Tuesday 5th September: Weather: 24°C in Bolzano to 20°C in Munich: Lovely Cool sunny day in Munich.
Munich: 15.3k walk: 4hrs 30 mins: 3.30pm to 8.00pm: 1 x 1hr 30 min stop at Beer Garden for dinner: Flat walk
Day Walk: 15.3k Circuit around the English Garden and back to the Viktualienmarkt near Marien Platz
Accommodation: Euro Youth Hotel Munich
Wave Surfing English Garten 10°C
Highlight was returning to Munich by train from Bolzano and walking a circuit of the English Garden before dropping in to our favourite place to eat in Munich - the Viktualienmarkt Beer Garden, where we dined on Pork Knuckle and cabbage salad with a beer - or two.
Awake at 6am for an early jug boiled cup of tea before showering, having breakfast of fruit and yoghurt and more packing. It’s so much cooler this time compared to two weeks ago. Our Train to Munich leaves at 10.34am, so no rush. I trot downstairs to pay Georgio for the two nights, even though we only stayed for one after a change in travel arrangements. It was worth the AUD $250 just to safely leave our suitcase there for two weeks while we went hiking in the Dolomites. A quick clean of the bedroom and we’re away.
Floating down stream English Garten
Swimming in 10°C and sunbathing
Viktualienmarkt beer garden
IAA mobility 2023 is in Munich
At 9am we wander down through the town, which is always very quiet early in the morning, buy some Italian Reading glasses at Ammon, then over to the train station to wait for the 10.34am train to Munich. It arrives a few minutes late, and everyone makes mad dash for a seat, as it seems no one paid the extra 10 euro pp to reserve one. The seats are arranged 6 to a small compartment, and a lady comes to join us. She coughs and coughs the whole trip and we hope it’s smoker's cough not covid. Other than that, the train trip was very pleasant and comfortable passing through Bressanone, Brenner, Innsbruck, Kufstein and arriving in Munich at 2.30pm.
Our Euro Youth Hotel is just 200 metres over the road and check in is after 2pm. We register and go to Room 406, a twin bedroom with a basin like four weeks ago. The shower is up the corridor. It’s very clean and suits us perfectly. A quick cup of tea first, and we’re soon out the door wanting to stretch our legs after a four hour train trip. Destination? The English Garten of course. We do a 13k circuit including 10 minutes watching them wave surf on the Eisbach in freezing water. The average water temperatures range from 10 °C during summer down to 8 °C or less in winter. Eisbach means "icy creek" or "ice brook" in English. Although the Eisbach River wave rarely freezes due to its strong currents, it can easily reach extremely low temperatures of around 1.1 °C. And still they surf!
https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/eisbach-the-mother-of-all-river-waves
We return via the Viktualienmarkt Beer Garden for dinner of a shared plate of Pork Knuckle and cabbage salad - with a beer or two. The long narrow tables are designed for sharing and a guy comes and sits down next to us and the immediately he chats in English. He’s brought his own dinner - as you can in this beer garden provided you buy the beer - and explains about the IAA 2023 convention in Munich. We had seen signs and tents in the Hofgarten on our way back from the English Garten, with hundreds of police milling around. This local explains that it is a famous International event on the future of mobility, and attracts a lot of antagonistic attention, presumable because mobility means energy consumption. Hence the police presence.
The dinner is really nice in the cool of the autumn evening, and very reasonable at 15 euro for the shared plate of pork and cabbage, and 5 euro for each beer. A cheap night out. Back through crowds at Marienplatz and home to our Hotel to start sorting our gear into bags, backpacks and a suitcase in readiness for the flight home on Thursday. Bed at 10.30pm.