August
It looks like more warm and dry weather is coming up. Which means more potential bicycle days. It's always the question what should get priority - I do have a life aside from riding my bicycle. When I get a lot of bicycle days in, I don't go to the gym so often or spend as much time with my camera. I do try to combine cycling and photography, but it's not always a happy marriage.
There are conflicting interests:
One great advantage to the bicycle-photography liaison is that photography has motivated me to get on my bike more often for rides around home and it has made these rides more interesting because I have a goal. One goal is 100 rides! So let's get on with August and more pictures, golden hour or not.
There are conflicting interests:
- Making long stops with the camera vs. reaching a destination. If we're on tour, we often just feel like pedaling.
- Another question for me is how much camera gear am I willing to carry on my bike? If we're touring, not much is the answer, so I do without a tripod or a special lens or the better but heavier camera.
- The third issue is the time of day. Photography is about light and the best time is the golden hour, that is shortly after sunrise or before sunset when the light is soft and warm. Unfortunately, when touring I am almost never on the road that early and in the evening I'm tired. Yes, I could get up at five ...
One great advantage to the bicycle-photography liaison is that photography has motivated me to get on my bike more often for rides around home and it has made these rides more interesting because I have a goal. One goal is 100 rides! So let's get on with August and more pictures, golden hour or not.
Ride 74 - August 3, 2018
A Hot Afternoon
A Hot Afternoon
Again a very hot day. Towards evening I rode a loop in the English Garden and on my way stopped for a picture of the fountain in front of the Ludwig Maximilian University. There was some kind of little festival going on and tables and benches were set up under the umbrellas. The guy on the right looks like he's cooling his foot in the fountain, but actually he was stretching.
Ride 75 - August 4, 2018
A Cooler Morning
A Cooler Morning
Had a Saturday breakfast at Cafe Münchner Freiheit and took a little ride through the English Garden. Probably won't venture out in the afternoon as the temperature is predicted to rise to 33°.
Ride 76 - August 5, 2018
Hot Sunday
Hot Sunday
We started out around nine, I had a hochbunker as our first goal. The facade is covered with some kind of synthetic tiles or shingles, and where it is peeling, you can see there is concrete underneath. This is obviously a bunker, but google maps has it labeled as a water tower. Otherwise I haven't been able to dig up any information on it.
The next goal not too far off was the New Israelite Cemetery which we had never visited. I was glad to see it was open. Out of respect to Jewish custom, it was expected that male and married female visitors wear head covering. We kept our bicycle helmets on and hoped that was okay. We wandered around and took pictures. Too bad I was too lazy to bring my tripod. It would have been useful in the low light situation. I was surprised how old some of the graves were. The cemetery was opened in 1908 and I wondered about the biographies and fates of those buried here.
All in all, we zigzagged through parts of Munich that we weren't familiar with. It was much more interesting than some of the "prettier" rides that we have done so often.
The next goal not too far off was the New Israelite Cemetery which we had never visited. I was glad to see it was open. Out of respect to Jewish custom, it was expected that male and married female visitors wear head covering. We kept our bicycle helmets on and hoped that was okay. We wandered around and took pictures. Too bad I was too lazy to bring my tripod. It would have been useful in the low light situation. I was surprised how old some of the graves were. The cemetery was opened in 1908 and I wondered about the biographies and fates of those buried here.
All in all, we zigzagged through parts of Munich that we weren't familiar with. It was much more interesting than some of the "prettier" rides that we have done so often.
Ride 77 - August 7, 2018
Early in the English Garden
Early in the English Garden
It was even cloudy this morning. We got an early start and were back home by nine. By that time it was beginning to get warm, but we had a cool ride. The route was the usual, we did a loop in the English Garden and tried hard to find something to take pictures of. I would have had a better haul if I hadn't (again) been too lazy to take my tripod with me.
