Vienna Bike Rides

The weather turned on us by the time we got to Vienna, so the bicycle rides represented in this post consist of:

1. Two short rides on our CityBike rentals, split by at least an hour while we watched the bikes get soaked in a hammering downpour while we had cakes and coffee in a café.
2. A 30 second rental half an hour after we turned the first pair of bikes in, just to verify that we could rent another bike the same day and return it within an hour at no cost.
3. A ride we borrowed from UC Davis Professor Mont Hubbard, who visited Vienna earlier this summer and took a long ride into the country at our suggestion.
4. A drive by visit to the Bike Kuche (Kitchen) located in Vienna.

A Mozart and a Mozart-ess selling tickets to the opera.

The sky was threatening when we first decided to rent from CityBike at the famous Stadtopern that is a must-visit for tourists. In the summertime, the regular theater company leaves Vienna for two months to mix some light touring with holiday for the actors. While they leave the opera house vacant, the area around it suddenly populates with clipboard-carrying costumed Mozarts and princesses selling tickets to an attractive alternative. There are nightly shows that are basically a sampler platter of highbrow stuff well suited to a peasant like me: a few arias, some opera bits, orchestra pieces, and classic Viennese comedy sketches. You can even get standing places you claim by looping a scarf over your section of railing. These are quite cheap, and let you unobtrusively tiptoe away if you would rather go find a loud punk band in a cheap dive bar.

Anyway, as described by Emily in the Vienna Bike Rental post, the system is not hard once you fumble through the initial registration. Unfortunately for us, that registration process consumed half an hour that we could have used to ride bikes. Our first goal was to play with the counter-flow bike lanes that are all over the one-way streets in the city center. They were a breeze to use, and allowed us to take short cuts not available to cars. Without fail, drivers respected our right to ride against the flow, raising our comfort level. The core of Vienna has a messy maze of narrow streets, many of them one-way and most of them clogged with cars parked half on the sidewalks and half on the streets. The ability of a cyclist to cut directly through this area riding against the flow of traffic on one-way streets makes biking the most attractive option for getting around the city center.

Bicyclists are allowed to ride counter-flow on most one-way streets.

Hiding from the rain in a cafe.

Not five minutes into our rental, a cloudburst began soaking the streets and anyone out upon them. We ducked into a café we knew had wireless service and settled in at a window table to wait it out. That means 45 minutes of our first (free) hour was spent watching our poor bicycles sitting in the rain two feet away.

Once it cleared up, we used our handy bandanna to dry the seats and wandered aimlessly around the city core for a while. Eventually we dismounted at the big pedestrian zone, and walked the bikes to the plaza in front of St. Stefan’s. It took a while to find the CityBike kiosk, though, because it is off a rear corner of the cathedral, partially obscured by a hedge. Finessing the bikes into the locking mechanisms consumed more time. With experience that will come more easily. But we can say that running at it full speed and using a hard slam don’t work as well as a gentle nudge at the correct angle.

The CityBike kiosk at Stephansdom.

We immediately tried to rent bikes again, but were blocked out of the system because we had just used a free hour. This feature makes it impossible to string multiple free hours together for a longer rental at no cost. That’s understandable, since the purpose of this system is to eliminate short vehicle trips and provide access for visitors. It does that beautifully, as we were able to use the system again half an hour later and pull a bike out of the Mozart-rich kiosk next to the Opera House.

Let’s contrast this bicycle access to our experience driving into Vienna with our car. I know the city fairly well, and thought I would be tricky and navigate to the neighborhood inside the outer ring and northwest of St. Stefan’s cathedral. Unfortunately, when I crossed the Danube on the way in from Georg’s I took a bridge too far (slap me). This put me outside the outer ring, and I compounded my error by turning away from the city center when I thought I was already inside it. After half a mile under heavy tail-gating pressure to get off the street, we came upon an underground parking garage. We found a space, and surfaced at the top of the stairs completely disoriented under a cloudy sky. We did walk off in approximately the right direction, but only got to the city core after help from a local, a long walk, and a streetcar ride.

View of the Danube from an upstairs window at Uferhaus.

