More Munich, A LOT MORE MUNICH!!!

Last blog was a lot of excitement and craziness for one day, and though many other things were worth mentioning, I believe getting to tell you about my first day's experience was a must, but now onto more serious business.

Ever since the second day here in Munich we have been going to so many places that I cannot even believe myself. I feel like these few days in this city I have seen enough to be worth the tuition fees charged for this program. Maybe because I am in love with this place so much, or maybe because I am just truly blown away by it all. I will try to summarize some of the places we have visited very briefly on this blog post, and for the record, we have only had one day of good weather here in Munich. This rain has been merciless, so much so that my toes are starting to get cold. This is alright though, every time it gets too horrible our professor brings us inside to another museum… we never waste a minute of our time.

5/26/2013 - Koningsplatz / BMW World and Museum

We visited Koningsplatz (King’s Square). We learned that it was the result of the first German design competition. King’s Square is actually a sequence of squares celebrating the king. During Hitler’s reign of terror, this square was a Nazi party headquarters, and they would perform those parades with thousands of military men. It was in this plaza where “the burning of the books” took place. This was the time were Hitler decided to destroy every piece of art, religion, literature, and culture that went against what he believed was right, or somehow correct. Alongside this square there are some Greek looking buildings that are museums. We went into the “Glyptothek” which is a museum of Greek statues.

Koningsplatz (King's Square)

Glyptothek (Museum of Greek statues)

Check out that awesome beard, and the grapes in his hair.  Such a Hipster!

Lady in the back is all mad, and is looking at the one in the front
with extreme jealousy.  She is thinking: "Ugh, I hate her! Why does
she get to keep her nose, and not me?"

Yours truly next to the bust of a nice Greek man.  

We also visited Maximilian Platz, the Wittelsbacher fountain, and of course BMW World and museum. BMW World is phenomenal. The architecture of those buildings is mind-blowingly futuristic, and absolutely the kind of architecture that I love. These museums consisted mainly of beautiful curves and enormous glass panels and metal beams. Inside, an impressive array of BMW machinery is displayed. There are cars, motorcycles, motors, etc. BMW is one of the biggest companies in Germany, and a Munich powerhouse. Munich is one of the richest cities in Germany, and you can really appreciate it in sites such as this one.

Wittelsbacher Fountain (Michelle, me, Ellen, Erik from left)

BMW World / Museum

Inside BMW World

Futuristic Concept

BMW Building

View from outside of BMW world.  Ramp towards BMW museum.
Awesome architecture.

Panoramic view of BMW World.

Let's pretend this is real... 

5/27/2013 – Riem

We woke up really early and made it almost to the edge of the inner city. This day we visited Riem to learn more about how Munich deals with re-developing the city, and its open spaces. Riem used to be the area where the old airport used to be. When this airport became defunct, Munich implemented planning regulations that divided the site’s use in thirds: One Third designated for jobs, the second third designated for housing, and the last third designated to parks and recreation. Riem’s “park” system is outstanding. They managed to create parks towards the outside that look like forests, and in addition they also feature a lake of crystal clear waters that get recharged by underground natural water.

Sculptures of the Alps to scale.

Sculpture on the steps walking up to a plaza in Riem.  Steps take you
up from the train station onto a business/shopping area.

Riem maximizes use, and employs a system of green roofs.

A small park extending into the city from one of the "Green Fingers".  These
Green Fingers are fingers of green and nature that connect the park to the city.

Abflug : Departures.  Old airport "Departures" sign preserved as part of the
landscape.  Reminiscence of what Riem used to be. 

Grids of trees part of the landscape design of a section of Riem's open
space areas.

Side view from a grid of trees.

Art piece / Sculpture:  Dandelion made out of drying racks.

Pond at Riem.  The water that refills this is natural underground water.
The plan was to go swimming here, but it was too cold, and rainy!
Bad Munich!

A lot of Riem's plan for open spaces consider children.  One of the
many swing sets found along a road of the park.

"Preaching" at the Christian rock. 

This structure represents the religions of the world.  Each one of the stones
contains symbols of each religion.  If you stand in the middle of it, and speak,
the sound will echo and spread around the circle.  It is great for speaking to a
crowd.

One of the many users of Riem's community gardens.  Many of the
area's residents get a small plot on the garden.

Beautiful sheds by community gardens.  For use of the gardeners and
residents only.

Bridge over the pond.

Playing around on a hamster wheel at the kid's section of the park.

Ah, to be a kid again! Regardless of age, we all played here as kids, and
parents watched.  Oh well.

Children's area at Riem's parks.

Panorama of a section of Riem.

View of the Alps on the distance.  Such a beautiful view!