Ride 78 - August 10, 2018
Dahlias and More in the Botanical Garden
Dahlias and More in the Botanical Garden
After all our hot weather, we had a rainy day followed by a cloudy one, just what I needed for a visit to the Botanical Garden. Overcast skies are perfect for flower photography and I was hoping the rain from the day before hadn't battered the blossoms too much. I wasn't disappointed. The dahlias stole the show today, they were absolutely gorgeous.
We were almost home and I still didn't have a picture with my bike in it. Janos suggested the lake in the Olympic Park would make a good background and so here's the shot taken on our way home.
We were almost home and I still didn't have a picture with my bike in it. Janos suggested the lake in the Olympic Park would make a good background and so here's the shot taken on our way home.
Ride 79 - August 11, 2018
A Walk in a Different Park
A Walk in a Different Park
We have ridden our bikes to Schleissheim Palace so often, it is a kind of ho-hum thing to do. So we hadn't been there for a while. The last time we were there was in the spring, too early for any flowers in the park. Today we could experience the park in all its glory. The French style park behind the palace is always beautifully landscaped and meticulously tended. Our walk in the park made it a not so ho-hum outing after all.
The ride was 28 km.
The ride was 28 km.
Ride 80 - August 15, 2018
A Ride through Town and More Hochbunkers
A Ride through Town and More Hochbunkers
In Catholic Bavaria, August 15, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is a public holiday. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the low 20's C, and it being a holiday, meaning little traffic, it was perfect for our ride through the city to seek some more hochbunkers I had on my list.
Before we left Janos mounted his handlebar cell phone holder. He discovered he can charge the cell phone from the e-bike battery while riding! Brilliant. Rain would be a problem, but otherwise it's easier to use than the Garmin and the map is easier to read.
We set off on our usual route through town only to discover that the preparations for the October Fest are now underway and the path across the fair grounds, the Theresienwiese, is now closed to pedestrians and cyclists. They start building the giant beer tents about two months before the start of the October Fest, which is actually the last week of September. They have left one corridor open, but when the October Fest is in full swing that too will be closed to bicycles.
But no big deal, we rode along the edge of the grounds and after about nine kilometers, we had reached the first hochbunker on Boschetsrider Strasse. It is boarded up and probably has no function.
A few kilometers farther we reached the second hochbunker of the day. Here we could see that it is inhabited. There was a bicycle stand beside the building and doorbells at the gate. Over the entrance there was a stone sculpture of the Nazi reichsadler perched on a wreath. However, the head had been chopped off and the swastika which was originally inside the wreath had been chiselled out.
We cycled back home along the Isar and through the English Garden, totalling 21 km.
Before we left Janos mounted his handlebar cell phone holder. He discovered he can charge the cell phone from the e-bike battery while riding! Brilliant. Rain would be a problem, but otherwise it's easier to use than the Garmin and the map is easier to read.
We set off on our usual route through town only to discover that the preparations for the October Fest are now underway and the path across the fair grounds, the Theresienwiese, is now closed to pedestrians and cyclists. They start building the giant beer tents about two months before the start of the October Fest, which is actually the last week of September. They have left one corridor open, but when the October Fest is in full swing that too will be closed to bicycles.
But no big deal, we rode along the edge of the grounds and after about nine kilometers, we had reached the first hochbunker on Boschetsrider Strasse. It is boarded up and probably has no function.
A few kilometers farther we reached the second hochbunker of the day. Here we could see that it is inhabited. There was a bicycle stand beside the building and doorbells at the gate. Over the entrance there was a stone sculpture of the Nazi reichsadler perched on a wreath. However, the head had been chopped off and the swastika which was originally inside the wreath had been chiselled out.
We cycled back home along the Isar and through the English Garden, totalling 21 km.
