Big Basin Bear Creek loop

I enjoy reading books on biking in the SF Bay Area and finding new routes to try. For the labor day weekend, I picked the 57 mile Big Basin loop found in one of the books because it's far enough from where I live to justify riding it on a holiday. It's also long enough but not too long to burn all my energy for partying afterwards! The ride started at the parking lot of a "hidden" small park (Wildwood Park) in Saratoga. It was empty at 8:30am. There was a long climb (~7 miles) immediately. We had no problem doing it since the legs were fresh. After reaching the familiar Skyline Blvd (most rides on the Peninsula end the climb on this road), we started descending into the beautiful Big Basin Redwood State Park. Obviously there were many huge Redwood trees. BBQ made by campers smelled great to us :( Once we turned from Big Basin Way (236) into Bear Creek, it was another long climb. Even though MapMyRide said it's Cat-2 (while the initial climb was Cat-1), we found this actually harder, maybe because our legs were no longer fresh. Finally it got easier when we reached the wineries (Byington, David Bruce) We were too happy and went the wrong way down 35 (Bear Creek Rd.) Fortunately we knew there were more climbs and realize our mistake early and turn back to get back on the other side of 35 (Skyline Blvd), which started very narrow, too narrow for 2-way car traffic! Another 7 mile we reached the submit at 3100 ft and from then on it's all downhill: back to the intersection of Big Basin Way and Skyline Blvd that we reached after the first climb and retraced that climb back to Saratoga. This route is definitely worthwhile to try because of the great scenery and also interesting climbs. 

Golden Gate Park <-> Ferry Building Loop + Detour

This was a family day in SF. I wanted to go to Yoshi's jazzfest in Oakland during that trip but was too lazy. Nevertheless, I figured out the bike route from Golden Gate Park to Ferry Building from Google Map and decided to give it a try. The main street that connects GGP to downtown was Page St, a straight and mostly downhill road with relatively light traffic (it's a Sunday though) Once in downtown it's all Market St. Even though it's a main street in downtown, we cyclists actually share the lane with cars that must make right turns so it's not that bad. When I arrived, there were many tourists at the Ferry Building. I seldom go there during weekends and I'd rather walk around or shop there during weekdays. For the return trip, I consulted Google again. (Google usually came up with routes that utilize bike lanes) This time the main street that connects downtown back to GGP were Fulton and Felt. And of course, I needed to go uphill, which was not that bad (Category-5 climb) even with my 3-gear folding bike. If you really followed the above link, you might notice the route actually went through GGP to 39th and Noriega. That's Polly Ann. (No, she's not my girlfriend even though it does have a 偷食 feel and I did get busted: ran into my friend there!) Too bad they didn't make soft serve ice cream today (they make the most 富豪雪糕-like soft serve in the States, IMO) so I settled for a sundae :P It's one of my few bike trips that I didn't plan much ahead and there were pleasant surprises.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Prologue

I visited Europe for the first time in 1998 and became a big fan since then. I enjoyed reading about the history of Western civilization. There are always so much to see. This year I'm visiting Germany for the 2nd time and Austria the 1st time. I ended up cycling for 170 miles, visited 6 museums and 1 music festival, all in 1 week!

Coincidentally, even before I boarded my flight, I already got some good biking vibes from the Exhibition about history of mountain biking at SFO. I have been riding Specialized bikes for a couple years and just realized its founder came from SJ State U. And the engineering culture of the silicon valley and the Bay Area in general was part of the stimulants of the whole mountain biking movement, making the Bay Area THE "capitol" of the sports. Just one more motivation for me to get more involved! Please scroll all the way down to start reading my journey from the first stop.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Epilogue 1

The very first question you might ask is: why did I pick Munich, Salzburg and Vienna for this trip? Well, I have a very specific time frame when I am free to go anywhere in the world. I decided to focus on two of my favorite activities: music and cycling. I found that most guided bike tours start on Sunday but I fly out on Monday so they are ruled out. The top music festival on my list is Bayreuth (at which Wagner's opera are performed) but it is almost impossible to get tickets (I read that the waiting list is 5+ years) So the "second best" would be Salzburg festival. I planned my trip around it basically. Since it is a small city, it is easier to find flights that fit my time frame and budget when I expanded my search to its nearby metropolis: Munich and Vienna. And I started reading up on attractions at these 2 cities, mainly museums and bike routes, from the Lonely Planet guides to Bavaria (which includes Munich) and Austria.

