Bus trips for seniors at a low price, with great destinations and without selling electric blankets?
Helmut Ganslmaier organized this in Poing for 20 years.
Now the 83-year-old stops.
Poing – A trip for seniors without the participants knowing the destination beforehand, a bus trip without electric blankets or other sales campaigns.
Is the?
And how to do it!
Helmut Ganslmaier from Poing has organized and carried out exactly 100 "surprise trips for Poinger seniors" over the past 20 years.
They were all fully booked, the atmosphere was always great and the fare (including admission and tour) was always more than reasonable: 17 euros.
After the 100th trip, Helmut Ganslmaier announced: That's it.
He will no longer organize trips, "at some point it has to come to an end," says the 83-year-old.
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The destination of the 100th trip was the glassworks in Kufstein.
© Private
On April 4, 2001, he carried out the first surprise trip – to the Riedel glassworks in Kufstein.
He only announced his destination – like the 99 times after that – when he left the bus.
That was one of Helmut Ganslmaier's ideas.
The other: The destinations couldn't be too far away, departure was always in the early afternoon.
And: It has to be affordable and interesting for the participants at the same time.
The trips always took place in the spring and summer months - but not during the times of corona lockdowns and restrictions.
Exclusive guided tours in Munich and the surrounding area
"I was always just a commuter, now I want to give something back to the community." Helmut Ganslmaier said these words more than 20 years ago when he presented his idea of the surprise trips.
Commuters between his place of residence Poing and Munich, where he had worked.
After he retired, he started with the surprise rides.
Organization, implementation, all the trappings were done by Ganslmaier on a voluntary basis.
Thanks to many contacts that he had made during his professional years and many ideas, Poinger always managed not only to find surprising, but also interesting and sometimes unique goals that are not so easy to get to.
For example, the exclusive tour of the porcelain factory and workshops in Nymphenburg Palace.
Or:
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Five years ago, Helmut Ganslmaier opened the Kulturroute in Poing-Süd together with Peter Dreyer (left).
© J.Dziemballa
The 100th trip led to the destination of the first surprise trip on April 4, 2001: to the Riedel glass works in Kufstein.
There were four guests of honour, who were already riding at the time: Elisabeth Werner, Christa Meyer and the couple Erika and Heinz Bittner.
As always, the participants in the fully occupied bus only found out where they were going when they left.
What was new was that Helmut Ganslmaier announced another surprise on the way home: that this had been the last trip.
(By the way: Everything from the region is now also available in our regular Ebersberg newsletter.)
Or maybe not?
"It would be nice if it would continue," says Ganslmaier.
Just as was the case in 2013, when his wife, who had supported him on the trips, died after a serious illness.
Poinger says he wanted to stop, but: "My wife said: 'Go on, you need a job'." But now, at the age of 83, it's over for him.
In the hope that successors will be found who will continue the surprise trips in 2023.
Poing: Ganslmaier continues as a local historian
Speaking of the task: Helmut Ganslmaier will remain with the people of Poing as an active local historian.
He is one of the initiators of the historic Poinger Kulturroute, which is installed with information boards in the old part.
Again and again he takes interested people on short walks along the route and tells stories about the old, former farms, buildings and customs in Poing.
Just a few days ago, he received another request from a teacher who wanted to hike along the cultural route with several classes as part of her local history lesson.
If the tradition that has accompanied Helmut Ganslmaier's surprise trips over the past 20 years continues, it will also be a beautiful day in terms of the weather: "Of the 100 trips, only three were rainy," he says and smiles.
Successor wanted: Anyone interested in continuing the surprise trips for Poinger seniors should contact Helmut Ganslmaier, phone (08121) 8458.
You can find more current news from the district of Ebersberg at Merkur.de/Ebersberg.