Munich's Olympiapark & BMW Welt

Hi everyone!

I'm continuing the photo-upload madness. Enjoy!

27 August, 2008

On our third day in Germany, my three (architectural) comrades-in-arms and I went on a jaunt to Munich's Olympiapark, followed by the BMW Welt ("welt" is German for "world") and the BMW Museum. These boys like BMWs. The day was sweltering, with humidity adding a lovely overtone of oppression to the heat. Sunlight made sweat trickle down our backs and forced us to squint at everything. But it was amazing.


Fresh off the subway, Heath and Lyndon attempt to read a map to try to figure out how to get to the Olympiapark. Little did we know, it was immediately behind the gigantic building that was right in front of us:


The building turned out to be the BMW Welt, designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au architects, but we didn't realize that at the time. We just thought it was awesome and thus took pictures.


Another shot of the BMW Welt.


Yet another.


Lyndon takes pictures like this. He looks ridiculous, but apparently having the camera strap wrapped around him allows it to lend stability to the camera, similar in theory to a tripod. I still laugh at him though. =)


After we found the Olympiapark - a faraway shot of the stadium and other buildings, designed by the firm of Behnisch and Partners.


Super awkward/blurry photo of me in front of the far-off park.


After quite a long walk along some shaded paths, we finally approached the main Olympic buildings.


The Olympic Spire and a bit of tensile structure. Trivia time: The Olympics were held in Munich in the summer of 1972. They were supposed to show the world a new, lovable Germany after that whole World War II debacle. Unfortunately, though, the entire Israeli Olympic team (11 athletes) was assassinated during the games by Palestinian terrorists. It was pretty horrific.


I was actually sitting on this support beam to take this picture. It was very hot.
The large, horizontally oriented piece of stone in the center of the photograph is a memorial to the athletes who were killed during the games. It isn’t attached to the beam above it.


The same beam – this is where it goes.


Lyndon and me under the steel-and-plexi-glass, tensile covering. This photo was taken by Heath on his camera.


This tensile structure is beautiful, and although it seems fairly tame nowadays, it was entirely ahead of its time.


Lyndon, me, and Brandon, enjoying the shade under the structure. This photo is also from Heath’s camera.


The sky was gorgeous.


Just checking out the structure, like a bunch of architecture geeks. Notice how huge that support is in comparison to the boys.


The Olympic Stadium. We had to pay 2 euro to get in. It was extremely hot and we had no water. But it was beautiful! So we walked all the way to the other side and then back again.


View from the other side of the stadium. The seats are varied in color, and the effect makes them look the exact color of the grass. It’s hard to tell in this photo, though.


You could pay an exorbitant fee to go up this crazy ladder and walk around the edge of the roof. It sounded very hot and very terrifying, but awesome. We didn’t go, though, because it was by appointment only.


Around the front of the stadium there was this lake and gorgeous landscaping, complete with the hill shown in this photo. See the highest point of green? That’s where the guys decided we needed to be. So we went up this massive hill, with me in the rear, wheezing heavily with exertion.


The view was totally worth it. (Click on this, or any, photo to see it full-size)


The BMW Welt from far away. Check out that vortex.


The Olympic Spire – it has a revolving restaurant on the top, apparently.


Another photo from Heath’s camera – he set it on a step, put on the shutter delay, and ran into the picture with us.


Another use of Heath’s shutter delay. Gorgeous.


Tired after the hike to the hilltop. Note the extremely German man in the background.


After hiking all over the Olympiapark, we found the front of the BMW Welt.


Random shot of the BMW corporate building and the museum, which is that bowl-shaped thing to the rightish. These buildings are across the street from the Welt.


Complete with lovely, awe-inspiring vortex.


Brandon wants to know why exactly I’m snapping a shot of him as he crosses the road. The vortex is cool.


The inside of the vortex was a car showroom, with a ramp spiraling up the sides. The ceiling was odd – this is it.


Brandon, Lyndon, and Heath ogling an engine. Priceless faces.


This is inside the main part of the Welt. Pretty cool.


There was a big display of BMW bikes inside the BMW Welt. Needless to say, we tried them out. This is Heath, by the way.


Brandon looks just a little too happy…..


I could get used to this. =)


A shot from the ground floor of the Welt, looking up to where the bikes are on display. Great massing.


There was a bar that sold bottled water inside the Welt, and we’d been parched ever since the Olympiapark. We took a break on this oddly curving, leather sofa.


I have TONS of pictures of cars, but I think this one is the coolest – the Hydrogen 7, the car that runs on hydrogen.


Proof.


Another shot of the inside of the Welt.


One final exterior photo of the BMW Welt, taken from just outside the BMW Museum.

After the day before at the BMW Factory and the whole BMW Welt experience, I was completely sick of cars, and more specifically, boys talking about cars. So I sat on a posh leather couch in the museum lobby while Lyndon, Brandon, and Heath paid an exorbitantly high price to walk around and see a bunch of old BMWs. Albeit they were in beautiful condition, and there were rare ones, and the building was really cool, I just didn’t have it in me, hehe.

Later that night, we attempted to find a restaurant that was listed in Heath’s Munich guidebook. We took a subway to this oddly suburban, residential area of Munich, and then we wandered around, marveling at the quiet emptiness of the whole neighborhood, still looking for the restaurant. Finally, after much wandering, we found the place tucked away behind a fence. It was a biergarten, fully outdoors, complete with a football-field-sized area crammed with picnic tables, shaded by huge trees, that contained what seemed like most of the neighborhood. Everyone was drinking beer and eating ribs and having a grand old time. The food was amazing (I had half of a roasted hen!, the boys had ribs). We spent a long time there, hanging out and enjoying the ambience of the place. I wanted to take a picture, but I didn’t want to photograph a bunch of people I didn’t know and psych them out, so I settled for this:

If you go to Munich, go to the Taxisgarten.

Thanks for viewing, and thank you to everyone who has commented so far!
Love,
Rachel