Glad it’s summer again! This is especially true if, like me, you just moved to the Ammersee. Actually, that has always been the case. Also the last fifteen years that I lived in Munich. The city is just lovely in summer – and the sidewalk cafés (thanks, Corona) made it even more lovely. In winter, on the other hand, I would have preferred to hide in bed and sleep for weeks at a time. That’s what I actually did during the lockdown winter: I hid. However, not in bed, but in our basement compartment. And I didn’t sleep either, I wrote a book – on an empty shelf between the tumble dryer and a sack of children’s clothes size 56… Good thing it’s summer again!
Monday: World’s Best Worms
The mornings belong to my one and a half year old daughter Cleo. Together we move around the houses in Dießen, throw stones into the Ammersee, dried worms from a converted chewing gum machine into the chicken garden on the Mühlbach and then usually end up with Marco, who runs the world’s best Italian café on Mühlstraße. There we drink coffee or milk froth and eat a piadina con tutto before half of our team goes to bed for an afternoon nap and the other half goes to the home office in front of the laptop.
Tuesday: Strength through Craft
In the Craft Bräu in Dießen there is not only home-brewed beer, but also cultural events and live music, for example from the “Craft Bräu Combo”.
(Photo: Nila Thiel)
On Tuesday I look forward to the evening all day: I meet up with friends for the traditional “Tuesday beer” in the Craft Brew in Diessen. In the cozy “Trinkhalle” of the small brewery there is home-brewed beer (I recommend the “Hellmut”), good music and good conversation, delicious home-made pizza and the occasional cultural event. On really wild evenings, after the last round, you can go to the beer machine. Where is it? That remains a secret, because a cool beer in Diessen at three in the morning cannot be weighed in gold…
Wednesday: home visit
Commemoration of the train accident on July 16, 1945 between Aßling and Oberelkofen: a priest consecrates the graves.
(Photo: Peter Hinz-Rosin)
Tonight I’m reading from my book in the community hall in my home village of Aßling in the Ebersberg district. The village plays the central role in my debut novel “Through the World, a Crack”, which tells of a difficult time of upheaval and a catastrophic event not only in the history of the village but also in German history. I’m a bit nervous, after all, everyone in the village knows each other. But I’m also really looking forward to the reading, but also to sitting down with my family and old friends afterwards. By the way: next week I’ll be reading in my new home in Diessen (on July 14 at 7 p.m. in the CoLibri bookshop).
Thursday: Swing at Diana’s
On sunny Sundays, Munich dance fans meet for “Swing on Sunday” in the small Diana Temple in the Hofgarten.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
A note is tattooed on my finger: as a kind of reminder that music has a similar life-sustaining function to me as eating and sleeping. I know this sounds silly, but other people have apps that remind them to drink water instead. Anyway, this morning my daughter Cleo and I are banging our speakers and shaking our butts to my latest Spotify discovery: the Basque folk-punk band “Huntza”. Speaking of dancing: If you want to embark on a journey back in time to the wild 1920s, you should visit one of the numerous swing events in Munich (swinginmunich.de). Or stop by the Diana Temple in the Hofgarten on Sundays from 7 p.m.: Lindy Hop, Shag, Balboa and Charleston are danced there. Don’t forget dancing shoes!
Friday: set sail
Little Caribbean in the middle of Bavaria: In Wartaweil am Ammersee, the footbridge from the “Froschgartl” invites you to linger.
(Photo: Arlet Ulfers)
Today I try to do my office work as quickly as possible. Because when the wind and weather are right, I go out on the lake: With my mini dinghy, I tack a bit against the wind and then sail over to the Froschgartl, a small beer garden right on the eastern shore of Lake Ammer. So I get a cyclist, sit down on the jetty and think – again – about whether I should write another book or whether I should rather focus on honest work.
Saturday: Rock in Munich
“Jaya the Cat” describes their musical style as “Drunk Rock Reggae”: On Saturday, the band, which was founded in Boston and is now based in Amsterdam, will be performing at Backstage.
(Photo: Pitpony Photography)
Saturday is family day. It starts with us going to the market hall at the Dießen train station together. Our daughters can eat waffles there and later rush between the stands with the many other children. Conveniently, the many other children each have parents who my wife and I can have coffee with in the meantime. My evening program then depends entirely on my condition: If I still have enough energy, I go to Munich and listen to the concert Jaya the Cat in the backstage on. If I’m too lazy for this trip, I relax with an episode of my current favorite series “Detectorists”. In it, the two protagonists (great: Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones) march through English meadows with metal detectors and talk about all things in life while digging old can rings out of the ground.
Sunday: Höhenluft am Königshaus
King Ludwig II traveled to the Schachen every year for his birthday on August 25th to celebrate there. Worship is still celebrated on this day in front of the royal family.
(Photo: Andreas Gebert/dpa)
On Sunday I go to the mountains with my big brother. Last time we hiked to the royal house on Schachen. And because there were probably crazy mushrooms in the sauce for the dumpling, we went even further up to the Meilerhütte below the Leutasch Dreitorspitze. There was a meter and a half of snow there, but we were wearing shorts (it was midsummer). We stayed at the hut and had a good time – until we found out the next morning that we had no more money. Thank God the landlady didn’t keep us there to wash the glasses, and we were able to transfer our bill later. This time I’ll definitely take a few extra euros and long pants with me!
Simon Viktor studied philosophy, literature and political science, worked as a journalist and toured world history as a drummer. Today Viktor works as an artist agent and author (among others for the Bavarian television). His debut novel “Through the World a Riss” about the – today almost forgotten – most serious train accident in German post-war history tells of a difficult turning point in a Bavarian village community.