For biking, there are city tours for all 3 cities I went. In addition, the Danube river runs through Vienna and there is a trail (Donauradweg) along side the river. In fact, it is mentioned and highly praised by one of my favorite biking book about tours around the world.

What I could have done differently was taking the train from Salzburg to one of the city along Donauradweg, rent a bike there and then ride one-way to Vienna but there are several challenges:
1) I need to carry all luggages with me while I ride the bike. Even though I packed really light, it is still too heavy to ride long distance. Biking round trip between Vienna and Melk, I simply leave most of my clothes in the luggage stored at my Vienna hotel.
2) I need to find a bike store that do one-way rental, i.e., allows me to return in a different city (Vienna in my case) I figure it would be possible to arrange this but I don't feel too comfortable. Also, automatic rental system (bike share) is popular in various Austrian cities which was another possibility but I'm not sure how far I could go with those bikes.

Once I decided on where to stay each night, the rest is easy: simply go on the familiar Expedia.com to buy my air tickets and booked my hotels. One might think Expedia.com is US-centric but you would be surprised by the many choices available in major European cities (even non-major one like Melk) My criteria were: close to where major landmarks (plazas) are concentrated, and between US$60-100 per night. Turns out all hotels I stayed at also offered free Wifi, which is a big bonus! I unlocked my phone before the trip and originally planned to buy a prepaid SIM with data plan in Austria but unlike HK or US, phone companies are not everywhere in Austria. Three days into my trip I gave up looking. I ended up relying on Wifi to Facebook and Whatsapp with friends and family.

As far as train tickets are concerned, I asked on forum and I was told it's not necessary to buy in advance because trains run regularly and frequently between European cities. People who are familiar with me know how lazy I am and would be surprised that I booked the trip DIY. No travel agent required! It is actually easier than one thinks.

Looking back I think I made good choices of hotels:
1) The Munich hotel is right next to the Central Train Station (Hauptbahnhof in German) There were trains (S-Bahn) ran directly fro airport to Hauptbahnhof (S1 or S8 train) And the museums are also within walking distance.
2) The Salzburg hotel is within 30 min of walking from Salzburg's Hauptbahnhof. And it is also 10 min away from the concert hall and the Mirabellgarten.
3) The Vienna hotel is 30 min of walking from Vienna's Westbahnhof. I could have taken a train/lightrail but it is not easy to figure out how and how much to pay because info was all in German. The best thing is that the hotel is 5 minutes from the Museum of Art History and right next to MQ (Museumsquartier) where artists and the hip crowd gathers.
4) what I didn't like about the hotels is the lack of A/C. Central European summer nights are hotter than what I'm used to in the SF Bay Area. Still, the heat was tolerable when I was there. I just won't recommend them to those bringing wife/gf. Just avoid something you know she will complain for sure!

On the other hand, I would 100% recommend all three bike stores I worked with. In fact, it is a good idea to reserve the bike/bike tour online in advance (same price as walk-in) because biking IS popular in Europe. I was fortunate that the tours were not sold-out. The only store I contacted in advance was Vienna's Pedal Power. I paid a few more euro to have the bike delivered and picked up from the hotel to save the trouble of public transportation between hotel and bike store. Pedal Power is quite responsive via email and provided me a reliable, well-performing and reasonably comfortable touring bike. It was recommended to me by an online travel review website/forum. I saw quite a few other bikes rented from Pedal Power in the streets of Vienna. I also ran into some bikes from www.radurlaub.com on Donauradweg. You might wanna check them out.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Epilogue 2

I gotta admit I really know very little about Austria before the trip though. I read a bit more and tried to understand its culture, especially comparison with German. And I realized Austrian are known to be rude (compared to the friendly German) Not sure if they are rude in general or towards foreigners only but I won't be surprised if the latter is the case for a country with so much rural area. Then I found out the country's anti-semitism. Even though I am 0% Jewish, I still might have a 2nd thought about going had I known this before hand. I did witness one episode that involved rude Austrian: I was in line to buy lunch from the coffee shop at Schonbrunn palace. The Italian guy in front of me ordered two cups for himself and gf. He found out he was charged more than expected. The barista/cashier lady explained in English that's the price of coffee (with milk) but that customer said he actually wanted the (cheaper) espresso. So the lady made the latter as well but looked very obviously pissed. I smiled at that customer, as well as the cashier when it's my turn to order. The cashier lady probably realized that she was too rude and put on a smile too. She joked with me and the rest in line whether we wanted to buy the coffee she already made.

