Munich Day 4
I rented a bike from the shop down the block to explore Munich’s extensive park, the English Garden, located nearby. Designed to resemble a natural landscape, its mature forests, wide meadows and rich water features were nevertheless meticulously maintained.
I hadnt ridden a non-electric bike in a couple of years, but the exertion felt good as did traveling the wide paths meant for both walkers and riders.
I came upon the artificial surf break I’d read about, lined on both sides with people and their boards waiting for a shot. None lasted more than a few seconds:
Signs in German and English proclaimed the Germans’ love of nature and their commitment to environmental action, though the translation of Habitat as “Lebensraum” had sinister echoes of the Nazi rationale for invading their neighboring states.
The meadow adorned with wildflowers reinforced the point that lawns are useful for sports but should share space with less artificial landscapes.
I sat on a bench for a while to watch locals enjoying the lake.
Looking for a cup of coffee I exited the park across from a building whose design lured me into its courtyard. It was was the home of “Munich Re,” the worldwide Reinsurance Company that insures other insurance companies for their losses.
Drinking my cappucino in the elegant cafe across the street, I learned that they were leaders in preparing large companies to adapt to Climate Change. I also learned that “During the Nazi dictatorship Munich Re benefited from anti-Semitic persecution. Jewish customers had to cancel their life insurances prematurely leading to huge profits for the insurance companies.”
Back inside the park I noticed one young family wading in the creek
and another crossing it hand in hand.
I felt a shock of recognition: they were on a “spatziergang,” a walk the park like the ones I took with my parents as an only child in New York’s Inwood or Fort Tryon Park before we moved to the suburbs.
I pedalled through a wooded path along the banks of the Isar River
through the more formal gardens around another city administration building
packed with Bocce Ball players and strollers,
and through the Plazas and Palaces we’d seen the night before. Back at the hotel, Jan met me with a birthday surprise: tickets she’d purchased for a Festival Song Recital that night in the Prince Regent Hall of the Bavarian State Opera.
We left early enough to find our way to an unfamiliar district and walked several blocks in the wrong direction before finding the place and eating dinner in its heritage restaurant.
Unlike the other concerts we’d attended, this was neither a tourist-oriented program nor location. Its furnishings and wall murals were century-old Jugendstil–art nouveau–
and its clientele was local classical music lovers
The hall itself mixed styles from multiple sources into its own exuberant amalgam.
Though the auditorium was only half full, many audience members were fans of the performers: soprano Golda Schulz, originally from South Africa, and her husband Jonathan Ware. I loved the first number, Am See, a song by Schubert.