Ride 81 - August 18, 2018
A Visit with Father Timofej
A Visit with Father Timofej
Today I cycled over to the little chapel and overgrown garden tucked away in a corner of the Olympia Park. It was hard to find, although I've been there several times. Since there was a festival next to the gates to this little garden, I could hardly imagine that there would still be access. But there it was, the little buildings and unruly garden of Father Timofei. Here is the legend of Father Timofei and his church as I have pieced together from the Internet:
Father Timofei was born in 1894 in Bagayevskaya on the Don. In the Second World War, he transported coal in the German-occupied Russian city of Schachty. During the retreat of the German Wehrmacht, fleeing from the advancing Red Army, he was forced to help the enemy escape and transport them with his horse-drawn cart. Only at Rostov, in southern Russia, 46 kilometers from the mouth of the Don in the Black Sea, was he freed. Father Timofei later reported that he had his first vision of the Virgin Mary here, telling him to build a church dedicated to peace between East and West.
After many years as a vagabond, he reached Vienna and met his future wife Natascha. The construction of a church in Vienna failed because of the local authorities. The two moved on to Munich, where they arrived in 1952. They settled down on Oberwiesenfeld, on the edge of the former airfield which later became the Olympic Park. Here the Mother of God again appeared and advised him to build a Russian church on these grounds, then a field of rubble from bombed Munich. Timofei did as he was told and built church and house. Although his buidlings were unauthorized, there was ample rubble as building material on the Oberwiesenfeld. Rubble as far as the eye could reach, and he built. He built the towers of his church from old oil barrels. Inside, he lined the ceiling with the silver foil collected from the wrappings of chocolate bars. And he created a garden of Eden, about a hundred by a hundred meters, planted with bushes, vegetables and flowers.
No one took offense at the buildings and their inhabitants. But at the end of the 1960s, there were plans to build for for the upcoming Olympic Games on these grounds where Timofei's church and house stood. Protests hailed from Munich's residents. Lord Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel and Willi Daume, President of the National Olympic Committee for Germany, then found that Father Timofei could not be driven away and the plans were changed. The Olympic games made room for Father Timofei.
At the almost Biblical age of 107 years, Father Timofei had to move to a nursing home where he died at the age of 110.
Father Timofei was born in 1894 in Bagayevskaya on the Don. In the Second World War, he transported coal in the German-occupied Russian city of Schachty. During the retreat of the German Wehrmacht, fleeing from the advancing Red Army, he was forced to help the enemy escape and transport them with his horse-drawn cart. Only at Rostov, in southern Russia, 46 kilometers from the mouth of the Don in the Black Sea, was he freed. Father Timofei later reported that he had his first vision of the Virgin Mary here, telling him to build a church dedicated to peace between East and West.
After many years as a vagabond, he reached Vienna and met his future wife Natascha. The construction of a church in Vienna failed because of the local authorities. The two moved on to Munich, where they arrived in 1952. They settled down on Oberwiesenfeld, on the edge of the former airfield which later became the Olympic Park. Here the Mother of God again appeared and advised him to build a Russian church on these grounds, then a field of rubble from bombed Munich. Timofei did as he was told and built church and house. Although his buidlings were unauthorized, there was ample rubble as building material on the Oberwiesenfeld. Rubble as far as the eye could reach, and he built. He built the towers of his church from old oil barrels. Inside, he lined the ceiling with the silver foil collected from the wrappings of chocolate bars. And he created a garden of Eden, about a hundred by a hundred meters, planted with bushes, vegetables and flowers.
No one took offense at the buildings and their inhabitants. But at the end of the 1960s, there were plans to build for for the upcoming Olympic Games on these grounds where Timofei's church and house stood. Protests hailed from Munich's residents. Lord Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel and Willi Daume, President of the National Olympic Committee for Germany, then found that Father Timofei could not be driven away and the plans were changed. The Olympic games made room for Father Timofei.
At the almost Biblical age of 107 years, Father Timofei had to move to a nursing home where he died at the age of 110.