I also didn't know Austria has low crime rate but I totally believe it judging by how Viennese locked their bikes, ie., not chaining up the front wheel. That's a no-no in the States. I learned that from campus orientation years ago.

Even though I survived without cell phone service but it would have been nice to have. I bet it would have reduced some stress from worrying about getting lost along Danube. And cell phone service really helped during my transit in Chicago: my SF->Chicago flight was delayed by 1 hour because of Obama's visit to the Bay Area and I worried that I would missed the Chicago->Munich flight. So I studied the airport/terminal map in the airline magazine trying to figure out the fastest way to get to that gate. When the plane touched down in Chicago, it actually passed by that gate and I saw no plane and I guess the next flight was delayed as well. And I confirmed that with my phone. So I relaxed and spent the extra time on dinner.

Finally, I wanted to recommend an Android App: MapDroyd. You could download and view maps later offline with this App. I downloaded the Bavaria and Austria map before the trip. Even though I had no phone service, I could still use this. It was very helpful, especially when I tried finding the ways from train station to hotel.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Vienna

For the return trip to Vienna from Melk, I decided to ride on the right (South) bank for a change. The road that took me to the Abbey is the same one that took me out of it. Instead of crossing the bridge over Danube, I simply turn right and got on Donauradweg again. It started with a slightly steep climb that was not long at all. And that's the only climb of the whole 75 mile route. From that point on, it's all flat. There were a few detour because of construction but the signs were quite clear. And when in doubt, just rode towards the river to get back on track. The first milestone was Krems at the 20 mile mark (since I stay on the South bank, I didn't actually reach Krems. The town on the South roughly across from Krems was Mautern) and I arrived in 2 hours, which was on schedule. The next one was Tulln 30 miles further. And I felt fatigue before that (around the 40 mile mark) probably because of the 75 mile work the day before. I still haven't regained my strength completely. I stopped and took 5-10 minute breaks almost every 5 miles :( My breaks took longer and longer and I was clearly struggling until I passed Tulln and there was only 15 miles to go. I finally felt the finish line was near, especially when high rises of Vienna were in sight. The reason I tried to maintain a good pace was that the forecast said bad weather would be in Vienna in the afternoon and I tried to beat it. Well, even though I was slow, fortunately, the bad weather was there 1 hour after I arrived at the hotel! It was so windy when I headed to Wienerwald for dinner (rotisserie chicken, its specialty) And it started raining after dinner. I had no energy left for night activity anyway. There were many sports channel on the hotel's TV. I was really surprised during channel surfing when I saw American Football. It's AFL (Austrian Football League) final: Vienna Vikings vs Swarco Raiders Tirol! An interesting game. This Raiders played like its name sake: lots of penalties and turn overs killed it chances for victory. Of course, I watched some Olympics.

The next day, Sunday, was the last sight-seeing day of this trip and I dedicated it to the museums and landmarks of Vienna. Pedal Power's guide had some good directions to Haydn's old house, now a museum. I don't listen to that much Haydn but I still went because one room was dedicated to my favorite composer, Brahms! In fact, like Haydn, Brahms spent the rest of his life in Vienna. Unfortunately, the place he stayed at no longer exists so some furniture and personal items used by him were moved to a room there. This house was actually not very far from my hotel but the next one was. I played it safe and rented the bike for 3 days rather than 2 by paying ~30 euro more but I'm glad that I did. I rode for ~25 minutes to Schonbrunn palace instead of taking bus/subway (to be honest I would have skipped it) It's yet another Summer residence, this time of Austrian monarchs. It was orginally built to be on a par with the Palace of Versailles in terms of Baroque beauty as well as cultural and political significance, but the House of Habsburg did not have the resources to outdo its French rival. I guess it's not a big loss for me not going inside. Most museums close at 6pm so I have to use my time wisely!

