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!
Our own private train - just waiting for the champagne and caviar to be served.
Window reflection selfie
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.
Another segment of the circle - from Grafing Bahnhof to Ottenhofen shown in pink, traveling direction was south to north.
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.
The start of our ride, the train line is in the background. Janos is very pleased with his bicycle and has promised to soon write a review of his riding on it so far.
I planned the route at home and uploaded it onto my Garmin. It took us on nice bicycle paths that we wouldn't have found otherwise.
We passed through small villages with churches and old trees.
We stopped for lunch and I forgot to take a picture of our food, but when we were outside I took a picture of the Easter decoration. It's not a purchase, though.
This is the pretty Egglburger Lake. We have come here by car and taken walks in this area, but never ridden our bikes here.
After riding some quiet country roads, we were again in a forest, a little bumpy but not bad at all.
But then the road through the woods deteriorated. I'm not good at mud so I got off and pushed. This gave me a lot of time to take pictures. It wasn't far to the next paved section of our route, fortunately.
Janos wasn't fazed by the mud and disappeared down the road.
Bicycle path next to a busy road - not my favorite kind of cycling, but I welcomed it after my trudge through the mud.
In one of the villages on our route, we saw this Easter decoration on a fountain. In the background is an onion dome church, typical in Bavaria.
The elaborate Easter bunny scene in Ottenhofen - photographer taking a class photo
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.
I almost forgot my proof of purchase, the train and bicycle tickets. The bicycle ticket is valid all day in all city trains and is already validated at purchase. The multiple-journey ticket or strip ticket has to be stamped and is only valid for a limited time and specified distance.
Including the ride to the station and back, we rode 32 km, not the puny 28 on the map.
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