June 24, 2023
A beautiful Ride in Munich (June 24, 2023)
Schloss Schleissheim, a Gay Parade and a Perfect Meal
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As if to make up for yesterday’s key debacle, today was a magical day.
Because we had successfully completed our chores yesterday we had a free day to do a ride with an ideal weather report. We decided to ride out through the English Gardens (sort of like New York’s Central Park) all the way to Schloss Schleissheim, about 15 km north of Munich. Our plan was to do a loop back into Munich from another direction. On the way out of town we stopped at Zwierad Stadler for one more bike-related chore (ordering another set of bike keys as a back up) and then to Media Markt (Germany’s big electronics store) so Dave could pick up a needed charging item.
The ride through the Gardens was wonderful and we took so many obscure unmarked trails we would have been sunk without our guidance app, Komoot. It was a Saturday so there were lots of recreational riders out.
Once we cleared the Gardens we then enjoyed a rural ride followed by our arrival at Schloss Schleissheim which was a pleasant surprise because it’s a pretty major site out in the middle of nowhere without any crowds. Short story: It was constructed by Max Emanuel of Bavaria in the early 1700s to be a mini Versaille. Max Emanuel was a famous and apparently capable general and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He married well so as to put himself in line to inherit the throne from Charles 2 of Spain. However, he wound up on the wrong side of the War of Spanish Succession and was forced into exile. He then spent his energies along with a portion of his fortune creating the Schloss Schleissheim complex. (I am fairly hazy on German history before the First World War so this is a really boiled down version; hopefully after spending another week in Germany some of this history will be more anchored in my brain. It's really difficult to summarize some of this history because before the unifications of many of these European countries there were all these princes running around fighting over small regions). Even though the entire Palace didn’t all wind up being built what there is is pretty darn impressive . We only toured the Neue Palais and the Gardens, not the Old Palace or the porcelain collection (which is supposed to be great but didn’t sound that riveting) but the amount of art was amazing. Max loved Dutch art and there were a ton of Peter Paul Ruben’s and Van Dyck pieces. And there was simply nobody there so you could walk around quietly. We ate lunch (a bun and apple from the morning breakfast buffet) in the Gardens.
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For the ride home we looped around to come into Munich from the northeast. It was rural for a while and then a lot of urban riding which was no problem because there are bike trails everywhere and all the intersections have special lights for bike travel. We did not see any homeless folks and we also never saw any single family housing. Everything is three or four story multi-story housing. As we neared the center we ran into the culmination of a two week Munich gay pride celelebration which was a major parade, with lots of drinking and partying. It was fun to be right in the middle of it - although we had to modify our route a bit since the entire city center was blocked off for the festivities.
That evening we had booked a bit more of a “signature dinner” at a seafood place called Pescheria, and after getting cleaned up at our hotel we walked the mile and a half back down into the town center to our restaurant which was on a small lane just off Sendlinger Tor (a Gothic era City Gate). The parade was over but the partying and associated mess was not; there was an army of workers out cleaning, sweeping and picking up bottles. We got hopelessly lost notwithstanding google maps and GPS because there was still a large crowd and we were 15 minutes late for our reservation. Fortunately because we were eating early (6 pm) it was no problem. We had a wonderful meal (Gillardeau oysters - the best oysters we ever had, sea bass and tuna tartar). Pescharia has a charming patio courtyard and a very nice street facing patio; perfect ambience, service and meal. We may go again when we are back in Munich at the other end of our trip. By the time we walked back to our hotel the entire town had been cleaned up; you never would have known that a big party had taken place a few hours ago. (We wondered who paid for that; the city or the group organizing the event? In any event, it was impressive. )
We had a great day.
Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 60 km (37 miles)
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