After grabbing a quick bite (baquette with salami) at Schonbrunn, I rushed back to the city center. While cycling around looking for a few landmarks, I stumbled upon the entrance to the museum of Vienna Opera and of course I had to pay a visit. Special emphasis were put on two of its most well-known conductors: Mahler and Karajan. I am a big fan of Mahler because of his symphonies. Back in those days he was known more for his conducting though. It mentioned his biggest contribution to Vienna Opera: implementing the idea of "total art work" first pioneered by Wagner. The Opera was not about individuals (e.g. prima donna singers) anymore. The program, the music, the performers and so on altogether produced the complete art experience for the audiences. It's very informative.

The landmark I was specifically looking for was the Stephansdom, of which I've seen a great picture in the cycling book. The real thing was just as good. (Oh yeah, I had to take care of some non-spiritual business, i.e., getting euro from ATM. The exchange rate/transaction fee was much better than the foreign exchange in the States)

Finally I arrived at the Albertina museum, a bit behind schedule. This museum has a bit of everything: the top floor hosted the current exhibition of impressionist/modern works by Monet, Matisse and Picasso. The 2nd floor showed several state rooms of Austrian monarch. The 1st floor had a collection of expressionist pieces. Finally, the ground floor was for contemporary artists. It's a very balanced and interesting collection.

After taking care of souvenir shopping nearby, it's 3pm already. I returned to the hotel and parked the bike (rental was due) Took a quick break and headed to the museum I really wanted to go to in Vienna: the Museum of Art History. Its focus was basically the combination of Munich's Glyptothek and Alte Pinakothek, i.e., Greco-Roman sculptures and 14-15th century masterpieces by the likes of Reuben and Durer. In addition, it also showed an Egyptian collection. Again, that's what I learned from my art history class. The buildng itself was very special too: great classical architecture, and the space between inside columns was decorated with fresco painted by Austrian's most famous artist: Gustav Klimt. The museum built a podium so that visitors could climb stairs up to it to get a closer look of these paintings, which were great work in their own rights. I enjoyed the museum so much and I bought a book on Klimt there. It was a guide to where to see Klimt's work in Vienna (his works could be found at many venues) It also provided the social, political and cultural background of Klimt's time and stories of his life. Written by Michael Schmid and translated to English. Highly recommended.

I stayed there 'til it closed at 6. Then walked around the nearby MQ (Museumsquartier) to take in more trendy and artistic vibe so to speak. This is basically the Viennese version of the yet-to-be-built Kowloon Cultural Center in Hong Kong: a group of diverse museums plus working spaces for artists. For example, there was an exhibition on fusion of technology and fashion (one of the pieces was a dress made with circuit boards that made sound)

I went to Wienerwald once again (3 times altogether :P) for dinner and this time I had a wiener schnitzel (veal coated with fried breadcrumbs) and a beer to celebrate the end of this awesome trip. More olympics, motorcycle racing (ironically, the race was live at Laguna Seca in Monterey California!), formula 1 racing then a quick nap before I woke up at 4am to catch a taxi to airport for my flight back to the States. It was the first and only time I got in a car in Europe (the other transportations I used were train and bicycle)

I have so much yet to see in all 3 cities (more museums in Vienna and Munich and more music in Salzburg and Vienna. Performances indoor outdoor or even by street musicians were everywhere everyday) Hope to be back someday.

Here is the link to my pictures.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Wachau

I took a train from Hauptbahnhoff at Salzburg around 3pm and it took 3 hours to arrived in Vienna's Westbahnhoff. It was about a 30 minute walk along a few medium sized but quiet streets (e.g. Lindengasse) from the train station to my hotel near MQ (Museumsquartier) I'm tired from walking and hungry too. I walked down the street passed Volkstheater towards the Museum of Art History and Natural History and saw the Wienerwald restaurant, which looks kinda like a Perkin's (those lived in Midwest know what I'm talking about) or Applebee's (I guess it's the green-ish logo) I haven't had an indoor sit-down dinner at a restaurant for a while and decided to give it a try (most importantly, the menu is in English!) I had roast pork and bread dumpling (safe choice!) It's probably not too authentic but I couldn't care less that night. Then I walked around the Vienna central area (National Library, Neue Burg, Michaelerkirche) and took a few pictures and called it a night to get ready for the long bike ride (75 miles) to the Wachau region the next day.

