Day 151-visiting the Olympic Park

   June 3-It rained during the night and it was cloudy this morning.  Since it was supposed to be warm today, though, we decided to wear shorts.  We headed off to the bakery to buy pasteries and other bread products and over to the Zink’s to eat at their place and to drink some of their espressos. 

   Once we were sated, we all headed to the Olympiapark, which was the site of the (infamous) 1972 summer Olympics.  We went to the top of the Olympic tower, which is a radio and TV tower that is the highest structure in Munich at 950 feet tall.  The viewing platform is 620 feet up the structure and we got some nice views, even though it was overcast.  We could even see the Alps.  We wandered around the grounds a bit more and then stopped at the old Olympic Village, which has been repurposed as student housing for the local universities.  With students come restaurants and we stopped in at a Chinese one for dinner. 



Munich city center and the Alps beyond.



The Hays family on top of Munich.



Hape strikes a pose with us.

The Hays family poses in front of the Olympic stadium.  Or, is that DIA?

BMW headquarters, showroom, and factories.  The white
structure in the upper, left-hand corner is the impressive,
modern stadium for the Munich soccer team.

   Next door to the Olympic park is the headquarters of BMW, where they recently built an opulent showcase that was free to enter.  We had fun walking through it and seeing the new cars and motorcycles.  Now, if I had an extra $100,000 lying around, I could buy one of them!  Maybe if the Euro keeps falling they will become affordable (yeah, right).  The kids got a kick out of seeing BMW’s only real attempt to break into the mini-car market in the 1950s, because this was the car upon which the German professor was modeled in the most recent Cars movie. 





It looks like this motorcycle is too big for Julia.

And this motorcycle looks to be too big for Spencer.

But this car looks like it is just the right size for the kids!



Even sitting and waiting is done in luxury at BMW.

   We finally pulled ourselves away and made our way over to the Hauptbahnhof, where we figured we might find a general store open to buy some conditioner for the girls’ hair.  Since it was Sunday, stores were forbidden to be open, except for “emergency” travel purposes, so that was the reason we went to the train station.  We were successful in our search and we also showed the kids some of the Deustsche Bahn’s fast (up to 250 mph) ICE trains.  We also spent a short time at the children’s center, which had a display about jungles.  We all headed to our respective homes for an hour’s rest and relaxation, before we met up again and walked over to a pizza restaurant for supper.  The pizza was great and Alex got to have some gnocchi, which is her favorite pasta.  We also finally found some dunkles Hefeweizen to drink, which is more common in the winter.  We returned to the hotel, the kids played with their toys a bit more, and then we hit the sack.

The Hays family enjoyed their time in Bavaria!