Busy Week

Olympic Park -- Olympic Statium

Last week was the third week of the month of July. And time continues to go by so fast it is unbelievable. With all the events and activities we had, the week went by even faster. On Monday we visited the Olympic Center, the site of the 1972 Summer Olympics. Since I arrived in Munich I had been to this park a couple of times before but this time around I took some really nice pictures and did what most tourists do: go up the Olympic Tower. The tower is approximately 291 meters high, it is located in the middle of the park and it also functions as a television antenna. You can visit the top of the tower by going up via a very fast elevator. On the top of the tower you have the best views of Munich. Once up there Munich does not seem to be the big city you would expect it to be. You do not see too many densely built or densely populated areas. There are basically no high-rises. From what I understand, after the destruction the city experienced during the bomb attacks in World War II the city was re-built to pre-war conditions and the number of high-rises that could be built was limited by the local authorities. So far, this one together with the English Garden is one of my favorite parks in Munich. The Olympic stadium, located right next to the tower, has a pretty cool design too. It used to be home to the FC Bayern-Munich until recently, when they moved to the new Allianz Arena. It is now home to lots and lots of concerts. All the major artists who come to Munich have their concerts here.

Olympic Tower* -- View of the city from the tower

* Picture from the Olympia Zentrum website. All others were taken with my camera

Olympic stadium viewed from top of the tower with one of "my students"

As you walk towards the Olympic Center from the subway station, you won’t miss the BMW factory building, the BMW Museum and the still-under-construction-BMW-World. The factory building has the shape of a 4-cylinder engine. From what I have been told by people who work there is that BMW wanted to demolish it a couple of years back because it is a very old building. However city official prohibited the company from doing so as this building is an icon. It is one of Munich´s landmarks. What the government did then was to provide funding and to work together with the company to invest money in renovating the building.

BMW Building-- View of BMW building and museum from tower

Eisbach in English Garden

Taking advantage of the good weather (no rain) the school organized an afternoon day of games and fun at the English Garden (the one I always compare with New York’s central park) on Tuesday afternoon. We got to the park around 3:30-4:00 and what stroke me the most was to see how crowded it was. The place was full of people who were sunbathing, swimming, or playing some sport. I could only wonder why so many people would be at the park on a work day around that time. For most of us 3:30 – 4:00 is when we actually start being productive at work. Oh well!!…we played some volleyball, board games (in German), did like a 30 minute session of Yoga (one of the girls who works at the school is also a Yoga instructor), and went for a swim in the "Eisbach". Eisbach literally means ice creek. The Eisbach is an artificially made creek from the Isar River, which crosses the park on different sections. The water on some of the stretches of the creek is still, but on some others it has a rather rapid current. It is so that in certain parts of the creek a wave forms and people can and do surf. So to say that we swam is acutally an overstatement. You do not have to swim since the current just moves you along. Of course I had to try it; and let me tell you they don’t call it ice creek for nothing. The water was ice cold. The first couple of minutes, while being swept by the current the only thing I could say was:" I’m going to freeze, I’m going to freeze, I’m going to freeze I’m freezing, I’m freezing" I then decided to do apply some of my "It’s all in the power of the mind" philosphy and changed to I’m not going to freeze, I’m not going to freeze I’m not freezing, I’m not freezing . After a while you get used to the temperature and that is when you really start to enjoy being swept by the current. The creek itself was not too deep. I could reach the floor. I would say the water would cover me all the way to my neck; however, it was impossible to stand up as the bottom was very rocky and the current kept swiping you away. Of course the current around the area where we swam was not like the one in the picture. Unfortunately I did not take the camera to the creek and therefore I have no pictures. Ok, I continue. I think we swam for about 5-7 minutes. But then again it is hard to time these things when you are in them. Coming to a stop was also very interesting and somewhat cumbersome. As I tried to hold on to one the rocky sides of the creek the current kept trying to snatch me. On top of it I was cracking up and couldn´t stopped laughing because I couldn’t come to a halt. That made me loose the strength as I was trying to hold on and push me away from the water. Luckily the guys in our group had gotten to that point of the creek ahead of me and they helped me get out of the water. When I got out my ears were hurting. I think it was due to the cold water. However it was A W S O M E!!!!! Lots of fun!! I want to go back and do it again. The not so fun part was having to walk barefoot on a road full of little stones all the way back to where our group was stationed on another part of the park.

Allianz Arena

On Wednesday our group decided to visit the Allianz Arena. This is the stadium where the opening game of the 2006 World Cup (Soccer) was played between Germany and Costa Rica. The stadium is also home to the 2 soccer teams in Munich: the FC Bayern Munich and the TSV 1860 Munich. The stadium is located in the northern part of the city and you can reach it via the subway. It can sit up to 69,900 roaring fans, and it with its roof (partial roof I should say) it will cover all of them. The facade of the stadium is made up of approximately 2,700 panels made of some sort of plastic (Sorry but the tour was in German so I did not really get all the details). On the nights when there are games these panels are lit up based on the color of the team that is playing: red for the Bayern Munich, blue for the 1860 and white for the German national team. When they are lit up, the electricity consumption costs the stadium 50 Euros per hour. The tour lasted 75 minute where they walk us all over the stadium; took us to the press room, the lockers and the VIP lounge, showed us a 5 minute movie on how the stadium was built, and even made us do "the wave" and scream TOOOOOOR!!!!! (goal in German). My only wish now is to be able to go to one of the matches of the "Bundes Liga" and witness a game from the Bayer Munich once the season begins in 3 weeks. However, I’ve been told it is pretty difficult to get a ticket!! So I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Stadium facade and panels -- Partial roof