Because of my unfamiliarity with the area, I wasn't really well-prepared for the ride in terms of food and drink supply. All I got was 4 bottles of water and 3 kaisersemmel rolls (BTW, I had probably eaten 10 of these during this week altogether. It's plain and thus deemed "safe" to me) from a bakery. (I misunderstood the directions to the nearby supermarket provided by the "emotionless" hotel receptionist) Plus 6 of the 8 Clif Bar (energy bar) I brought from the States (2 were consumed already) Then the lady from the bike store (Pedal Power) arrived with my KTM Life Fun touring bike (and 2 huge pannier bags on the rear rack) at 9am. I told her my plan of riding to Melk along the Donauradweg (Danube BikeTrail) and she said I should stop by their store to pick up a guide book for that. I got the directions from her and headed there. Her directions were actually quite clear: I needed to get on the "Ring" (a series of streets encompassing the downtown), cross the bridge over the canal and go to the roundabout and then go out to the street with the ferris wheel. Their store was right there. For some reason I overlooked their store even though I went to the right street (the ferris wheel was huge and hard to miss) Eventually I figured it out but it's already 10:30 when I picked up the guide. Now that I have the guide, I'm much less worried about getting lost. Call it my safety net if you will. Still, the chance was there. After all, I don't have a visual GPS to show my exact location. (I do have a GPS watch for recording my routes and speed)

The GPS route I loaded was for riding on right bank between Vienna and Krems, and left bank between Krems and Melk. The Austrian government deserved a lot of credit for "doing it right": plenty of signs (or painted arrows on the roads) made it easy to follow. Nevertheless, I still got confused by some of the signs and made a mistake such that I went from left bank to right bank unnecessarily. I had to go back to the right bank near Krems and I just trusted their signs even though they led to some roads away from the Danube. Eventually the signs changed from Krems to Wachau and Melk and I knew I was on the right way. Another surprise was that Melk was closer than I thought: I remember incorrectly that it's 32 miles away but actually 32km! There are good reasons to get on the left bank there because it went through beautiful vineyards, churches and cobblestone roads (it's not comfortable but it's authentic European!) Most importantly, I knew this route went through Willendorf. So, what's the big deal? Well, just google Willendorf (one 20000+ year old piece of art work, a female statue called Venus of Willendorf, was found there in 1908. The statue itself is in the museum in Vienna but a real person sized replica of it was erected when the discovery was made! That's an important site for art history student like me.) I was surprised that the replica was really close to the main road. I made a small uphill detour and climb some stairs and I was right there! The feeling was unreal. And the city of my hotel of the night was not far away: Soon I saw the sign "Emmersdorf." I thought I passed the hotel so I rode on the streets near the sign but eventually I asked for directions from the guys in front of a building that looks like Fire Department. And I needed to go a few km further to Luberegg. The hotel itself was worthy of a few pictures and it gotta be one of the better looking "Best Western" in the world. I had no energy to go anywhere else for dinner so I had a meaty one at the hotel's outdoor patio. It's unbelievably romantic, even though I went and eat by myself!

After a good night of watching Olympics opening ceremony and sleeping, it's about time for my return trip to Vienna. I visited the world-famous Stift Melk, a magnificent abbey/monastery before I said goodbye.

Here is the link to my pictures.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Salzburg

I arrived in the Central Station of Salzburg (yes, it's also called Hauptbahnhof. Austrian speaks German too) around 2:30pm. The ride from Munich was about 2 hours (there's a train or two leaving Munich for Salzburg every hour.) This station is not as busy as the one in Munich and seemed further away (North) from the actions too. I found one major street near the station (Rainerstrasse) and headed South. The famous Mirabell (think Do-re-mi from the movie "Sound of Music." Chamber concerts of Mozart's music was often performed here too) was on this street. I turn left into Franz-Josef from there and walked all the way 'til the end. The entrance to my hotel (AllYouNeed Hotel Salzburg), which was right next to a hill, was hidden behind another building (basically I needed to go through a passage in this other building!)

