again by the stables (on the left this time):

and again next to the Autobahn - it ends right here (often police controlling for speeders):

cruising along the bike path as the cars sit in traffic :):

a traffic circle - the famous "freedom Angel" can be seen in the middle:

cruising by traffic in the bike lane. i took this one while riding which is why it's a little blury:

and hauling downhill passing all the cars stuck in traffic. i sometimes wave at all the motorists just to make them feel stupid for driving when they could be riding. not sure if they get it, but whatever. the bike is definitely the best way to get around munich!

and heading back down to the Isar!

so anyway, the last week i kept riding thinking "ah, i should take a photo of that!" and it seems like i barely got a photo of anything...

man, i didn't even get a single shot of any of the bridges!

but i guess there are actually a lot of photos here. hopefully you guys can kind of get an idea of what my commute is like and a little taste of what the riding is like in European cities.

-Nathan

no, the English Garden is just a little to the north (about 1km). I used to live in Schwabing and was 10m away from one of the main entrances to the park and about 700m away from the "Chinese Tower" which is one of the most well known beer gardens. i used to ride through the park to work which was a really cool commute too - absolutely no cars and in winter time it was really desserted especially in the early morning.

but Munich has more parks than virtually any city in the world and almost nowhere are you out of walking distance to a park!

I miss Munich... I'd like to go back and see more of it. A week was not enough... especially with meetings and such. So far, my two favourite European big cities have been Stockholm and Munich.

Wow, that is a really beautiful commute! I've been off from work all week for exams, so this gives me a bit of a vicarious thrill. The woman in heels really made it for me. Why don't I see people like that riding around here?

wow nice pics :) I should be so lucky to visit Germany some day

That was wonderful! thank you for the pix; kind of like a free trip to Germany without leaving my house!

I'll be visiting my step-dad in Fulda this winter; where is that in relation to Munich? I imagine it will be just as beautiful.

I love trees. Like where I live.

Beautiful route! It must be so much fun to pedal past all of the folks stuck in their cars! One thing I did notice though is it seems all of the other riders were riding without a helmet or wearing an ordinary hat.

These are great posts - let's see more!!

Zack

nathank, thanks for sharing the sites with us, you have a nice commute route.

What a beautiful commute, thanks for sharing!

Once again, these pictures prove that my commute route ... STINKS !!!

nathank, I'd imagine your average speed has to be a little slow because of all the pedestrian and other bike traffic on the trails -- along with 90 degree turns. If this is the case, that's a lot different from my commute which is all roads and the only thing stopping me is red lights. But the scenery along your route is great, which is a lot different from mine!!!

Thanks for pix.

Yeah, at first I was thinking that it would be nice to see all those bikes around here. I don't think I've seen more than 5 other bikers in the two years I've been commuting (really!) and it looks like nathank sees dozens every day. But then I realized, "damn, they'd all be in my way!" Of course even if they were empty those trails don't look like the kind of things you'd want to be tearing around on at 20mph....perhaps it wouldn't be too hard to convince me to trade speed for scenery.

Nathank,

You are making me miss Germany. I spent all of last summer there. I was near Bochum but got down to Munchen (sorry no umlats on this keyboard) several times. It really is a great city. Just before I came home I got to go to Oktoberfest. I hope to get back to Germany again in the not to distant future.

Most places I saw in Europe really make it easy to go car free if you really want too. The most bikes I have ever seen in my life were in Munster and Amsterdam. Thousands of bikes parked at a market place on a Saturday morning. Pretty impressive. I wish I had taken a picture of all those bikes.

