I never get tired of Munich, and it’s a short flight (well relatively short compared to other places) from Atlanta to boot.

No pun intended. This is the Olympic Village in Munich. Some may remember the tragedy associated with it, during the 1972 Olympics. If I were to try to think of a defining moment for the birth of modern day terrorism, this would be it.

Restaurant near the Marienplatz in Munich, it was mostly empty when we sat down for dinner. All the ‘Reserviert’ signs though made it clear that the place was going to be pretty busy after we left.

Back from Germany and back in the local time zone (slept till 4:30 this morning, yeah), finally getting around to posting again. This is one of the pedestrian walks leading up to the Hofbräuhaus, a required stop for any trip to Munich. We did miss the Octoberfest, but there was plenty of Octoberfest beer left, in many places drawn from wooden barrels. There’s just no describing the flavor an authentic Octoberfest beer has. Lets just say my first beer back home was a bit disappointing.

This photo was taking with my new 70-200mm f/4L image stabilized lens, hand held at 1/25th sec at 70mm (about 110mm if you include the crop factor of my Xti), focused on the ‘Fan Shop’ sign. I’m pretty pleased how the IS works. My choices were an f/2.8 or f/4 with IS (f/2.8 with IS was a bit steep). The IS gains you about 3 stops vs the 1 stop. Seems like a good choice.

We ended up with a BMW :) as a rental car, and I got it up to 220km/hr (almost 140mph) on the way from the airport to Munich, before I ran out of open road. The speedometer went up to 260, maybe next time we’ll have a little more road.

I have never seen so many beer gardens as I did in Munich a couple of weeks ago (I’ve been traveling quite a bit, hence my lack of visits to your sites). It seems if you walk a few blocks in any direction you’re sure to find one tucked away in some plaza, backstreet, or in the yard of a building complex. Beer gardens originally were places were one could bring the family and food, in a picnic like setting, and buy beer and other beverages to go along with your meal. Nowadays of course they also sell food, traditional meals such as Schnitzel, Haxenbraten, and Hähnchen, all cooked to perfection. If you look closely you’ll see old folks, young folks, kids, and even strollers. The tradition lives on. In about a week I’ll be enjoying a little more of the tradition, and a car that will be able to do easily 220+ kmph, instead of a van that peters out at 185 :)

The Olympia Tower in Munich’s Olympia Park, home of the 1972 Summer Olympics. The total height of this tower is 955 ft, with the observation platform, from which you can see the Alps, being at 623 ft.

For other skywatch photos go here

The picture is self explanatory. The Germans take their environment pretty serious, and this sign is for the ‘Ecology Democratic Party’, one of the many political parties . Personally I wish we had a multi party system over here. Sure there’s the potential for grid lock, but on the other hand it forces parties to form coalitions if they want any of their agenda implemented. Everyone gets some of what they want.

Located just outside of the the Olympic Park, the BMW Headquarters is one of the landmarks of Munich, and was declared historical in 1999. This photo was taken from the Olympic Tower, itself at 950 ft high another landmark.

After nearly a week in Munich, finally got out to take some photos. This one shows the Marienplatz, the center of town, where the Rathaus and its famous Glockenspiel are located. In case you’re wondering how I got that vantage point, it was taken from the tower of the Frauenkirche, one of the tallest churches in the area.

One of the dozen or so nooks lining the entrance into the main section of the Ratskeller. Many of them occupied with small groups ranging from a couple friends to families, having dinner. Quite cozy, or as they say in Germany, gemütlich.