3. To the Pasinger Fabrik: via Hamburg and Palermo
Friday October 20, 2017
Today's bicycle ride is to a photo exhibit of street photography. Now I am stretching the definition of my self-imposed theme "visits to museum cafés in Munich". The photo exhibit is not in a museum but in the Pasinger Fabrik, a community culture center that supports the arts, be it theater, music, dance or painting and photography.But I have two good reasons for breaking my rules. Photography is a hobby of mine, and also Pasing, where the Pasinger Fabrik is located, is a favorate destination when we want to take a short ride for coffee and I want to show you our favorite route when leaving town.
Besides, it just occurred to me that I have broken the rules each time out. The first time my ride wasn't quite long enough to qualify and the second coffee wasn't even in Munich. Way to go! Now I have a new theme: breaking the rules.
The title of the street photography exhibit is "Via - Hamburg to Palermo". The pictures were taken over the course of a year in Germany and Italy. A rewording of the exhibition's own description: The idea of the photographers was to show street photography as defined by works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliot Erwitt, Robert Frank, or Alex Webb, as it arises from the spontaneity of the fleeting moment. The situations were not manipulated but captured. Okay, enough of that. We aren't even there yet.
We have yet another perfect autumn day, warm but not too warm, with yellow leaves drifting down with every puff of wind.
Today's bicycle ride is to a photo exhibit of street photography. Now I am stretching the definition of my self-imposed theme "visits to museum cafés in Munich". The photo exhibit is not in a museum but in the Pasinger Fabrik, a community culture center that supports the arts, be it theater, music, dance or painting and photography.But I have two good reasons for breaking my rules. Photography is a hobby of mine, and also Pasing, where the Pasinger Fabrik is located, is a favorate destination when we want to take a short ride for coffee and I want to show you our favorite route when leaving town.
Besides, it just occurred to me that I have broken the rules each time out. The first time my ride wasn't quite long enough to qualify and the second coffee wasn't even in Munich. Way to go! Now I have a new theme: breaking the rules.
The title of the street photography exhibit is "Via - Hamburg to Palermo". The pictures were taken over the course of a year in Germany and Italy. A rewording of the exhibition's own description: The idea of the photographers was to show street photography as defined by works by Henri Cartier-Bresson, Elliot Erwitt, Robert Frank, or Alex Webb, as it arises from the spontaneity of the fleeting moment. The situations were not manipulated but captured. Okay, enough of that. We aren't even there yet.
We have yet another perfect autumn day, warm but not too warm, with yellow leaves drifting down with every puff of wind.
We set out on our standard route when we exit Munich to the west. It's very pleasant and avoids city traffic for almost the whole way. After less than one kilometer we are in Olympia Park and on bike paths.
We follow a bike path next to the canal leading to Nymphenburg Palace. We are still very much in the city, but for the moment we seem to be far from traffic and busy roads. Along the bike path there is a small community of "Schrebergärten", plots with small sheds or miniature cottages where city dwellers can escape their apartments and can grow vegetables and flowers on their own bit of land.
We leave the canal path and ride a short distance on a bike lane along a busy road before we reach Nymphenburg Castle and its park. However, we can soon pick up the fine path that will circumvent Nymphenburg Park and take us on our way to the west of Munich.
After circling half way around the park we have a view to the palace. These were private hunting grounds for the nobility in earlier times. Now it's all open to the public - some things have gotten better in our day and age.
Now a bit of history on the Pasinger Fabrik itself. Fabrik means factory and this used to be a shoe factory, built in 1896 and owned by David Heymann. It burned down in 1904 and he sold it in 1912 to the household goods manufacturer Ritter. Here, a dark chapter in Germany's history: In 1941 under the Nazi regime, David Heymann, his daughter Eugenie, his son Heinrich and grandson Gideon were deported to the ghetto in Kaunas, Lithuania. None of them survived.
On the facade of the Pasinger Fabrik is a construction that I first took to be scaffolding, then on looking more closely I saw that it is a frame supporting solar panels, a model I had never seen before. I wonder how much of their energy is supplied by these panels.
On the facade of the Pasinger Fabrik is a construction that I first took to be scaffolding, then on looking more closely I saw that it is a frame supporting solar panels, a model I had never seen before. I wonder how much of their energy is supplied by these panels.
Refreshments later, first we have a look at the photo exhibition. It is a small and very enjoyable collection of photos taken by five German and five Italian photographers who had their eyes open for the amusing and the beautiful in every day public life.
We have lunch outdoors, savoring the balmy October weather. I had heringsalat or herring salad with boiled potatoes, a specialty from northern Germany. And water.
To make our ride more interesting we take a different route back home. We cycle along the other side of the wall surrounding the palace park, traverse the Hirschgarten or Deer Park where there are real deer, but I didn't take any pictures, and then follow some bike lanes back to our street and that was it.
Yay for the challenge, we had a great day!