Jogging

Nymphemburg-Front facade with Swan´s Pond

On Monday I went back to school and started a new course level: C1. This is the first part of the advance level where we now don’t use a textbook: we mostly read newspaper and magazine articles as well texts on particular subjects. The goal is now to expand on our vocabulary and also to learn a lot of synonyms. Last week for example we read and completed grammar and vocabulary assignments related to marketing and economics: market niche, market share, market leaders, products, revenue, stocks, dividends, surplus, deficits, price dumping, etc; and the verbs and expressions related those terms. This week we have learned so far a lot of vocabulary related to crime: different types of assaults and/or felonies, words used in the court (judge, jury, different types of attorneys, laws) etc. Believe it or not this has helped a lot in understanding for example the news on TV. We also continued improving our grammar and based on our input the teachers have focused on those areas were we have weaknesses. Now that the summer is basically over and we are experiencing the first signs of the fall, there are less students in the school. It does feel different not to see so many people and hear so much commotion in the mornings before class and during the break. Last week for example there were 6 students in my class. This week is only 3 of us. With this being probably my last month going to school to learn German, this is actually a good thing. It should give me a chance to work together with my teachers on those aspects of the German language that I need to strengthen.

Once again the week just flew by between school, getting together with friends for dinner, a movie, a coffee and a couple picture taking tours in Munich; and with my housekeeping activities: cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, laundry, and ironing. I’ve also been very good and disciplined with my jogging. I’m jogging 4 times a week and for the past 2 weeks I have increased the time to one hour. This has allowed me to reach further the parks where I normally jog (parks which are close to where I live) and discover other pretty and cool areas within these parks. I leave my house (I jog in the morning when I don’t have class and in the late afternoons when I do have class), turn on the i-pod, begin jogging and then decide which direction I want to go: Northwest to Schloβ Nymphemburg or Northeast to the Olympia Park. As a matter of fact, before moving to Munich I always wished I could live near Schloβ Nymphemburg, the Olympia Park or the Englisher Garten (my 3 favorite parks) so I could go jogging there. So not bad, I’m close to 2 out of 3.

SCHLOβ NYMPHEMBURG
*Disclaimer: some pictures are a little bit blurry since I took them while jogging.

Canal leading to Nymphemburg Castle ----Section of the Castle from its garden

5 minutes after leaving my house I reach the grounds of the Nymphemburg Castle: a very long canal that runs along 2 streets and ends up on a pond full of swans right in front of the castle. Schloβ Nymphemburg, which used to be the King’s summer villa and was later transformed into a castle, is the birthplace of King Ludwig II and even tough it is not as striking as most of the castles located outside of the city (specially the ones built by Ludwig II) I still find it to be a very pretty one. To reach the castle I jog along a special road for joggers, bikers and walkers that is right next to the canal. The only obstacle along my journey is having to wait for the green light to cross the main road that leads to the entrance of the parking lot for the castle. Well…actually depending on the day of the week and the time of the day I may also have to overcome another obstacle: the tourists who get out of their tour buses and just stand there without looking or paying attention to the oncoming traffic of joggers and bikers because they are too busy looking at the castle, taking 58,000 pictures, making videos of the swans and ducks that swim on the pond, and feeding the ducks pieces of bread and crackers.

20 minutes after leaving the house I find myself jogging past the castle’s entrance/ticket booth and stepping into its garden. What most tourists see, which is the same I had seen until recently, is the first section of the garden with its nicely shaped bushes, colorful flowers, statues of Greek and Roman gods, and its big fountain in the center of it all. But if you continue past the garden this one eventually turns into a 500-Acre park (Nymphemburg Park) which is also home to the city’s botanical garden (I’ve only seen a very small fraction of the park) From what I’ve seen so far, the park is a series of forests connected via several gravel paths that divert in all directions. To jog along these paths is a pleasure. It is very quiet and peaceful. Since there are a lot of trees the air feels very cool and fresh. You can sense the pureness of the air as you breathe in. This weekend I already saw the leaves of the first couple of trees change their color to a yellowish tone and I also saw more dried leaves on the floor. With a temperature of 15 degrees Centigrade (about 53 Fahrenheit) and a cloudy sky as I was jogging on Saturday morning I can say that the first signs of the fall are here.

Tourists, Tourists, Tourists -- Gravel paths inside Nymphemburg Park

I discovered this new feature in this website which allows me to upload videos. So I have decided to add a very short video I made while jogging on Saturday to test it. If it does look good I may add a couple more videos related to some of the stories I’ve told you before.

Jogging in Nymphemburg Park - Video

OLYMPIA PARK

Jogging trails in Olympia Park

8 minutes after leaving my house I reach the grounds of the Olympia Park. 5 minutes later I’m enjoying the beautiful views of the park: the stadium, the lake, the TV tower and the BMW building. This park has several jogging trails that go for 3, 5 and 7 kilometers long. Inside the park there is also a small hill which gives you the chance to jog up a trail and get an even more intense workout out. Here, the only obstacle I have to overcome is crossing one big intersection located just before the entrance to the park (the intersection between Landshuter Allee and Dachauer Str). I usually just jog in place for a short time until I get the green light to cross the 2-3 lane streets and the 1-2 lane tram corridor. Well, and I also make sure not to go to this park on Saturday afternoons since there is usually some sort of concert or event taking place at the Arena or the Stadium. This makes it almost impossible to jog without having to stop for the crowds coming into the park to attend these events. The paths on the park are on the most part wide and give you plenty of space to avoid once again the tourists that are taking pictures of every possible and imaginable angle of the stadium or the BMW building, the many couples that go for a walk on the park, the parents pushing their baby strollers and the park employees who are constantly moving all over the park either setting-up or dismantling the tents, stages, booths, and platforms for the different festivals, fairs and events that take place there.