Ride 82 - August 19, 2018
The Big Ten Bunker Tour
The Big Ten Bunker Tour
Today we were able to track down ten different hochbunkers on a loop through Munich's center and farther east. It was a great day for a city ride, a quiet Sunday and good weather, actually a bit too warm as it approached noon.
The complete description of the ride with pictures is on my blog. I have again restructured my website a bit and will include the story of the rides on my blog, the single picture with my bike, documenting the ride, will be here.
I'm getting pretty complicated!
The complete description of the ride with pictures is on my blog. I have again restructured my website a bit and will include the story of the rides on my blog, the single picture with my bike, documenting the ride, will be here.
I'm getting pretty complicated!
Ride 83 - August 22, 2018
The Last One
The Last One
I was all set for our ride 15 km to the west of Munich, to our second-to-last hochbunker. I cast one more look at the website description of the structure to make sure I would find it, when I noticed the small print. It was demolished in 2013. Glad I noticed that in time. So now it was to be the ride to the last hochbunker. This ride took us through the city to the east of Munich, a ride I would have normally saved for a Sunday when there is less traffic. Nevertheless, it was a good ride. The hochbunker is inhabited and surrounded by a very thick hedge, the grounds were well cared for.
The ride was 30km.
The ride was 30km.
Ride 84 - August 23, 2018
The Invitation
The Invitation
That's Nisrin. For our birthdays, Janos and I got an invitation from the youngest granddaughter, Nisrin, to eat ice cream together. Today we all had time and it was ice cream weather, so we cycled over to the place selling the best ice cream and ate our ice cream cones sitting on a nearby bench. I had one scoop of lemon meringue and one of blueberry cheescake. Too good!
Rode 15km.
Rode 15km.
Ride 85 - August 26, 2018
The Alpe-Adria Tour - Day 1
We're on our way to the Adriatic coast on the Mediterranean. Starting at our front door. Here our first mini-adventure - trees across the path. We were very happy when a group of cyclists came by and helped us lift the heavy fully-loaded e-bikes over the trunks!
We're on our way to the Adriatic coast on the Mediterranean. Starting at our front door. Here our first mini-adventure - trees across the path. We were very happy when a group of cyclists came by and helped us lift the heavy fully-loaded e-bikes over the trunks!
Ride 86 - August 27, 2018
Alpe-Adria Tour - Day 2
Good weather, obviously! And we will have mountain views as well as climbs until we are almost at the end of our tour.
Good weather, obviously! And we will have mountain views as well as climbs until we are almost at the end of our tour.
Ride 87 - August 28, 2018
Alpe-Adria Tour - Day 3
We are now getting close to Salzburg, the official beginning of the signposted Alpe-Adria tour. The route from Munich to Salzburg was also lovely, though, and I love setting out from the front door, no fuss with cars or trains.
We are now getting close to Salzburg, the official beginning of the signposted Alpe-Adria tour. The route from Munich to Salzburg was also lovely, though, and I love setting out from the front door, no fuss with cars or trains.
Ride 88 - August 29, 2018
Alpe-Adria Tour - Day 4
After we leave Salzburg, we ride on a flat, gravel path along the Salzach River.
After we leave Salzburg, we ride on a flat, gravel path along the Salzach River.
Ride 89 - August 30, 2018
Alpe-Adria Tour - Day 5
Before it started to rain! After about 8km it poured and after 18 km we found a room. More rain predicted for tomorrow.
Before it started to rain! After about 8km it poured and after 18 km we found a room. More rain predicted for tomorrow.
Ride 90 - August 31, 2018
Alpe-Adria Tour - Day 6
It was drizzling when we left but we reached our destination for the day without getting wet. In spite of the grey sky and clouds, the scenery was stunning.
It was drizzling when we left but we reached our destination for the day without getting wet. In spite of the grey sky and clouds, the scenery was stunning.
That was it for August- 17 days on my bike, 10 days left to reach my goal.