The last bike rental I’ll discuss here we have second-hand from UC Davis Professor Mont Hubbard, who attended a conference in Vienna early this summer. I had suggested to Mont that he ride out to Uferhaus, a restaurant that sits directly on the banks of the Danube about 20 miles downstream from Vienna. It is owned by Georg Humer, a friend since 1973 who did an exchange in my home town a few years after I went to live in Upper Austria with AFS. I got the Sound of Music and Georg got a blistering wasteland in the California desert. His website is at www.uferhaus.at

There is a 13 mile long island in the Danube that extends the whole distance of metropolitan Vienna. Mont took his private all-day rental bike from his hotel out to that island, and rode downstream all the way to the southeastern tip. Then he crossed to the north side of the Danube, but there encountered a gate across the bike path. (Georg later surmised that the path had been closed due to recent flooding.) He was pondering what to do when another cyclist appeared who was attempting the same route. In a fine example of post cold-war cooperation, the Russian cyclist left his bike and climbed the fence. Mont handed the bikes across then climbed over himself.

Next Mont rode onto an abandoned rail line atop a levee that has been converted to a riding and hiking trail through a national park along the river. Fifteen miles later he was sitting on the patio at Uferhaus chatting with Georg. At the end of a great long meal, Georg loaded Mont and his bike into his van and delivered them back to the hotel in Vienna. Mont said it was the best experience of his week-long trip.

Mont was the third Davis resident I have sent out to Uferhaus on bicycles in the past few years. This is something we can easily do with the more adventurous clients when (not if) Vienna is included on the tours. The return trip to Vienna does not need to rely on Georg's good will, either. You can take the train, assuming the post-meal doldrums have one disinclined to ride back the 20 miles. There is a ferry that crosses the river from Georg's restaurant to the village on the other side of the Danube, where a short ride gets one to the train station and a quick trip back to Vienna. This bike path system Mont used extends on both sides of the Danube the full length of Austria, from Germany to Slovakia.

The entrance to Vienna's Bike Kitchen.

Because of the constant rain that set in after our first day, our final bicycle related activity was not by bike. On our way back west towards Switzerland we stopped by the Bike Kitchen near the museum quarter in Vienna. This radical, pro tolerance, feminist cooperative/repair shop/café is in an unremarkable location that seemed pretty obscure. Then we noticed that all the half-basement windows in one building on the street in question were plastered with stickers and slogans. They were closed, but the bike rack out front had a bunch of home-welded creations that would be at home in Peter Wagner’s collection in Davis. See Peter's pictures for examples. We’ll come back another day for a discussion with these folks.

In all, I was very surprised at the advances in the bikeway system in Vienna, and the different bike rental options. The CityBike system is wonderful for the casual tourist cyclist, and there are several longer term rental options. CityBike can be zero cost if all you do is take short rides. The bikeway system is wonderful, and drivers show a high level of respect for cyclists. This is a city to visit and ride in.

Vienna Bike Rental System

CityBikes lined up near the Vienna Opera House.

On our last day in Vienna, we got up early and went into the city to try out the CityBike rental system. It was early enough that we could park the car on the street in the Altstadt, and parking was free for the weekend.

The CityBike system runs out of a series of kiosks around Vienna. There are over 50 within the city. You can pick up a map at the tourist office that shows the locations of the various kiosks, or you can download an iPhone app that will show you the locations along with the availability of bicycles and parking spaces at each one.

Dad taking the first stab at registering.

We walked to the kiosk near the Vienna Opera house, conveniently located next to an entrance/exit to the subway system, and a big parking garage. There was a machine there, and about 20 posts to park bikes at. There were 5 or 6 bikes there when we arrived.

The machine let us choose a language (German, English, French, or Spanish), and had a button to look at a map of the kiosks. We then selected our method of payment--credit card, Austrian bank card, or Tourist Card. With a credit or bank card, you can only check out one bicycle at a time per card. You can purchase a Tourist Card at the Tourist Office that allows you to take two bikes out of the system. Having the machine work in English was nice, but the instructions on the card reader remained in German, and we struggled to understand what it was asking at times.

Struggling with the machine.

Dad put his credit card into the machine, and it prompted us to register because we were new users. The touch-screen was rather difficult to use, and Dad gave up after a few minutes because his fingers hurt. The screen liked me better, so I gave it a shot. It timed us out once because we were trying to take too many pictures, and then I messed up and had to start over, but we eventually got Dad registered. You create a password when you sign up that you use to access the system later.

Once we got through the registration process, it gave us the option to start renting bikes. We were shown a diagram of which of the numbered posts at the kiosk had bikes available to rent and we could select one. We looked over the bikes that were there and made our selection, and the computer freed that bike from its post and we could pull it out.

We then repeated the process on my card to create an account for me, and checked out a second bike. All of the bikes were equipped with baskets, but the baskets were plastered with flapping advertisements that screamed "I'm a tourist, and this is a rental!" They also had mechanisms to lock the front wheel, but had no lights.

