Heading home.  Thursday, July 9, 2026 was a long day as we chased the sun.  I woke at 6:30 am, Mariette was already up as usual.  We had breakfast, packed and headed off to the train station bound for the airport.  Our first flight was from Munich to Lisbon. The flight from Munich was late and spent quite some time on the runway before takeoff. We rushed to our connection in Lisbon, and snapped this picture at the gate.   We landed in Toronto at 9:30 pm or 3:30 am Munich time.   Like Dorothy I am glad to be home. (Sort of - I'll be home tomorrow - staying a hotel in Toronto tonight.  Mariette takes a flight to California tomorrow).

After a relaxing morning, we set off in the local neighbourhood of the east side of Munich.  We found ourselves at the Maximiliansanlagen park. Here we are just in front of the Angel of Peace statue. By just turning around on the same spot, we have this fountain and a look towards the center of the city. For lunch I picked up this Bavaran sandwich from Rischart's, a chain of the most wonderful pastries and sandwiches!

Mariette and I took a bus tour to the Neuschwanstein Castle on Tues, July 7.  It was to be an hour and a half ride in a very comfortable  Mercedes coach.  There were only 10 of us in a 57 passenger bus.  Unfortunately there was a traffic accident that delayed us on a narrow country road for an hour.  Once on site we had time for lunch. We both had a salad with cheese dumplings. There were several ways to get up to the castle level: horse drawn carriage, coach or walking.  We chose to walk. Our tour of the interior was at 4:20 pm.  We were not allowed pictures inside, but here are some from different observation points. The photo above shows an area of the castle where Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was filmed. This other castle was king Ludwig's parents place.

We arrived at our apartment on the east side of Munich yesterday. It is a beautiful area on the 3rd floor in a residential complex.  We both had a chance to do some laundry today. We went for a 3 hour architectural tour this morning in the Marianplatz area.  We were a small group, but the tour guide, an architect himself, had a well planned presentation and lead us on a trail of examples in classic, gothic, renaissance, baroque, and neo-classical buildings. We found this courtyard interesting as we were searching for the meeting place with our tour  We stumbled on to the Frauenkirche cathedral by asking a guide inside.  He proceeded to tell us about the devil's footprint and other legends of the craftiness of the principal architect. There is story about the architect incorporating sculptures of the craftsmen at the top of the columns near the arches.  You can see some here and in the photo below. You may know that...

We ended up taking 5 trains to reach Munich from Strasbourg today. Train delays in Germany turned our ICE (inter city express) train from Karlsruhe to Munich, into two trains: one to Stuttgart and then another to Munich central, and the last one to Munich east.  Our very first train from Strasbourg to Offenburg was super packed, but it was an occasion to meet a musician travelling this summer to play in orchestras. The is the main station in Munich, with about 15 tracks of ICE trains that stop in the station. Tonight we are at our Air B&B where we will stay till Thursday.

We took a taxi this morning to Hôtel Diane Dauphine after saying our goodbyes to friends on the Olympia.  They held our baggages while we went off for another walking tour of the city. Here you can see our travellers framed by the details of the Cathedral of Strasbourg. Our heroes taking any photo opportunity they can get. Sampling wheat beer and a lemonade at 'La Corde à Linge'.

Our last cycling day, Friday July 3rd began cool enough to warrant the merino wool T-shirt shirt.  It was a short ride of 24 km, but we managed to clock 36 km due to some uncertainties with the mooring location.  We rode through gravel roads and some well shaded patches similar to those of our provincial parks. The ride took us on the French side of the Rhine from Gambsheim to Strasbourg.  It was great to have signage that you could read without using Google translate. We had plenty of time to relax in the afternoon.  Here are all the bikes stored away for the next group on Saturday afternoon. At 8 pm some of us took a tour bus to the old city of Strasbourg.  It has an interesting history.  Founded in 200 bc by nomadic tribes, it was a city ruled by the Roman Empire till the 1200s.  In more modern times, it has changed hands from being German to French and back 4 times. Here we are following our enthusiastic guide. H...

The star of today's trip is the white stork.  We see them in pairs in the fields, sometimes nearby. The day began cool enough to warrant the coveted merino wool T-shirt.  Among its many attributes, it is warm when you need it and cool at the same time by wicking away your sweat. The day was scheduled to be a short ride of 26 km, but as it turned out, the mooring was not available and plans were made to meet the cyclists at an industrial terminal with a 2 hour window.  That is, the ship would only be there for a short period of time, and it would be a 60 km ride to get there.  Many cyclists choose not to make the trip, including many of our Norwegian friends. Mariette and I chose to go. The ride was from Spyer to Karlsruhe.  After Germsheim which you can see on the map, thee audio portion of directions stopped.  That would of been the original destnation.  After that we just carefully tried to match our position....

We left Mannheim for Speyer around 8:30 this morning arriving at about 10:30 covering about 31 km. This is the map from our app, with Mannheim at the top and Speyer at the bottom. On the map you'll notice a little sailboat around B36.  It's a ferry - here we are getting on it. Only 3 euros for you and your bike. We got to the meeting spot before anyone else, and no ship to be found!  So what do you do? Well if you are in Germany, you have a beer, or a lemonade. Later in the afternoon we took a walking tour of the city and wine tasting at different poi ts. The town began as a posting for 500 Roman soldiers on a hill.  Some stonework on a small bridge still remains from that period.  There is a large basillica in the main square  which towers over the rest of the city. You can see the back of the basillica behind us. The tour guide was explaining a stone inscription on a door that is coded wit...