After I checked in, my mission was to picked up concert ticket from Salzburg Festival's ticket office before it was supposed to close at 4:30pm. Fortunately, everything was pretty much concentrated in one small area in Salzburg so it took me 10 minutes of walking (including crossing the Salzach river on a bridge) from hotel to the ticket office on Herbert Von Karajan Plaz (named after the late great conductor who was also a Salzburg native like Mozart)

Now I got 4 hours to spend before the concert so I grabbed a super late lunch (a bratwurst. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food and tend to stick with what I'm familiar with when I travel) and walked around the Old Town area (Altstadt) to follow Mozart's footsteps so to speak. I visited the Dom (hugh church) where Mozart's parents were married, the Kollegienkirche (another church) where Mozart's D minor Mass premiered, the Residenz palace where Mozart gave his first court concert at 6 year old. Another great church in the Old Town was St Peter. I wasn't planning to enter the church but I saw a bunch of people going in continuously (few came out) so I just followed the crowd. Turns out there's a free choral performance of Thomas Tallis' motet by the Salzburg Bachchoir. The atmosphere inside this greatly decorated church was awesome for hearing religious music like this. The sound of music was indeed everywhere in Salzburg, literally. There were many street musicians in the Old Town. I saw a classical guitarist performing there (and an acoustic guitarist playing "Tears in Heaven" in fingerstyle at the same spot the next day! Not sure if it's the same guy)

Finally it's concert time at 8:30pm. The concertgoers were really well dressed. I tried my best with a long sleeve shirt and even worn a tie but still way underdressed. Oh well, cut some slacks for the tourists! I read up a bit on the history of the festival. It seems that even though it's the premiere classical music festival, it was criticized for its commercialism (high priced ticket and mass appealing program?) for a while. The 2012 season certainly won't have this problem 'coz it is part of the multi-year program "Spiritual Overture." This year the religion was Judaism and the religious piece of the concert I attended was Ernest Bloch's "Sacred Service", sung in Hebrew, performed by the Israel Philharmonic and conducted by Zubin Mehta (of the Three Tenor fame :P) IMO, the vocal was very emotional and powerful as if it would reach heaven and the Man up there. It was certainly moving. The concert was opened with a secular piece: Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 with Rudolf Buchbinder (who appeared in the award-winning German-Austrian documentary Pianomania which I gotta watch) on piano. To be honest this was the piece I wanted to hear originally but I ended up impressed by Bloch's piece even more. Please read this NYTimes article for a professional review.

Starting with the Christian-themed paintings at Alte Pinakothek in Munich in the morning, then the Motet at St. Peter and finally the "Sacred Service" piece at night, I had a very religious experience on 7/25.

It's after 10:30pm when the concert was ended. I walked around a bit more (to see the house when Mozart was born) and went back to hotel and slept so that I had enough energy for the "Sound of Music" bike tour the next day! Basically Salzburg tourism was all about Mozart and "Sound of Music." Who would imagine back in the day a movie could become a golden egg nest that generate revenue years after years, generations after generations? The Fraulein Maria's Bicycle Tours' meeting place was much easier to find than Mike's in Munich. It's near the entrance to the Mirabell palace and opposite to the St Andrew's church. For some unknown reason the tour guide asked me whether I'd prefer a mountain bike to the cruiser bikes that she gave to every other customers and of course I accept it: it's a Merida (famous Taiwan brand. It's the first time I rode a Merida. They had 2. The first one I tried couldn't shift at all but the 2nd one I was given was very smooth.) As I mentioned before, parts of "Do-Re-Mi" was filmed on the stairs at Mirabell so it's the perfect place to start and end the tour. We rode across the Salzach river to the Riding School where Edelweiss was sung. Went through Old Town to see catacomb (cemetery) and Residenzplatz where Maria splashed water from the water fountain and sung "I have confidence" Then rode up a slightly steep cobblestone road to the bottom of Hohensalzburg Castle and then the Nonnberg Abbey (Maria waltzed her way to mass. That's also where the kids went looked for her) From there we rode away from the city center to Schloss Leopoldskron (the house next to it was in the film) and finally stopped at Hellbrunn palace (the Summer residence of the archbishop.)

Basically the following video summed up what I saw during the ride:

Here is the link to pictures taken by me.

2012 Euro Cycling and Art Trip - Munich

My flight to Munich was delayed by an hour and I arrived at 11am 7/24 (Tue) but fortunately I had scheduled only 2 activities for the first day of the trip: museum visit and city bike tour. After I got out of the airport, I needed to take S-Bahn to Hauptbahnhof (Central Train Station in German) Instead of using the automatic ticket kiosk, I walked up to the ticket counter and got some directions from the lady. Thanks to her suggestion, I bought the 11 euro S-Bahn day pass (just 1 euro more than the one-way ticket that I would have bought) Hauptbahnhof is huge with many exits to live up to its name. I just took a random exit and got up to the street level. Once I identified a few streets on the map, I located myself and walked towards my first planned destination: Alte Pinakothek (the "old" picture gallery.) The long flight slowed me down a bit. On the way I saw the Glyptothek (modelled after Greco-Roman temples and exhibit art works from those times) I decided to change the plan and visited it instead (originally planned for the next morning) I enjoyed its collection of big stone and small metal sculptures, mostly related to Greek mythology, from different era/styles. I learned about them from the art history class I just took last semester! It was 2pm when I left and it's time for a late lunch at a fast food restaurant in Hauptbahnhof.