Just as we got on our bikes and started to ride, the sky opened up and it began pouring rain. We ducked into a cafe to hide, and watched our newly rented bikes get wet through the window while we had coffee and wrote postcards home. When it started to let up, we got back on the bikes and rode through the old city for a bit. Without consulting the map, we guessed that there would probably be another kiosk near St. Stephan's cathedral (there is one near just about every major landmark in the city, along with many other locations) so we set off for the church. We had to walk our bikes when we got close, because the plaza was thick with pedestrians.

When we found the second kiosk, it was simple to turn the bikes in. You just have to slide a bar on the frame into a slot on a free kiosk post, and then a light turns green and you're done. Well, it's simple unless you're us, I suppose. It took us several tries to get the bar all the way into the slot, and was a rather finicky process. Finesse is required over force, and a little patience, but it would be frustrating if you watched the bus you wanted to be on drive away as you were still struggling to turn the bike in.

If you stop for coffee or lunch and there isn't a kiosk nearby, you can lock your bike's wheel so it's not easily portable. You rotate the front wheel 90 degrees, turn a key in its slot near the front wheel, and push the metal flap down so it fits around an arm of the fork on the front wheel. Then remove the key, and the bike is locked. It will only go in circles, unless the front of the rather heavy bike is carried. To unlock it, you simply put the key back in and turn it, and the flap pops back up.

Once you're registered, checking out bikes is fast and easy. You just insert the card you registered with, type in your password, and select a bike.

The system is designed to encourage short rentals, and discourage people from checking out a bike all day long. When you pull a bike out of a kiosk, the first hour is free. That means if you ride from St. Stephan's to Schoenbrunn Palace, which is less than an hour, and turn the bike back in to the kiosk at Schoenbrunn when you get there, you don't pay. Then you can tour the palace for as long as you like, and when you come out check out another bike. You then start another free hour of riding time, and so on. If you keep the bike out for more than an hour, the price rises steeply. Two hours is 1 Euro for each commenced hour. Three hours is 2 Euros for each commenced hour. So in one hour, your rental fee jumps from 2 Euros to 6. 4 to 120 hours is 4 Euros for each commenced hour, and beyond that you pay a flat rate of 600 Euros--the same price charged for a lost bicycle.

We did find out that the system thwarts people trying to 'hopscotch' bikes across the city by just checking in and out at each kiosk along the way so they always stay under the one hour mark. At St. Stephan's when we tried to check out another set of bikes just to see how the system worked once we were registered, we encountered a ten-minute waiting period before our rental time would reset to 0.

The bikes appeared to be well maintained, for the most part. When we looked at the bikes on Friday, one of the cycles in the kiosk had a flat tire. By the time we came back the next morning, it had been either taken for repair, or fixed on the spot.

Vienna's CityBike system, similar to Munich's DeutscheBahn system that we explored earlier, was an absolutely wonderful system for tourists exploring the city or residents commuting across town. It's not a viable option for larger tour groups, though, because the odds of finding 20 bikes at a single kiosk are low and the time involved in registering 20 separate credit cards would make the whole endeavor a nightmare. But for a casual user taking short trips, it's absolutely free.

Munich Bike Rental Systems

There are several good options for renting bikes in Munich. We explored three during this visit. All have some advantages and disadvantages, depending on the duration of a visit in Munich or the circumstances around your bike ride. 

Bernhard releasing a bike on the Call a Bike system.

1. Call a Bike: The government system, run by the Deutsche Bahn (DB) railway operator would be the best choice for a long stay. An account is set up by cell phone, with a credit card for security and billing. Our friend Bernhard already had an account that we used for our ride, so we’re still unclear on the exact rates and process of setting up an account. More information on that when we have it. Once the account is set up, the user only has to find an available bike on the street, and call the number on the decal on the bike to activate that bike to the specific account. The light on the bike’s controller box then goes from green (available) to red (rented), the lock is freed, and off you go. The bike is yours for as long as you wish. If you want to make a short stop, maybe to pick up bread on the way home, you can just keep the rental active. Park and lock the bike, its control box light will stay red, and it will be there for you when you exit the bakery. If you want to go to a movie and then maybe walk home, you just abandon the bike at any intersection in Munich, call the DB system on your cell phone, your rental charges stop, and the bike’s light goes back to green.

A red DB Call a Bike chained to a pole at an intersection near the Hauptbahnhof in Munich.

