The Ride of Silence, held on the third Wednesday in May, is an annual international bicycle ride to commemorate cyclists killed or injured while riding on public roads. Participants are encouraged to visit a ghost bike in their area and take their photo with it as a gesture of honoring the deceased person. In past years in Munich hundreds of cyclists took part, a moving experience. This year Janos and I rode alone.

The rules are simple:
1. Ride in silence
2. Remember and honor those who've been hit & killed while riding or seriously injured
3. Ride slowly and a relatively short distance - this is not a race
4. Wear a helmet & obey road laws for bicyclists

We cycled to a ghost bike in Munich to pay our tributes.

We moved from Görresstrasse in Munich to Gauting exactly one year ago. It was a big decision after living in the same apartment for 35 years, and it entailed a lot of work. Now after a year of life in the suburbs I can say, yes, it was a good idea. We like it here, the apartment is fine and the best part is that we can either walk or cycle from our door. We also enjoy that we no longer have to climb the three flights of stairs when we get home.

Still, sometimes I am homesick for Munich and our life there. Those were happy years and we had our favorite places that we visited regularly. I miss them, so on this first anniversary of our new home, I got on my bike and rode to Westpark in Munich, one of our favorite haunts before we had the woods at our back door.

Dipping even further into the past, I remembered that there is dogwood in Westpark, not a common tree here in Germany. Where I grew up in New Jersey, the woods were full of them and I knew they should be blooming now. I had my goal for the day.

I planned a route through many streets that I wasn't familiar with. It might not have been the shortest way to Westpark, but I love to discover new neighborhoods, small connecting pathways, unexpected parks only the size of a block and insider shortcuts.

The weather was perfect. Fortunately it was a weekday and the park wasn't crowded. The first spring blossoms were gone and it was too early for the rose garden to be in bloom, but I wasn't disappointed. The pink and white dogwoods were lovely.

It was a happy and satisfying ride. How nice it is to be able to ride into the past and back again and it's only 40 kilometers.

Not related to my ride, but gone home.

RIP Little Richard