Sorely missed

 

Planters lush with greenery edging the broad expanse of pavement, taught canvas canopies shading the tables, not one of over a hundred outside seats vacant... until this year that would be the picture of Café Schwabing on a sunny Whit Monday holiday. It was a place that invited the flaneur to linger, welcomed the neighbourhood regulars, had a cosmopolitan flair rare in the Bavarian capital.

The corner of Kurfürstenplatz was usually busy enough to ensure entertainment for inveterate people-watchers who could appraise a parade of young parents with their offspring, quietly satisfied senior citizens and the city's gilded youth, the pretty girls and the handsome young men. It was also a perfect vantage point for admiring passing traffic, which often enough included immaculate classic cars driven by their proud owners slowly enough to ensure they were seen and envied.

How bleak and forsaken the corner looks now.