Advantages:

-This is a 24-hour system and the bikes are just about everywhere in the city center, parks, and residential areas we rode through. You don’t have to go to a central rental station or one of the scattered kiosks other systems use. But not finding one close by on a rainy evening would not be good. No guarantees.
-The automated phone system seems to be continuously monitored with actual people available if you need help. We didn’t test their English capabilities, but I would be surprised in modern Germany if there wasn’t at least some basic foreign language ability.
-The bikes were in good condition, with 5 speeds and good brakes. They are step-through unisex bikes, so men in kilts will be just fine.
-If something goes wrong with the bike you can just call it in, leave it, and find another. 

Disadvantages:

-Without specified kiosk or office locations, finding a bike when you need one can be a challenge.
-I also found the bulk of the controller box at the rear of the pedals to require me to splay my heels when riding. A bit awkward, but I adjusted.
-The seat on my bike was also tipped forward too far for comfort, but without terminating that rental and finding another bike, I just had to make do.
-There is just one type of bike available, all with a bungee-cord equipped rack behind the seat. No helmets or baskets are available.
-This system also requires a cell phone that works in Germany, which every casual tourist may not have. I imagine some carriers will find a way to stack phone charges on top of the bike rental fees.
-So this system works best for long-term visits. It would not be our choice for even a small tour group, and the odds of finding 20 bikes available at a single intersection are low. 

Rental Rates: Coming soon, when we get them. 

Radius' rental shop inside the Hauptbahnhof in Munich.

2. Radius: This private company has a single station, but it is well located near the northwest corner of the main train station (Hauptbahnhof) in the city center. The process is familiar to anyone who has ever rented a car. Step up, make your selection between city bike or mountain bike, men’s or women’s, use a credit card for a deposit, set the seat height, and go. Locks, baskets, and helmets are available.

Advantages:

-The personal touch in fluent English at the station is nice, especially for casual tourists without cell phones or functional German. Emily’s seat was adjusted to her height.
-The bikes were fairly new and in good condition.
-This is a good choice for casual tourists or longer visitor without cell phones.
-The location provides for an easy transition from train to bike and back again. 

Disadvantages:

-Unless delivery arrangements are made and paid for, these bikes can only be rented at the main train station and must be returned there.
-Like those available from most private operators in the city, the bikes have “This is a tourist – Rent a bike like this at …” signs on them. 

Rental fees:

The standard rates are 15 Euros for a combined morning and afternoon, and 17 Euros for 24 hours. A small tour group would be given 2 Euros per bike off these rates, but no delivery is possible. A 3 ½ hour guided tour of Munich would be 150 Euros for a group. 

Our MW-Touristik bikes, free of 'tourist' labels.

3. MW-Touristik: This is also a private company, that operates out of a tourist information office and internet café very near the Isartor gate in the old city wall. That makes it a bit closer to the Marienplatz/Viktualienmarkt/Hofbrauhaus tourist attractions. Their rental process is similar to Radius’ with equivalent options for locks, baskets, and helmets. 

Advantages:

-The bikes are new, and free of advertising signs or banners.
-The rates are cheaper, especially for the 24 hour rental.
-The operator will deliver bikes for a group to a central location at no charge.
-There is also a personal touch, in fluent English. (The operator is an American resident of Munich.) 

Disadvantages:

-Like Radius, the bikes must normally be picked up and dropped off at just the one location. The office was a little difficult to find, instead of being prominent in a major train station. 

Rental Fees:

MW’s normal rates are 10 Euros for half a day, 15 Euros for a 24 hour day, and just 10 for a second day. They will discount those to our tour, dropping to 12 Euros for a full 24 hour day. This gives our clients the bikes long enough to enjoy Munich on their own before or after our organized tours. A 3 hour group tour from MW would be 55 Euros. That is low enough that we could pay for two guides and split our group. That makes getting everyone across intersections much easier. (Side note: This explains why at times we saw groups of people zooming past us only to stop abruptly and form a big clot completely blocking the bike ways, with everyone peering over their shoulders. Presumably waiting for the second half of their group to clear an intersection on the next green light.)

This should be the choice for our group tours. We can get the bikes delivered to a location near the hotel, keep them for an entire day, and get a history tour, all for less than 20 Euros per client. 

Locations and contact information:

Deutsche Bahn (DB):

No stations, only telephone access by calling the number found on the bike.

