Munich -- Part 1

This weeks postings are brought to you by the wonders of Facebook. My cousin Henry posted that he and a friend were making a last minute trip to Munich and Budapest around this first weekend in October. So, I plunked down my credit card at the travel agency here in Viterbo and less than 24 hours later, I was on a flight from Rome to Munich to spend the weekend. This will be the first of three posts about the weekend. Henry and his friend Roland flew in and arrived Friday morning. My flight landed at 7PM and I took the amazingly efficient and clean Munich S-Bahn to meet them as they were finishing up a day at Oktoberfest. Yes, there will be pictures and details of my participation in days to come.

The three flags that fly over Munich.

Henry and myself

The Rathaus at Marienplatz on Saturday morning

Henry and Roland, both iPhone devotees, were consistently tethered to their phones. It got us lost, but that story will be upcoming.

A typical Bavarian/German breakfast spread

The muesli was beyond words. I went back the next day for a second bowl.

We stayed in a hotel that is located in the Olympic Village, about a 10 minute U-Bahn (subway) ride from center city. Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Olympic Games.

The athletes village was converted into living units and sold as condominiums. There is plenty of commercial property as seen by this bakery.

Here's a map of where each country's athletes were housed.

Many of you older than me remember the tragedy of the murder of 13 Israeli athletes during the games. Here's the three units in which they murders happened. As you might imagine, there is a memorial and they are vacant.

The Olympic complex is, like the one in Athens, open to the public and the facilities are used.

In the past six weeks, I've been to the Olympic Stadiums in Athens, Rome and Munich. I guess this gives me a reason to go to Barcelona, Berlin and Helsinki.

The Munich Olympic Wall of Fame. Mark Spitz the Michael Phelps of his time.

Wonder where bands like Roxette go?

A typical Munich Street. I have to say that Munich is a beautiful, functional and attractive city. No wonder it is continually rated as one of the top cities in the world.

On Sunday, Henry and Roland had an 11AM flight to Budapest. My return flight to Rome left at 3PM, so I took the opportunity to walk through Munich's main park, the Englischer Garten.

As you can tell, the weather was perfect all weekend. The park is full of paths, rivers, bridges, fields and even a horseback trail.

A wooden pagoda in the heart of the park

Only in Bavaria would a Chinese restaurant also have a biergarten.

Looking back at center city Munich

Of course, the Englischer Garten has to have an English style garden

I get to the airport and as I'm in the security line, I see Henry and Roland. They missed their flight. As we were waiting, we started chatting with Justin (right) who is an architect from Hong Kong living in Genoa and working for the world famous architect Renzo Piano. I'm going to be visiting him there sometime.