After checking into my hotel which is nearby, I took S-Bahn (the day pass came in handily) to Marienplatz, which was another busy station with many exits. I needed to find the Old Town Hall which was the meeting place of Mike's Bike Tour (yes, the name sounds similar to the bike store in US but I don't think they are related.) I got to the street level and was totally lost because there were plenty of old-looking buildings, any of them could be the Old Town Hall. I got even more confused when I saw a gal holding a sign that said "Lenny's Bike Tour" and another gal wearing a T-shirt that said the same. I went up to them and asked. Turned out Lenny's tour is only 15 euro (9 less than Mike's) and it was endorsed by Rick Steves, the Europe travel guru well known in US. And they told me the building they were at was the New Town Hall! I also noticed the lack of European accents in the English they spoke and my instinct were right: both of them were North American (Toronto and Michigan) Too bad their tour hand only 1 customer (me) and had to cancel. They were kind enough to show me the meeting place of another tour company. Guess what? One not-so-old looking building was actually the Old Town Hall and that "other" company was, of course, Mike's.

Mike had a lot more customers (around 18) Many of them had made reservations already. The tour guide was an English fellow named Charles, who sounded very knowledgeable and funny enough without pushing it too hard. He started with an explanation of the origin of Munich: in German it means "near where the monks live" That's how the town got started and growing since. He also solved the mystery of Town Hall for us: the New Town Hall was built in the 20th century and made to look old intentionally. On the other hand, the Old Town Hall was destroyed and its replacement was built after the New Town Hall but retained the name the Old Town Hall. Less confused, huh? There were several other landmarks around the plaza, including the oldest church in the area (St. Peter), the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs, the place where a Hitler-led group conflicted with the policemen who were against them. Some of them got killed and were remembered. It seems to me that it was not a big taboo for German to face and admit what their country did wrong back then so they could move forward. Of course, being an Englishman, our tour guide had no reservation talking about this sad period in German history. Next, we rode away from the center of the city, passed through the Hofgarten and arrived at the English garden. It was named as such because it was modelled after a garden in England. The garden in England had a Chinese-styled tower and it was copied here as well. An outdoor eatery (and more importantly, beer drinking area) was built around the tower. This Chinese beer garden was the 2nd largest in Munich! I had a wheat beer (recommended by the tour guide and it's good!) and 2 sausages with potatoes. That's my dinner. Very authentic German I guess (except I had a small beer which was out of the norm.) Lots of local folks were hanging out at the English garden. Some were swimming or surfing in the man-made river. Some were chatting to each other on the grass. Good life! On our way back, the tour guide showed one example (the Maximilaneum built by King Maximilian II) that demonstrated the pride and perseverance of the Munich people who repaired damages done during the war. They put in real good efforts to restore places to be like the original as much as possible.

After the tour ended, I tried looking for the nearby HSBC office. I eventually found it but too bad it had no ATM (seems to do private banking only) I gave up and called it a night. I didn't sleep well because of jet lag though. Anyway, I was looking forward to the visit to Alte Pinakothek so I quickly checked out of the hotel, grabbed breakfast from Hauptbahnhof and took the long walk to Alte Pinakothek again. It was a popular museum. Many people, including me, waited for it to open at 10am (FYI, it had 2-euro-refundable lockers where I stored my bags) Like the other art museums I visited before, most large scale works were made after 15th century with Christian topics. IMO, the most impressive works were created by Reuben and Durer (this museum is the one that displayed his famous self-portrait) One of the rooms was actually built specifically tall enough to accommodate one Reuben's large piece. I wish I have time to visit the Neue Pinakothek (its focus is on 19th century art) but I need to catch a DB Bahn (train) to Salzburg from Hauptbahnhof.

Here is the link to pictures taken by me.