More Munchen, More Munchen, More Munchen

I told you there would be another post about Munich and here it is. This time, I’ll hit Olympic Park, Schloss Nymphenburg and Allianz Arena. I may come back in another post with some passing thoughts, but we’ll see how that goes once I get to Vienna.

Olympic Park, as you can probably guess, includes a series of structures built for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Now, I don’t remember the 1972 Olympics, but other than Mark Spitz’s seven gold medals, everything I know about them is bad. First there was the September 5 massacre of Israeli athletes. The only thing I can recall about the Olympics is the Soviet Union’s ending of the United States’ perfect record in Olympic basketball after a very controversial call or calls. Those are the thoughts that I had in mind as I strolled around the area.

I have to say that most of the sports arenas on the complex look alike, and not attractive at all. I went by the Olympic pool complex to see where Mark Spitz made history. I also took an unguided tour of Olympic Stadium to see where Bayern Munich played its home matches during the height of its power. Both were sort of disappointing in person, but it was still an interesting experience.

I took an entire morning to go by Schloss Nymphenburg and never even made it into the Palace. The garden and paths around the building are not only beautiful but also immense, covering several acres. I don’t know much about the history of the place, so if you want to know more you can google it, but I spent a few hours strolling through the gardens and taking pictures. It appears to be very popular with the early-morning joggers and with good reason. I didn’t get a chance to visit the Palace or any of the other buildings on-site, but I needed to get to a soccer match.

As usual, I won’t go into too much detail on this site about the soccer match. I will say that it was between two second-division German clubs, TSV 1860 Munchen and FC Paderborn. It was held at Allianz Stadium, which is the home of Bayern Munich and, I believe, the site of the 2006 World Cup final, where Zinedane Zidane made his famous career-ending head butt. I know I haven’t been to many European football fields (five on this trip, so far), but I can’t imagine a more perfect place to watch a match. Every seat looks like it is right on top of the action, and that’s not easy in a place that sits 80,000. As before, there will be a review of the stadium on my soccer website if you are interested, and even if you aren’t.

Okay, that’s it for now. I’m going to enjoy the Austrian pastoral views from my train window as we close in on Salzburg.

Stay tuned.