Easter Sunday ... and the hunt for spring
Sunday April 1, 2018
Cold and windy, rain predicted, but Janos has a new bike and that was reason enough to go for a ride. Besides, rain had been predicted for the whole day and it hadn't rained all morning, so obviously the weather forecast was wrong. I bundled up and we set out. We decided the Botanical Garden would be a nice destination, bound to be deserted in weather like this. That's the good thing about bad weather, most people stay at home.
We're on our way, riding through the Olympic Park. That's the soccer stadium in the background.
No other bicycles at the Botanical Gardens today. Janos doesn't have his annual pass with him but he charmed them into letting him in without paying.
It's looking a little bleak today - very few spring flowers are out. The blossoming tree is hamamelis or witch-hazel, a very early bloomer. It already had blossoms in January.
Close up of the witch-hazel - there were yellow and red ones.
Spring flowers - they were few and far between but they were there.
This is an insect hotel - they really call it that. They used to exterminate all insects, now the insects are getting gentrified - or is it life style - housing.
We finished off our visit to the Botanical Gardens with a stop at its cafe. They have probably the best chocolate cake in Munich. We ordered a cup of coffee, a peppermint tea and one piece of cake with two forks.
So far we hadn't gotten wet at all and the headwinds we had on our way to the Botanical Gardens would now push us home. But when we left the cafe we saw some very black clouds on the horizon. We had hardly ridden five minutes when the clouds opened up. It hailed and rained and was quite a spectacle. We decided not to wait it out and just pulled up our hoods under our helmets and pedaled. With the wind at our backs we flew. As was to be expected, the minute we reached home, even before we had put our bicycles in the shed, the sun came out.
As they say in German: April April - er macht was er will. Or the English equivalent: April weather, rain and sunshine both together.
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