Afternoon ride: on a cool and almost sunny day
Saturday April 29, 2017, 13 km - Total so far: 53 km
The temperatures were climbing and I thought it would be interesting to see what the Botanical Garden looked like after the snow we had yesterday. It couldn't have been too good for all the spring flowers which are now in bloom. There and back, about 13 km, is mostly on bicycle paths and my husband and I go there often.
A little bit from Wikipedia (copied and edited): The Botanical Garden was created in 1914 in the Munich outskirts at Nymphenburg and in 1966 it became affiliated with the Botanische Staatssammlung München and the Institute of Systematic Botany at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Today the garden cultivates about 14,000 species on approximately 18 hectares. Major areas include an alpine garden, arboretum, a collection of moor and steppe plants, rhododendrons and a rose garden. The garden also contains an extensive greenhouse complex, including rooms for bromeliads and Arecaceae, cactus and succulents, cycads, ferns, orchids, and Mexican plants. The orchid collection includes over 2700 species as well as hybrids.
We decided to support the local economy first thing. There is a very pleasant little restaurant at the Botanical Garden, aptly named Café Botanischer Garten. Some guests were sitting outside, we chose the warmer option. It wasn't that warm. We ordered the very most traditional Bavarian thing I could think of - Weisswurst, a white sausage always accompanied by a soft pretzel, sweet mustard and beer. That's traditional and that's the way you do it. Except my beer was alchohol-free and not so traditional. Beer at noon makes me sleepy and I wouldn't have been awake enough to take any more pictures.
The temperatures were climbing and I thought it would be interesting to see what the Botanical Garden looked like after the snow we had yesterday. It couldn't have been too good for all the spring flowers which are now in bloom. There and back, about 13 km, is mostly on bicycle paths and my husband and I go there often.
A little bit from Wikipedia (copied and edited): The Botanical Garden was created in 1914 in the Munich outskirts at Nymphenburg and in 1966 it became affiliated with the Botanische Staatssammlung München and the Institute of Systematic Botany at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Today the garden cultivates about 14,000 species on approximately 18 hectares. Major areas include an alpine garden, arboretum, a collection of moor and steppe plants, rhododendrons and a rose garden. The garden also contains an extensive greenhouse complex, including rooms for bromeliads and Arecaceae, cactus and succulents, cycads, ferns, orchids, and Mexican plants. The orchid collection includes over 2700 species as well as hybrids.
We decided to support the local economy first thing. There is a very pleasant little restaurant at the Botanical Garden, aptly named Café Botanischer Garten. Some guests were sitting outside, we chose the warmer option. It wasn't that warm. We ordered the very most traditional Bavarian thing I could think of - Weisswurst, a white sausage always accompanied by a soft pretzel, sweet mustard and beer. That's traditional and that's the way you do it. Except my beer was alchohol-free and not so traditional. Beer at noon makes me sleepy and I wouldn't have been awake enough to take any more pictures.
Weisswurst, pretzel, sweet mustard and a beer - it doesn't get much more Bavarian than that. According to tradition, you are supposed to eat weisswurst before noon, it's a weisswurstfrühstück, white sausage breakfast. Ah, beer for breakfast. That is to ensure that the sausages are fresh - a rather outdated tradition since there is ample refrigeration to even keep weisswurst fresh for a whole day. But traditions die hard.
As it was, even without a beer, I wasn't that trigger happy today. So just a few pictures to document the Botanical Garden and the ducks and geese, which were the highlight for me. I was happy to see the flowers were doing okay inspite of the snow and rain of the past days.
General view of the main building of Munich's botanical gardens.
Back to back - aren't they sweet.
I think this must be the male goose, out on patrol to protect his nesting female partner.
I was delighted to get a look at the eggs when the female got up to add a few more twigs to her nest.
The goose broods serenely on a mini-island in the pond, safe from curious and not always respectful visitors. I saw kids throwing stones - grrrr.
And that was ride number two for today and number six so far. One more to go and the weather report for tomorrow is good! Stay tuned!
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