Day 20 – Cycling

The reason for writing see, is that the details fade as time goes on – time measured in minutes in my case, and now it’s day twenty two – two days old news, and so I could be making anything up really.

We bused it into town and we’re not sure whether the numbers we pushed on the in-bus-ticket-machine were numbers of people, number of tickets or travel zones. We needed two tickets for two people in zone one for 6 euro and got one ticket for three people in zone two for 3 euro – worked-it like pros.

There’s multiple scooter/bicycle hire places in Munich, as in most cities nowadays, and we try the first, ‘call-a-bike’, but all the bicycles we find on the app map seem to be taken (or it’s operator error). The next company, ‘donkey republic’ has us on two bikes in moments, “farting with 100% curry wurst power” (see photo).

We head down through Odeonsplatz to the English Garden once more, eager to explore it’s expansive park land. Once again it’s a glorious day and everyone’s out-and-about, dogs roughly outnumbering people this morning.

After the sweeping, open grass at the garden’s entrance, a swiftly running stream splits and runs off into forest. Pathways follow the streams over little bridges and through dappled morning light as we wend our way through the woods. It’s mostly a deciduous forest but it’s thick enough that you feel the cold of the shadows then the sun’s warmth riding out into open grassed fields again. Dogs play in the field off-leash but we’ve not seen ferocious dog behaviour anywhere. In fact both here and in France we’re amazed at how well behaved the dogs are – outside, in hotels, in restaurants – it’s amazing.

One guy has a German shepherd that keeps plunging into the myriad cool, clear lakes for sticks. In the shade, one lake is completely frozen over. I throw an orange sized pebble from up a two metre bank (as you do) and it bounces then slides across the icy surface making a metallic ring as it goes. Brave dog.

We spend some of the morning and most of the afternoon just mosing about here, sitting on park benches in the sun or fart-wursting about till we figure it’s coffee time, and head back into town.

After stocking up on some cards and stationary we find (miraculously) a Bellstaff jacket shop – that has a coffee shop upstairs – it’s like Jeff heaven and we grab a bite there. We’ve long been threatening to go see Starwars and so grab some tickets on-line over coffee (everythings so easy on the web isn’t), then wander back across the Isar river, grab a glass of wine and some nachoes glued with melted orange plasti-cheese, and kick back and watch the final Starwars saga installment – awesome!

Our hungers not completely sated by the lumo-plasti-cheese and cornchips and we wander in the direction of home and find “Paulenners” a lovely traditional Bavarian place, down the road. It’s chockas and they fit us in at a nice little table up the back on the proviso that we bail in an hour and a half – no problem.

In fact where helped in keeping to our agreed finish time when a family with three kids and a massive Labrador sit at the adjoining table. The dog, as per our previous discussion, is awesome, it’s massive bulk spread labradory-ishly and unmoving under the table even as wursts of all shapes and sizes sizzle and waft by. The kids on the other hand, are given a gaming tablet each and, by degrees, raise the volumes up decibel by decibel in competition with ambient restaurant sounds until….it’s time to go.

A nice stroll home through the back streets after dinner and we’re done. Oh, turns out we weren’t done, the bar’s still open in our hotel and the guy, a lovely young Croation fellow (another person sick of eastern European corruption and lack of work), pours us two of the most ginormous nightcap glasses of wine ever – he smiles and says with a grin, ‘yes they’re quite big’ (there’s two fingers worth left in the freshly opened bottle).