A Bavar-y good time in Bavaria: Biking, Bathing, and Beers
For our last adventure in Europe before heading back to the USA, we spent about 3 weeks in Germany. The lifestyle in Germany seemed really familiar compared to what we're used to. Adam said that out of all the places he's visited in Europe, the UK and Germany were really the only two places he could imagine living easily and comfortably. Although...we should mention that restaurants/stores here were also closed often due to families being on summer holiday. So, not as orderly as we expected coming from Italy.
Reminiscing
The first thing we did in Germany was visit the town where Clare spent a lot of time as a little girl. She lived in Sindelfingen from Kindergarten to 2nd grade while her dad was in the military. And, she flew back several more years after moving away to visit friends and attend a Lutheran summer camp. Clare was Adam's tour guide here since she speaks German and wanted to show him her favorite memories. It was funny though because Clare's memories were from being 6 years old. So, she was showing him her favorite playgrounds, introducing him to her favorite kind of German apple juice drink, and having him eat spaghetti shaped ice cream at her favorite ice cream shop. "The best parts of Germany as seen from the perspective of a six year old" tour was still super fun.
We then went to Munich to be more central. While there, we met up with Clare's former baby sitter at a biergarten. Back when Clare was in first grade, her baby sitter was in high school. It is so amazing to still be able to reconnect after so many years.
A Few of Our Favorite Things
We loved that every German town has at least one freibad/schwimbad/hallenbad/therma. These are all words for different versions of an area with different swimming pools (indoor and outdoor), water slides, diving boards, saunas, steam rooms, and restaurants w/ schnitzel and french fries and ice cream. It's a huge cultural thing for kids and families and adults to go to these pool/sauna areas frequently. We went to four different ones while in Germany!
.jpg)
We also loved the aforementioned ice cream in the form of spaghetti (Spaghetti Eis) that you can find all over Germany. It's vanilla ice cream pressed through a noodle press to make it look like noodles. Then, it is topped with strawberry sauce to appear like tomato sauce and sprinkled with white chocolate shavings to look like parmesan cheese. They might seem a little bit like novelties, but they actually taste really good!
Adam really took to the drink "Radler" which is available in every Biergarten and restaurant across Germany. It is not quite the same as Radlers you find in liquor stores in the states...it is simply half a glass of lemon lime soda (like sprite) mixed with half a glass of house light beer. It's particularly refreshing in the summer time and just makes the beer taste sweeter and lighter than normal. It was our go-to drink the whole time we were there. Fun fact: Germany protects most species of bees so they, including wasps, are EVERYWHERE. Drinks like Radlers have to be covered with coasters so bees don't get in and drown in them.
Finally, we love how many people ride bikes. It is uncommon for a developed country to have cities with more bikes than cars. Germany is one of the most cycle friendly countries in the world. There are bike paths everywhere including cross country from town to town and city to city. Along major roads there will be a separate bike road called a "long distance cycle way". But also through countryside and especially along rivers, there are bike baths everywhere. For this reason, we came to Germany with the express goal to do a long bike trip together. It just made us laugh so much that many bike paths even have city, mile marker signs, and hotel/restaurant advertisements, just like our highways.
Bike Trip
We rented bikes from the main train station in Munich for 9 days. Adam got a regular sport bike and Clare got an E-bike! She was really excited to be able to pedal along at Adam's speed without breaking too much of a sweat. And he was really happy to be able to go at a brisk pace without leaving Clare behind.
Itinerary
We ended up biking along the Isar river stopping at Freising, Moosburg, and Landshut. Then, we biked north west through the countryside stopping at Mainburg, Elsendorf, Ingolstadt, and Vohburg. Then, we biked along the Danube river stopping at Weltenburg, Kelheim, Bad Abach, and finally Regensburg. Italic cities are places we actually spent the night. It was around 180 miles total. Then from Regensburg, we took the train back to Munich with our bikes on board.
We decided this route really last minute each day because we kept expecting rain. The forecast always forecasted a lot of rain but then each day ended up being dry and beautiful. So every night we decided to wait 'til the morning to know which direction we would bike in next or if we would just wait out the so-called rain in our current town.
Housing
We never knew where we were going to stay until we got to a city and asked around for guest houses. That was a really fun way to be more spontaneous and relaxed. We only had trouble one night when we were trying to find a place on a Sunday in Mainburg where everything was closed. So, we biked even farther to a guesthouse that was open in Elsendorf. Adam really liked how every town had these guesthouses that are restaurants/pubs below and rooms available for rent above. Seemed very old/western. And they were pretty affordable too!
Only one place we stayed along the way was pretty bad because there were dozens of spiders in the room. Adam went around one by one killing them all for Clare.
Food
A couple guest houses had free breakfast in the morning but all of them certainly had delicious dinners available. Otherwise, we would stop by an Aldi to get pastries and yogurt or just find bakeries along the way. We would often have snacks in our backpacks during the day along the road and along the river. Ice cream would be a common small town stop as well. Oh, and Adam loved picking up some apples and plums from trees along the bike path. True foraging.
