I had to travel to Munich for a few days for work, right before the summer solstice, a weekend when Swift Industries cheers people on to go bike camping anywhere (#swiftcampout).
So why not? I packed a single small pannier with only essential camping gear and stuffed it and a bivy sack in my suitcase with my work clothes and laptop.
When the work week wrapped up, I asked the hotel to hold my suitcase for a day, rented a basic city bike with a rack, and set out into the woods…
Well, it wasn’t quite that impulsive– I’d researched the area around Munich and thought I could make it to Lake Starnburg (formerly known as Lake Würm) to camp for the night. Once I got out of the city I found some chill paved and dirt paths through the woods.
Like any good ride, I had to stop for refreshments, including the excellent Andechs Monastery Brewery.
Finally, I reached the lake, found the campground, and set up camp. It turned out Germany was playing in the World Cup that evening, so I got to listen to the game through two tent walls courtesy of someone else at the campground…
While it felt a bit ridiculous to fly with this extra gear and shift from professional-work-mode to scrappy-bike-camper-mode, that’s how I seem to travel…
I’ve mapped out the route I took here: about 48 miles and 2000’ of climbing. The city bike handled the flat parts well but I really felt it creaking and complaining on the uphills and overall it was a bit sluggish– if I had more time I’d try to borrow or rent a nicer bike, but this was what was easily available at the train station.
To catch my flight home the next day I rode about 15 miles to the nearest train station to speed back to Munich. I annotated this crude map on my phone for any friends watching from home…
