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Published: October 22nd 2017
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Geo: 48.1391, 11.5802
(Sean here.)
Wrapping Up in Munich
Following the emotional rollercoaster of leaving one of our fellow travelers, we were off to the next leg of our adventure – Munich's Olympic Park. This makes Erin's and my third venture to a former Olympic venue (Barcelona and Athens previously), so we were excited to see what Munich had to offer. After another 45 minutes on the bus, we pulled into site of the park and were greeted with masses of traffic. Why you ask? Well, a true icon of pop music happened to be in concert that evening – Mr. Jon Bon Jovi himself. Perhaps you don't share my affinity for Jon Bon, but, needless to say, I was pretty excited. When asked if we could trade in our Bratwurst dinner evening for a little "Living on a Prayer", however, Manuel responded with, “No, you could not afford it anyway.” He said it was sold out and tickets would be about 300 euro!
So, after my moment of disappointment in not getting to see Jon Bon, we were off to explore the park. Erin, Tony, and Kayla were off to the radio tower to get another sweeping view of the greater Munich area. Meanwhile, Jared, Caroline, Hannah, and myself, crossed the park to take in the sites at the BMW museum (By the way, BMW stands for Bavarian Motor Works – be sure you don't say British Motor Works or the Germans get upset!). There we were greeted with an amazing array of vehicles priced well out of our price range. The display was very impressive with a number of interactive sections showing the various BMW engine styles, giving you opportunities to drive virtual BMW's, and allowing you to sit in a couple BMW's current products. Unfortunately for us, the museum closed two minutes before we arrived, so we were only able to see the public display and walk through the gift store. The construction of the building itself is a homage to the automobile with one section representing pistons, one representing valves, and one a spoiler.
The Olympic park itself was beautiful with sweeping hills of trees and green grass, bike paths everywhere you looked, an island full of free hammocks for weary park goers to rest their legs, and cascading waterways full of fish and waterfowl. The buzz of the pending concert added a little excitement to the air as well as eager concert goers streamed past. I guess the tower was pretty cool, too, as you can see from the picture included.
We wrapped up the evening with our Bratwurst dinner at one of Munich's many Brauhauses (brew house) locations. I ordered the seasonal brew (which was quite delicious), savored the Brats and sauerkraut, and struck up an enjoyable conversation with an older Irish couple seated next to us. We discussed dairy farming, Dan Rooney (US Ambassador to Ireland and former Pittsburgh Steeler owner in case you did not catch my odd conversation topic link), and President Obama's recent visit to the wife's hometown in Ireland – a small town that is apparently home to some of President Obama's ancestors and that required extensive security preparations for the visit. Ultimately, we wrapped up another evening at Hotel Mercure in Munich and prepared to depart in the morning.
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dad
non-member comment
gotta love the BMW factory! and the bratwurst looks like it's from the pages of Sunset magazine!