Terrain
The paths along the river were mostly packed gravel. Along the major roads, there were paved bike roads. But through the countryside or through small towns, you just biked on the really unpopulated and empty streets. One time, google maps led us astray and we ended up on an old path that was not very maintained. Clare really did not love biking through overgrown weeds, bushes, and dodging fallen trees. She was really happy to find the true bike path again after that.
Scenery
The river scenery was really beautiful (both the Isar and Danube). We even waded in a few times. Adam went for a full swim mid-bike ride to cool off.
There are also forests all over Germany. So these foresty areas were gorgeous. The countryside was beautiful on foggy, brisk mornings.
City visits
Along the way, we went to the oldest brewery in the world in Freising called Weinstephan. Founded 1040.
We spent a full rest day in Landshut. We just loved the Bavarian architecture with different shaped rooftops, we took a tour of the castle on the hill, and we visited the church with the largest brick steeple in the world. They had a 15 minute organ concert which we also sat and listened to.
In Weltenburg, we spent time at the monastery beer garden and then took the ferry boat with our bikes in tow down the Danube through a gorge.
We played a round of mini-golf in Kelheim (Adam lost!) and had a Croatian meat feast while we were there to get extra protein after so much cycling.
Then, at the end, we spent an extra day in Regensburg just walking around parks and seeing the gothic cathedral.
Our train ride from Regensburg to Munich with our bikes went really smoothly. A bike train ticket was only $6 additional.
A visit with Cooking School Classmate's Family
After returning our bikes in Munich, we headed straight for Nuremberg. A classmate of Clare's from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in London (the German Lutheran Theology professor) lives there with his family (wife and twin 14 year old kids). He had invited us to stay with them for the weekend. Since his wife is Jewish, we got there just in time to share an evening Shabbat dinner with them. Their penthouse apartment near downtown was just beautiful! We stayed on a mattress in the study and had such a great time...even though Adam likes to snap pictures of Clare while she's still waking up.
On Saturday, we went for a tour around Nuremberg with the parents. It's so walkable! We toured the castle, saw the old city walls, and saw Albrecht Durer's house and art highlighted around the city. Then, on a spontaneous decision, we decided to go together to their favorite restaurant in the whole world - a 2 Michelin Star place that specializes in highlighting local vegetables. It was a crazy once-in-a-lifetime 3-hour experience with 10 courses that blew your mind, sometimes just one spoon full of something rather than a whole bowl. We really loved this experience and sharing it with a foodie who couldn't stop talking about and describing the food in such detail. After lunch, there was also a big BMX competition in town which we watched a bit. In the evening, we played games with the 14 year old kids and talked to them about all kinds of movies and tv shows. They were so sweet and wholesome.
On Sunday, we were invited to spend the day with the parents at their countryside house a 40 minute drive away in Thuisbrunn. We took a long walk/hike through the woods, prepared lunch and ate it in their yard by the creek. It was so lovely. Germany, especially small town Germany, really shuts down on Sundays. Even grocery stores are often closed so you buy eggs and milk in emergencies from a kind of refrigerated vending machine in town. The wife told us that she once got in trouble in the neighborhood because she mowed the lawn on a Sunday and was causing noise.
Final touring around
In our last couple of days, we rested and toured around Munich. We also made a quick visit to the Dachau concentration camp, which is really close to Munich. The tours and stories we heard there were incredibly sad, but there wasn't much left to see at the site itself. We both think the holocaust museum in Washington DC is a lot more impactful.
Finally, we walked around Olympia park and the English gardens and prepared for the flight home.
Flight home
In order to get a reasonably priced ticket from Germany to Atlanta, we actually had to book a round trip ticket from Munich to New York with a layover in Atlanta. So, essentially, we had a non-stop flight from Munich to Atlanta and just did not continue on to NY. This was so convoluted that we think their algorithm must have been pretty messed up. Our flight ended up being almost totally empty! Every person or couple got their own row! Even then, there were empty rows in the back of the plane. The stewardesses were very generous in giving out snacks and free alcohol to everyone since there were so few people. When you asked for one whiskey ginger, they basically gave you four servings! It was so luxurious. What a wonderful way to end the trip. We ended up cancelling the return part of the tickets from NY to Germany and even got some money back! What a crazy system!
Next up
We are now stateside! After spending a few days with Adam's parents and brother, we have driven up the east coast from Atlanta to New Hampshire to spend time with Clare's sister for a couple of months. We are going to the YMCA nearly every day, cooking good food, studying Spanish, practicing piano, attending a local Anglican church, country line dancing, etc. We are currently in fall leaf-peeping season. So, those colors should be really nice to see this week. Excited for more family time in our near future and more hobbies.
**Answer from above: hops!