Moosburg to Ebersberg

October 9, 2024

It rained heavily during the night, but we were greeted by blue skies in the morning and the air was still mild. Our bikes were out back behind the hotel in what looked like a seldom used beer garden. We had hidden our bikes behind a disarray of tools, broken chairs and bicycles wanting repair. A charming note was a wall painting on the garage, we felt like we were in Greece.

Wall painting: For a moment I thought we were in Crete.

The first thing on our agenda was a look at Moosburg. We encountered a lot of road construction, cobblestones and traffic on our way to the church of St. Kastulus. Its late gothic altar is noteworthy. Otherwise I only got one shot of anything in Moosburg while dodging traffic and pedestrians. However I did manage to find a bakery for some rolls with ham and cheese for the road.

Interior of St. Kastulus with late gothic high altar

Moosburg is situated on the Isar as is Munich. But we weren't on our way home yet and ignored the Isar bike path.

Crossing the Isar, St. Kastulus and St. Johannes barely visible in the background

Looking back to Moosburg's towers of St. Kastulus and St. Johannes

The first 15 kilometers of the day are the least pleasant of our trip so far. Our route takes us on a road with fast traffic and trucks and alternately a bike path next to it. We are relieved when we veer off onto small roads through villages. Moosburg and the first kilometers leaving Moosburg haven't been up to par with the rest of the trip so far.

I took the high road, and Janos took the low road. He is just visible in the distance. Unfortunately I soon had to leave the highroad for the highway.

A beautiful time of year when the sun is shining

In Eichenhofen we pass St. Ägidius. We stop for a snap of the characteristic onion dome steeple. Now that we are on small roads through towns it is much more interesting. Unfortunate for these small rural towns is that they are under the flight path to the Munich airport and no amount of protest is going to rid them of the air and noise pollution in the near future.

We now follow the Sempt river to Erding. Erding is immediately appealing with its spacious pedestrian zone and attractive facades. Originally I wanted to book a night here, but Erding is close to Munich's airport and the prices seemed a bit ridiculous.

In Eichenhofen: The sign says parking for the priest, not in the picture is the next sign reserving parking for the choir director.

We are following the meanderings of the Sempt.

Entering Erding through its late gothic city gate, Schöner Turm, literally "Beautiful Tower"

Schrannenplatz with the Schrannenhalle, the tower belongs to the St. Johannes church. A Schrannenhalle was a grain market in earlier times.

Time for a break: We find seats at a cafe and along with many others delight in the warm autumn sun.

Now it's time to mention a challenge that I am taking part in, the Coffeneuring Challenge. Some of you might already be familiar with it from the Bicycle Life section of CGOAB. Here is a brief rundown on what it's all about (if you don't feel like clicking the link):

between October 6 through November 18, 2024,
ride your bike 7 times,
to at least 6 different places (you can repeat 1!)
at least 2 miles round trip every time,
drink 7 total cups of coffee (or another fall-type beverage), and
document your coffeeneuring (either photos, Strava tracks, journal entries, control card, etc.) just in case the Coffeeneuring Challenge Committee and the ever-striving Intern ever conduct an audit.

We had our own version of the challenge on Bicycle Life which Kathleen Jones administered and I took part in in 2017, before I left CGOAB. (Just this year I had the pleasure of meeting and touring with Kathleen.) It was loads of fun and really got me back into regular touring again. So now back to Erding. We are making regular tea/coffee stops on this tour as it is the first week of the challenge and provides a good opportunity to do some coffeeneuring. (I'll be documenting it on my blog which is otherwise totally neglected.)

After our stop for refreshments we agreed to have a look at the church. Somehow we both headed off to different churches. I couldn't understand why Janos wasn't in there while I was looking around and taking pictures. Eventually he called me on his phone and we got it straightened out.

St. Johann, late gothic. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to get close to the altar for better pictures. Let this suffice to give an impression.

The church is crowded between othe buildings, thus only partial views of the exterior.

Two bikes reunited at the St. Johannes church

We now have flat agricultural country, the sky is blue and the riding is good. We pass through small towns, or past signs to them: Pretzen, Wörth, Breitötting, Sonnendorf, Ottenhofen... Ottenhofen rings a bell. That's where we bought our Bike Fridays 15 years ago. We decide to detour to Ottenhofen to see if Andreas Seilinger of Traumvelo is home.

This was indeed a highlight of our tour. Andreas was there, he recognized the older versions of customers he knew in 2009 and even remembered Janos's name (he might have forgotten mine). His business survived Covid and he is a busy man, computer work consuming far too much time that he would rather be spending working on bikes. His specialties are recumbents, trikes, tandems and cargo bikes and he reminded us that perhaps someday we might be interested in trikes when we no longer felt safe on two wheels. Let's not think that far ahead.

Andreas, me and Janos (a little fuzzy) 2024

Then more farm country and the last ten kilometers through the Ebersberger Forst, a straight and monotonous bike path next to the highway, plenty of traffic whizzing by.

The path isn't exciting, but we are thankful that it exists.

I spot mushrooms and take pictures through the fence.

Our hotel is a little outside of Ebersberg and we have a 15-minute wait for check-in. For the evening meal there is a Croation restaurant down the road, we don't feel like going any further and the food is fine.

Heavy rain predicted for tomorrow.

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Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 188 km (117 miles)

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Tricia GrahamIt is great that you can have such a lovely trip just leaving from your own front door. It reminds me how much we enjoyed Munich and the countryside around it
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Suzanne GibsonTo Tricia GrahamYes, we have it good!
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1 week ago