closures. So these folks were not a welcome sight. However our approach was to ask the problem guards for their advice.

"Hey, do we know how to reach the Englischer Garten?"

This man has been in Germany for 30 years, but was from Nigeria. He had a cute accent. He assured us that in Munich there is lots of help and security, and that we could never come to trouble or harm here, so just carry on. He did mention that right now security is on high alert, but did not say why. Janos explained it to us later - see near the end of today.

This street scene is quite typical. Note the bike lane and sparse car traffic.

I like this shot because it shows "green energy" oriented bikes, beside a "green energy" oriented Tesla. (However Dodie is not an Elon Musk fan).

The Englischer Garten's southern bit touches the Odeonsplatz district, that contains the Residenz palace, a theatre, giant church, and many staid and official buildings and statues. We passed though this, but returned for a closer look after leaving the garden.

The Garden lived up to its billing, with large open spaces, rushing waters, and a large lake filled with waterfowl.

There were geese of several types, all very tame.

These guys are giving us the cold shoulder and leaving.

Other birds of the park:

At the lake we took a bench and Dodie spent some time writing post cards. The post card envelope intrigued me, as I considered whether I really knew that each pictured city was where it was pictured, and checked off which we had visited. We have missed only Kiel, Hannover, and Chemnitz, and have been to a lot not on the envelope!

We carried on around the lake, which had more and more waterfowl. Reluctantly we then headed back to the city.

That yellow church was very striking, so naturally we dropped in to see the interior. Like brightly coloured birds, each church seems to have a strategy for impressing. This one was big on plaster work.

If you are patient, you can read the first two pages of the church guide book. The church seems to have been started in 1674 and took at least 13 years to almost complete.

High above the church's main door, a rather goofy lion.

There seemed to be lots of school children in the Residenz area. Here are some getting their photo taken on the steps of the Feldherrnhalle, which was built by or for Ludwig I in the mid 1800's.

Monumental statuary at the Feldherrnhalle.

The outside of the Residenz. We tanked up on enough Residenz museum stuff in Salzburg!

We got harassed by police again today about riding the bikes. Here Dodie is perfectly legal (on the sidewalk).

The synagogue that stood here was torn down and burned in 1938.

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We made it back to the hotel, and spent some time uploading photos before setting off for our historic meeting with Suzanne Gibson and Janos Kertesz. The meeting place was set as the Fischbrunnen, which by now we know well. Dodie spotted the pair at quite a distance. Good eye.

Suzanne is a real icon in the cycle touring world, and has written at least 36 blogs, stemming from 2007. Janos too has cycled a lot, and currently has 2 German language blogs of his own, plus joint ones with Suzanne. As is the case with many Cycleblaze authors, we feel we know Suzanne and Janos very well, despite having never met. Until today!

In following our blogs, Suzanne and Janos could not miss our fondness for tortes, so it was natural to go out in search of some after we met up. This was simple for Suzanne and Janos, since in many visits to their favourite conditorei they had thought how much we would like it. That place is the Café Münchner Freiheit, which is back up beside the Englischer Garten, in what is called the Freiheit district.

I felt confident about not getting thrown out for picture taking, with the German speaking Suzanne beside me. Since there was table service it seemed we would have to learn the names of the tortes we were choosing, to tell the waitress. But the man behind the counter said he would convey our choices to her, therefore we did not quite have to learn the names of everything. As it turns out, he was not quite reliable in this, and we had to send Suzanne back in to confirm our choices.

I recognized these "beutels" from Leipzig, but today would be a torte day!

These four were our final choices. From the left counterclockwise there was Janos' rather dry Nuss, my Tiramisu, Dodie's chocolate slab, and not sure what Suzanne's was.

Dodie's chocolate one reminded us of "Ludlab", a cake we had enjoyed years earlier many times at a Hungarian cafe in Montreal. Since Janos is from Hungary we naturally expected him to know all about ludlab, but it was a new one on him, and he started talking about "geese" . The internet confirmed that we were not making this up. Tortes are serious stuff! But Janos was right about geese. From the above link:

"Lúdláb cake is known and loved by most Hungarians; however, its origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery. First of all, the name literally means ‘goosefoot’. Some people say this is because of its signature shape; the cake is cut into wide triangles. Others say it is a typical dessert at Saint Martin’s Day celebrations, where many meals are centred around geese. This would certainly explain the unusual name of this dessert."

Beyond cake and ludlab, we chatted for several hours, with the many topics that cycle tourists find. These ranged from camera choices, to past adventures, future plans, bicycle types, family, careers, you name it.

One thing we mentioned was the police presence we had observed. Janos pointed out that Germany will be hosting the G7 at Schloss Elmau, about 100 km south of Munich. No doubt lots of world leaders and diplomats will be travelling through town.

I don't even think we had run out of topics, when the clock seemed to suggest it was time to move on. I dont think we all were bored, or tired, but good things do come to an end.

Suzanne and Janos got on the U-Bahn with us and dropped us at Marienplatz, while continuing on board to their stop. We waved goodbye from the platform, a bittersweet end to a wonderful meet up.

What gave Meaning to Life today? Meeting the famous and iconic Suzanne and Janos in person.

Epilog: Suzanne sent some photos she took today, but we all forgot to get a group photo. The shot below makes it seem like Steve is getting ready to chew through three tortes and an iced coffee! It's implausible, but not impossible!

Today's ride: 15 km (9 miles)
Total: 3,877 km (2,408 miles)

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Suzanne GibsonIt was a wonderful afternoon with you two! Maybe the torten didn't quite live up to my expectations, I'll have to do some more research for your next visit. Gute Reise!
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Suzanne GibsonThey looked good in the photo, and we liked ours! Ok, we'll do our part by researching in Prague. Stay tuned.
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2 years ago

Janos KerteszEs war eine wundervoller Nachmittag aus zweierlei Gründen:
1. Ich habe als gebürtiger Ungar noch nie etwas von "lúdlábtorte" gehört. Diese Bildungslücke wurde jetzt von Steve korrigiert. Vielleicht kam meine Unwissenheit von dem Umstand, dass meine 26 Jahre in Ungarn unter der kommunistischen Herrschaft stattfand, in der wir weder lúdláb, noch torte kennenlernen durften.
2. Es war eine sehr schöne Begegnung mit interessanten, lieben Menschen. Ich danke dafür!
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Janos KerteszAccording to Google Translate, Janos wrote:
It was a wonderful afternoon for two reasons:
1. As a native Hungarian, I have never heard of "lúdlábtorte". This educational gap has now been corrected by Steve. Perhaps my ignorance came from the fact that my 26 years in Hungary took place under communist rule, during which we were not allowed to learn about lúdláb or torte.
2. It was a very nice encounter with interesting, lovely people. I thank you for that!

Danke Janos. Wenn wir in das ehemalige kommunistische Tschechisch kommen, werden wir sehen, welche Torten sie jetzt haben.
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2 years ago