All Change

Today’s weather is cloudy, possibility of rain and very windy. Now at this point, I wanted to go over to see one of Ludwig’s fairy tale castles but it is 130k away and about 35 euros on the train, so change of plan I will go and see the biggest European wholesale market. It would seem that they run guided tours for the princely sum of 3 Euros.

The Großmarkthalle München (Wholesale Market Munich) is a German-international wholesale market located in the Munich borough of Sending. In an area of 310,000 m², 270 importing companies and wholesalers offer 140 different product classes from 83 countries with a sales volume of more than 750 million Euros. Additionally, there are 65 horticultural producers, 45 florists and 15 wholesalers of miscellaneous lines. The market’s geographical sales area is virtually “boundless“: day after day it supplies a region with approximately 5 million people and delivers goods to almost every European country.   

I have been asked about various things on my trip, and one was,

“Why do I not use my new smartphone as a GPS?”

The short answer is I don’t simply wish to get from A to B I’m an explorer. I want to soak up the ambulance, hear the sounds, and smell the city, get to know her, find little gems that I would not have, found otherwise. You see it does not matter if the 6k journey takes me two hours to get there, I like cycling around the city, I’m having fun.

On the subject of markets, I have found my diet has changed dramatically. Here supermarkets and shops, also stalls outside shops, that seem to sell anything that will turn a profit, are fruit and vegetable displays, so you can buy several single items and not a pre-pack of one. So I have been buying lots of fruit, to nibble, things I have not had for years, such as Pomegranates, fresh dates, huge pears, and of course apples and oranges. They are super plentiful and super cheap, and really super to eat.

A have always loved Chinese food. When I lived in Edinburgh, we would go, at least once a month, to our favourite Chinese restaurant. Then things changed Indian restaurants and fast food joints arrived, which I never frequented. Out walking one evening I came across a small Chinese shop. I say shop because it was really just a kitchen with lots of cooks doing their thing, and then filling it into cartons for you to take away, there was a clue in the name, Box and Go.

There seemed to be the top ten listed on a board, so I started with number 1 at 3.50 euro and included noodles, spring onion and bamboo shoots. Boy do you get a lot for your money, I was struggling by the time I saw the bottom of the carton. I have not been going every night but had a couple of treats there, a pleasant change.

Of course, this change in diet, if that is what it is, comes at a cost, my visits to the toilets are much more of a splash rather than a plop.

This will be my last day and night in Munich off somewhere els tomorrow, (so my computer tells me) so another train ride.

These specialcarrages on the longer distance trains are split in two with a glass partition, bike racks in one-half seating in the other, local trains just have a place set aside for bikes and wheelchairs.