5/28/2013 - Izar River / Olympia Park / Hofbrauhaus

Waking up early here is the norm, but at least no rain in sight. We started the day at the Office of Green and Open Space Planning in Munich, and it was extremely helpful to see how a city deals with not having a lot of space to develop on, and making the best with what is available. After the office visit, we went to the banks of the Izar River, which is the main river that runs through Munich. This river has a very rich history, and is responsible for the early economic success of the city since the middle ages. We learned about the plans for the river, and the mission of said plan. The main aspects are to prevent floods by broadening it, to revitalize its ecological aspect, and to provide recreation for the people. On nice days like this one, many people come to the banks of the river to sit around for a picnic, and further down some others come to swim, and to do some skinny dipping, and things of that kind.

Panoramic view of Munich taken from the building where we visited the Office of Green and Open Space Planning

Munich sites that can be seen on this picture (from left): Media tower by
Olympic park, BMW building, Munich cathedral, Marienplatz towers.
See if you can spot them all, and pardon the facial expressions... It was sunny!

Getting my feet wet on the Izar River!

Some people relaxing and picnicking by the water.

The "cool kids" hanging out under the bridge.  Very nice graffiti!

Door frame sculpture.  Art along the banks of the Izar.

People sunbathing on the other side of the river.  There were also nudist, and

that is also perfectly normal during nice days.  

Zum Flaucher Beer Garden on the other side of the Izar.  We stopped here

for lunch and drinks.  

Another view of the Beer Garden

Meal and Beer.  This was a Radler, which is a beer-based mixed drink.  It is

beer mixed with soda or lemonade.  Very very refreshing for a hot day like this!

Later in the afternoon we went to OlympiaPark (Olympic Park) and learned about its relevance, and importance. I could say one million things, but pictures do absolutely more justice to this beautiful place than any amount of words ever could. If you ever visit Munich this is a place you MUST* visit. It was also extremely relevant to our majors and future careers. We were able to appreciate the interaction between buildings and landscape, and at the same time visited a place that was built for an incredible amount of people. A true success in open space/park planning and design! 

Crossing the bridge over to Olympia Park (Olympic park)

Canopy structure over Olympiahalle, which is a multi-purpose arena.  It used
to be the venue for gymnastics and handball events during the 1972 Summer
Olympic Games in Munich

Walking under the tensile structure.  A great structure that expands
a good area of the park.  Phenomenal engineering, and calculations
went into creating this.  A tensile structure is a structure where the
elements are carried by tension.

Panoramic view of Olympiapark from pedestrian bridge that connect the park to the Olympic village area behind it.

Map of Olympiapark.

Olympiasee: Pond at Olympiapark. 

Artificial hills in the back.  These follow the theme of that year's Olympics:
"green Olympic games."

Walking up one of the artificial hills of the park.

Panoramic view of Olympiapark from the tallest hill.

Olympic Village: This is the list of all the countries that attended the Olympic
games of 1972 in Munich (The list is larger than whatis pictured, of course!)
  This list show the building numbers assigned to every
country.  I think it is a funny coincidence that Colombia and the USA were
in the same section, because I am Colombian, but live in the USA.

Olympic village, and open areas around it.  These became regular apartments
after the games ended.  Many students live here, as well as others.  This complex
thousands of people of all kinds, and backgrounds.

An example of the building architecture found at the Olympic Village.

At night we went to eat and drink at the Hofrauhaus, a must for all tourists. This is the place where they will serve you a huge pork leg, and a one liter jug of beer, and you will love it, alright? Believe me, the leg thing might look a little excessive, but once you start munching and drinking you will feel as glorious as a Norwegian viking who just slayed a dragon. Think Medieval Times on steroids (and I mean that establishment where "knights" joust as you eat with your bare hands, not the actual epoch). The awesome thing is that the waiters can pick up like 28 of these monster jugs all at once when cleaning out your table… it is impressive. Scrawny me was barely getting by holding the monster container with only one hand, and here comes Felix (not his real name) and picks up 28 at once. Thank you, Felix! Thank you for reminding me that I need to go to the gym, ok?... Oh, and thank you for your service, and helping me with the menu in a language I do not understand.

Hofbrauhaus entrance.

We had a big group that night.  Our tables were the two tables up against
the wall and doors.

One liter of beer!

Holding up that jug against my face for scale!

Our waiter taking away everyone's beer jugs all at once.  Very nice guy, too!

PS: I wanted a souvenir from here, but everything was too expensive. You can ask for "chipped" beer glasses (they always break when people do the "PROST!"), but if you are lucky enough they will just give you a good one that is not broken, or chipped! I saved the 30 Euros it would have cost to purchase the stein.

BTW, "Prost!" is like saying "Cheers" or something like that when one toasts with drinks.

- Arturo Sangregorio says "Prost!"