Munich Photos


It may surprise you to hear that there is surfing in Munich. No need to call the surf report to find out the latest conditions. Munich has the most reliable waves in the world. There is a canal at the edge of the English Garden, the largest park in the city, that runs through a narrow tunnel, which causes the water to run at great speed. Just after the end of the tunnel, there are some rocks at the bottom of the channel and this causes a continuous wave to form. Surfers in wetsuits take turns throwing their board in and jumping on it. No need to tire your shoulders paddling to catch the wave. This is Munich, where you can surf without breaking a sweat and then enjoy a drink at a beer garden, all without leaving the park. After zigzagging back an forth for a minute or two, the surfer dives over the wave and is carried down the canal before swimming to the side and getting out. Despite appearing to be the perfect spot to practice board control, this area is not for beginners. The canal is narrow with a stone slab on one side and timber beams on the other. Furthermore, if you fall off in front of the wave, you may be smashed into the rocks below. One of the surfers I saw was wearing a hockey helmet with a full facemask.

I visited a pebbly beach on the side of the Isar river, which since it was Sunday, was filled with locals enjoying the sun. Most were lying on a towel or sitting on the with their feet dangling in the water. It was strange to see a group of girls, who I guessed were about 14 years old, play in the water and then break out a box of beers. I just wasn't used to seeing that.

Munich is also the headquarters of BMW and is home to the two-building BMW museum. Both buildings are beautiful, but the inside of the tower is a work of art in and of itself. A walkway spirals upwards in a dimly lit area where all the interior contours are curved and wavy. Information about the cars is displayed in glowing partial-spheres and abstract patterns are projected onto the curved outer walls. The lower area of this building was closed, which was disappointing, but I could still see a lot of the cars by looking down from the floor above. In the second building, they actually had an indoor demonstration where a professional driver drove through amongst the crowd of people while overpowering the back tires and letting the rear end drift. I was shocked because it seemed like a huge liability risk.

I met a Australian guy who I hung out with for most of my stay, but the last night we also met an Irish guy. He kept talking about a place called "Arlen", which I assumed was a city. I finally figured out that he was actually saying "Ireland". It was pretty funny having Irish, Australian, and American accents all in the same conversation. The Irish guy also told us he had been playing hurling since he was three. If you haven't heard of hurling before, it's one of the fastest and craziest sports in the world. It involves guys running around wearing no padding, other than sometimes a helmet, swinging clubs resembling field hockey sticks at each other and hitting at ball up to 100 mph. The Irish guy told us the story of a foreign lacrosse player who thought he could take up hurling and ended up losing the ends of two of his fingers during the first few minutes of his first game. The Irish are a wild peoples.