Radius:

At Gleis (Platform) 3 at the northwest corner of the central train station (Hauptbahnhof).
Arnulfstrasse 3, 80335 Munchen
Phone: (0)89-59 61 13
Email: bikes@radiustours.com

MW-Touristik:

Thomas-Wimmer-Ring 1, 80539 Munchen - near the Isartor, east of Marienplatz.
Phone: (0)89-24 23 17 67.
Email: tours@munichwalktours.de
Web: www.munichwalktours.de

Munich Second Bike Ride

On Sunday Emily and I went back into Munich to rent bikes from the MW Touristik service near the Isartor. The bikes were new and well-maintained, and didn’t have advertisements for the rental company hanging off them. This lack of “tourist identifier” was nice. My only mistake was opting for a men’s bike, which made the 2,000 mounts and dismounts I made to check maps or take pictures tiresome.

We had marked a Munich Bikeway map we bought Saturday with red dots on streets that represented all the different bike lane and bike path configurations in their system. The Munich planners identify three distinct types of bicycle infrastructure within their system. Bike lanes are painted on the street. Bike paths are designated bicycle space along sidewalks. Bike roads are similar to what we would call greenbelts or bike paths, and are usually solely for bikes. Variations on those are shown below.

-Priority bike routes on all kinds of street, plaza, or green space:

Sign indicating bicycle routes to various locations in Munich.

-One-way bike lanes on both sides of the street.

-One way bike paths off the street on marked space on the sidewalk.

-One way bike paths off the street on space shared with pedestrians.

-Two way bike roads (which we would call paths) off the street on bike-only space.
-Two way bike roads through green belts and parks.
-Two way bike roads (usually quite wide) on space shared with pedestrians through greenbelts and parks.
-One way bike lanes on one way streets.
-Two way bike lanes on one way streets.

And many more.

Once we had marked a few representative possibilities, we plotted out a route near the City Center so we could ride a nice loop in a reasonable amount of time.

A bike tunnel on a shared bicycle/pedestrian road.

Our first destination was a neighborhood on the east side of the Isar River. Then we doubled back to the greenbelt on the east side of the river, which we rode to the north. At times it is narrow, just a two-way bike and pedestrian path between a street paralleling the river and the steep forested banks leading down to the water. But much of it is wide enough that we could see neither the river nor any sign of the urban development to the east. Several times we rode through wide swales with sunny grass-covered hillsides scattered with picnickers and sunbathers. Wide tunnels allowed us to continue unimpeded where a few major streets cross the greenbelt and the river.

At one point I saw an adult cyclist wearing a helmet, and commented that I had not noticed any helmets until that point. We began counting, and maybe half an hour later had seen about 20 helmets on adults (who we assumed wore them by choice). We had passed maybe ten times that many cyclists in this time. So clearly there is no helmet law here, and our non-scientific survey suggests most people believe riding without one is safe. However, our friend Bernhard insists the real need is a motorcycle-like helmet that will protect against being struck by a car, which he feels is the greatest risk in the system. Others we talked to felt the biggest risk comes from reckless cyclists, and that cars are, on the whole, very mindful of the bikes on the road.

Crossing the Isar at the mill.

We rode several miles north in this pastoral paradise, then crossed the river at the site of a large mill. The bike and pedestrian bridge offered views of the gravel island in the middle of the river, again crowded with residents enjoying the warm summer weekend day. This stretch of green space extends many miles farther to the north, and eventually out of the city and into the countryside. This east side greenbelt is much less crowded and "developed" than the bigger spaces of the Englischer Garten to the west of the river. What an incredible gift to the residents it is.

Continuing across the river at the mill site, we entered the northern portion of the Englischer Garten itself. It is marked by thick forest interspersed with vast meadows, with occasional snack stands or larger buildings. The latter are primarily beer gardens, as you might imagine in Bavaria.

Side note: Did you know the first food purity standards in the world come out of Bavaria, over 400 years ago? By decree beer may contain only four ingredients – barley, hops, yeast, and water. Priorities.

Bicycles parked along fences at a biergarten.

Even without seeing the buildings or hearing the oompah music, the beer gardens can be identified from a distance by the clots of bicycles around the entrances. Most of the primary pathways through the park are bordered by simple iron bar fences. Bikes were packed two and three deep along these fences on both sides of the pathways and randomly pushed into the bushes for a hundred feet or more from the entryways. At the Hirschauer beer garden entryway parked bikes narrowed the space leading through the gateway and far into the garden itself to less than half its width.

Riding through the east side greenbelt had been a fairly high-speed pedal, but we had to take care when we were passing pedestrians and oncoming bicyclists. By contrast, riding in the park on this crowded afternoon involved steady weaving through pedestrians walking in all directions and other cyclists threading their way through the mobs.

