Good Friday ... and a good ride
Friday Arpil 30, 2018
Not much good weather has been promised for the Easter holidays, but the forecast for Good Friday was ... good. Around noon the sun was supposed to come out, the temperature was expected to climb past 10°C/42°F and no rain, so we decided to go for it. We weren't disappointed. The sun came out, the temperature reached 12°C/46°F and it didn't rain. I remembered to dress warmly and we had a great day.
Good Friday and the Monday after Easter are holidays in Germany and I was wondering if there wouldn't be too many people in the trains and out and about in general with the long weekend. But there was no hustle and bustle at all. I think everyone was away somewhere. Things went very smoothly from the very start. We have routine now. Got our tickets, validated them in the ticket machine (you get a date and location stamp on your ticket to make it valid for the ride) and took the elevator to the trains. Surprise - we had hardly waited one minute and our train pulled in to the station. I usually don't look at the train schedule before we leave so as not to feel under pressure and rush. When we're there, we're there. Most city trains run every 20 minutes anyway, so we won't have a long wait, it's no big deal. The even bigger surprise was that the train was absolutely empty. Now that's a nice feeling to have your own private train!
Good Friday and the Monday after Easter are holidays in Germany and I was wondering if there wouldn't be too many people in the trains and out and about in general with the long weekend. But there was no hustle and bustle at all. I think everyone was away somewhere. Things went very smoothly from the very start. We have routine now. Got our tickets, validated them in the ticket machine (you get a date and location stamp on your ticket to make it valid for the ride) and took the elevator to the trains. Surprise - we had hardly waited one minute and our train pulled in to the station. I usually don't look at the train schedule before we leave so as not to feel under pressure and rush. When we're there, we're there. Most city trains run every 20 minutes anyway, so we won't have a long wait, it's no big deal. The even bigger surprise was that the train was absolutely empty. Now that's a nice feeling to have your own private train!
I didn't look at my watch, but I think the ride to Grafing, where we wanted to start our tour, took about 30 minutes. Again we are about to cycle another segment of the circle around Munich. But I am not doing them all in the same direction nor in a continued line. Today we jumped from the northwest of Munich to the east, leaving a gap in between. Last time we rode in a clockwise direction, this time we rode counterclockwise. The reason was the general downhill gradient from Grafing to our destination in Ottenhofen. I also decided to do the nicest rides first, just in case we don't get to do all the rides.
Today we had quiet country roads, some unpaved paths in the woods, mostly pretty smooth, and a stretch of a bicycle path next to a fairly busy road, which wasn't as attractive as the rest of the ride, but always safe and away from the traffic. We could hear the cars, see them and almost smell their exhaust, but we were at a safe enough distance.
We dallied, admiring Ottenhofen's Easter bunny scene before we went to the train station. When we finally took the elevator up to the platform, our train was in the station and ready to depart. The engineer asked us if we wanted to get on and waited until we and our bikes were safely on board. Perfect timing ... except we didn't have time to validate our tickets. There is only a spot check for tickets but if you get caught without a valid ticket, you pay a fine, twice as much if there are two of you of course. We decided I should jump out of the train at the next station, quickly stamp our tickets in the machine on the platform and hop back on. I did that, and I expected the friendly engineer would see me and wait again - but he didn't and the train almost left without me. A fellow passenger saw our plight and just in the nick of time stood in the door so that it couldn't close, thus preventing the train from departing. I was able to get back on and we were on our way home.
Including the ride to the station and back, we rode 32 km, not the puny 28 on the map.