Steve

A very scenic commute. A veritable cycling Elysium. I've been taking pics of my commute but so far it hasn't stayed dry and sunny enough for long enough to get reasonable pictures of everything!!

yes, Europe is general is not so helmet-conscious like the US. most of the Mountain Bikers wear helmets and on the trail almost everyone has a helmet, but maybe half of the road racers were helmets (they usually were the cycling caps or a bandana) and almost none of the recreational riders were helmets: riding through the park or to the beer garden to a short distance to work...

and it's not just with cyclibg: i also wear a helmet for snowboarding, downhill skiing and inline skating and in Europe you see very few - from my experience in the US ski areas you now see almost 50% with helmets and Europe is more like 5%...

yes, the route along the river i have to ride a little more slowly with curves and other riders and the occaisonal pedestrain who doesn't stay off of the bike path... but here i could take a faster route, but i like to ride along the river... although i get to bypass ALL of the traffic lights and stop signs so it might not be that much slower overall.

but yes, for the latter part of my commute i ride MUCH faster as there are fewer people and the then i ride on the street.

yes, as i have posted before on this forum i am not a fan of the Munich bike path style. on the one hand it is good becuase the average person (5 year old kid riding to school or 45 year old going to work or 70 year old lady riding to visit her grandkids) can safely and confortably ride anywhere and is somewhat protected from cars...

but the bike paths are pretty unsafe above 20km/h (13mph) because a) the car drivers are not expecting faster riders and b) you ride so close to pedestrains who are also not expecting fast riders.

about 1 month ago i had a crash when a 10 year old suddenly darted in front of her mother (who had been holding her back) and RIGHT into my path and i locked the brakes and went over the bars...

i quite often take the the streets even when it technically not legal (the BLUE bike signs that you see in the photo mean it is an OFFICIAL bike path which means you MUST ride there instead of the strret) if i feel the bike path is unsafe at 30km/h or whatever.

but, yes, along the river i just ride a little slower for the 2km and enjoy the scenery. it's also either on the end of tmy ride or the beginngin (warm-up or cool-down) so that's ok.

and yes, i see hundreds of cyclists every day. on my 25-30 minute morning commute i probably see 20 cyclists in the winter in the snow and 200 ni the summer in good weather... if i ride to the city center to go shopping in the evening there are hundreds of bikes everywehere. but the bike traffic is usually no problem - it's just when there are lots of pedestrains that it can be a problem.

yes, Holland and Amsterdam in particular still has WAY more bikes than Munich - i was there in 2000 and amazed. i actually did take a photo of one spot where about 5 thousand bikes were parked.

but yes, European cities are much easier to go car free b/c of many reasons:
1) higher density and smaller distances: munich has about 1.5 million people and the radius of the city is less than 10km (6 miles). 6 miles from the center of Austin TX or Portland OR and you're barely even outside of the cnetral city!
2) great public transit in the city AND great long-distance train service (it is quite often faster, cheaper and easier to take the train than to drive even IF you have a car)
3) support for cycling: bike paths, but most importantly AUTO drivers who are TRAINED to watch for cyclists (in germany eevry right turner first looks for a cyclist to prevent the right-hook! b/c they EXPECT a cyclist! i've never seen an American do that!)

i think less than half of my friends have cars and most of those who do don't drive them in the city or to work, but either bike or take the subway to work b/c its just too impractical to drive to work (traffifc, parking, etc)

That would suck if you were on a Road/Race Bike!!

Very nice pictures, would be nice to ride to work everyday, sure must seem nice to pass the traffic jams. Beautiful country!

I was in Germany for a month in the 80's on a student trip. München was by far my favorite city! The people were so friendly--you couldn't stand on a street corner and open a map without people stopping to try to help you find your way.

That was in January, though. Thanks for showing me Munich the way it ought to be seen--in spring, and from the saddle of a bike! :)

That park looks like it would be great for some midnight trials expeditions...eh? what you you say, there nathank? All those railings, and retaining walls...

OK. The gauntlet has been thrown! ;)

I guess I've gotta take my digicam out on a jaunt tommorrow and take some pics of my Swiss commute...looks like you have a nice scenic ride up there!

no rain on the commute in this morning...what a joy!

Tom