Once free of the park, we rode on narrow but well-marked two-way bike paths between busy streets and the river. This was at times stressful as we encountered cyclists coming the other direction two abreast, or were passed by faster cyclists heading our direction. I’m sure we were guilty of moving violations at times, but no citations were issued.

As we returned the bikes, our reflections on the ride were revealing. Three impressions come to the fore:

1. We felt that we were respected as users of the street or park space we rode on, and forgiven minor booboos.

2. The constant weaving of the narrow bike lanes and paths, transitions from dedicated to shared space, switching from the street to the sidewalks, and the constant presence of pedestrians requires constant attention.

3. Munich has a problem with parked bikes clotting up the sidewalk and landscaping spaces from the main train station to Marienplatz to the far reaches of the Englischer Garten. This is a wonderful problem to have, of course, as it indicates the success of efforts to get people out of cars and on two wheels. The backlash against parked bike clutter is building, however, so it is time to develop solutions. More on this topic in our posts about meetings with city staff.

All in all, these rides gave us a wonderful glimpse into a successful and multi-faceted bikeway system. It was a joy to cycle around the town even as relative strangers unfamiliar with all the rules.

Munich First Bike Ride

Checking out bikes for our ride Saturday morning.

We took two nice bike rides around central Munich, the Isar River parkway, and the Englischer Garten. The first was Saturday, after a day where Emily and I adjusted to the time change by going into Munich for a bit on the train and then relaxing with the Hausmaningers.

Bernhard in his lederhosen.

Bernhard wanted to join us for a morning ride, and then meet up with Tanja and the kids at lunchtime. Because Emily had mentioned a dirndl (beer garden waitress outfit) purchase, Bernhard dressed in his traditional lederhosen outfit, along with the pink checked shirt that marks him as a Salzburger. It was perfect for the pictures we took at all stages of the bicycle renting process. We rented a bike for Emily at the Radius service inside the main train station. Then on the sidewalk out front Bernhard checked out two more bikes with his Call a Bike program account. More on all that in the next post about cycling rental systems.

Once mounted up, we set out for a mid-morning coffee stop. Priorities. Bernhard led us north out of the train station to Königsplatz, a recently greened up public space framed by beautiful monuments and buildings. Then in very light traffic, we ambled eastward across the top of the old city to Ludwigstrasse, then north gain to CADU—a café near the University. In all of this, we really encountered only one intransigent driver, who had parked his BMW directly in the bike lane and left the car empty. This forced us out into traffic on a pretty busy street. His purpose was to make a quick purchase. At a Starbucks.

Locking up our bikes on the street.

We went on to the student-operated CADU and parked out front on the street. We took up less room than half a car, locking all three bikes together with the Radius lock. Our waitress was surly, but it was early for a (maybe hungover) university girl. Emily and I shared a nice piece of tiramisu-like cake. Bernhard, driven to extremes by his traditional dress, had the traditional Münchner weisswurst lunch. At ten in the morning.

Refueled, we mounted up again and headed off to the wilds of the Englischer Garten. At this point we traded the hardscape streets that were marked into highly structured spaces for pedestrians, automobiles, and bicycles for the wide, graveled bike and pedestrian paths that wander through the pastoral meadows and woods. This was the third warm, sunny day we had brought with us from California, and the park was alive with happy tourists and locals. Hundreds of acres of quiet, green refuge with streams running through it.

Father and Daughter, riding in the Englischer Garten.

As we wandered out of the south end of the park and on east to the Isar River, we transitioned from green lawns to sand and gravel beaches hosting a growing crowd of mid-day sunbathers and middle-aged bum-bathers. Back on the streets, we stopped near the Isar Gate, a remnant of the old city wall. We chatted with an American who operates another private bike tour and rental operation there. Even more options to rent or get guided tours. Finally, we “abandoned” the Call a Bikes on a street corner, per the instructions. More on that in a later post.

Through all of this Bernhard was an incredible resource and a good sport as he had to dismount about 700 times to pose in the Lederhosen beside the bike, straddling the bike, parking the bike, phoning in the code for the bike, locking the bike, etc. Thank you Bernhard for your support of our project.

Back at the train station we found Tanja and company, and retired to the Hofbräuhaus for an indifferent lunch in deafening surroundings. But still, quiet as a museum compared to the raucous roar at midnight. After shopping for ingredients in the Viktualienmarkt, we all headed back to Petershausen on the train, for dinner.

On the train back to Petershausen.