A Day in Munich

Last Friday morning, I flew to Munich, Germany ahead of our work conference here this week. It was a really great day. After arriving at the airport, I headed down to the train/metro. I had a little trouble figuring out where I was going in German but fortunately found the center of the city. Once there, I met up with my American friend who lives in Spain. We headed out walking down the main thoroughfare of Munich. I had one place and one place only that I wanted to see. That was the English Garden. I had heard about it from my French friend and saw video of people surfing the infamous standing wave at one of the canals in the park.

We walked and walked. Finally, we found the park. Also, there are bicycles everywhere in Munich. It seems to be the #1 mode of transportation. I almost got run over. There are two paths. One path for walkers and two paths for bikes and they will not hesitate to run you over. So, we walked and stumbled upon the surfing spot. It was really cool to see. I took lots of pictures and even a short video. The surfers would line up on the left and the right and jump in on the wave. It wasn't a huge wave but was enough to ride back and forth and do a few moves. (see video below)

Next, we walked to Pizza Hut and had some good old American pizza. This was followed by a nap in a really nice little park. One really cool thing was the groups of musicians playing classical music all over the city to try and collect some money. Later, we hit a Starbucks for some Frappucinos and cinnamon roll. We ate dinner at a nice little Indian restaurant. I ate the Tikka Massala and drank some water that turned out to be 6 euros and not free.

Finally, we were walking back to my friends' hostel and saw two demonstrations going on. One was a concert/gathering to support Iran in some way or fashion. The second was a group of Nazis or the German National Party who were being protected by police. They were demonstrated against the German army fighting in Afghanistan or something like that. Some people in the crowd were not happy with them and yelled things and unfurled banners. The police finally marched them out and to the subway safely without incident. It was very interesting to behold in this day and age.