Great Train Journey - Munich: Part 2 (9 pics)

Like in nearly every other city I visited on this trip (Nuremberg was the only exception), I had to visit some parks while I was in Munich.  Munich doesn't seem to have the sheer proportion of park space that Dresden has, but it has a giant of a park in the English Gardens.  I only wandered around in the very southern part of the Gardens, but they go on for quite a ways north.  To give you an idea, let me borrow a few statistics from Wikipedia:

• They cover an area of 3.73 km squared.
• They contain over 100 bridges
• They contain 8.75 km of streams (length)
• The contain roughly 75 km of roads, footpaths, and bridlepaths

 
As you can see from this picture, they are also a favorite place for locals to bring their dogs.

 It was a very hot day when I was there, so I tried to stick to the more heavily forested areas.

These nice shaded paths were nice to walk, but there are a number of open fields as well.  What they don't warn you, is that one of those fields is one of the places in the city where nude sunbathing is allowed.  I have nothing against nudity, but when you are not expecting it it can be a surprise.  I came around a bend, glanced over into the nearby field, and suddenly find myself looking at a half-dozen or so older gentlemen who are sprawled or wandering around in the buff.  It was a bit of a shock to say the least.  And it was universally, just older men wandering in the buff.

The rest of the fields nearby were also full of sunbathers, but they were all clothed.

As I indicated, there are quite a few streams in the English Gardens.  And some of them have a pretty good current.  So as you can see from the sign, swimming is discouraged.

But of course, that sign was completely ignored and seemingly the entire population of high-school aged kids were out swimming in the streams.  One of the reasons I have so few pictures of the English Gardens is because I did not want to come off as the pervy foreigner wandering around taking pictures of the all of the young girls in the bikini's.  So the camera was mostly put away.

The streams in this area actually got enough speed that the swimmers would be moving quite quickly down the streams and have to grab ahold of something on the side to stop and pull themselves out.  This part of the stream is shallow, but the upper part they are moving into in this picture is right above where the current picks up (off to the left).

 But there are also other gardens in the city.  This is a picture looking over the Hofgarten at the Theatinerkirche.

 And this is the Theresienwiese.  The park where Octoberfest takes place.  As you can see, there was lots of work going on as the pavillions were getting some work.  No doubt preparing for this years Octoberfest.

And I'll leave with this picture.  I honestly don't remember where it was from (the Hofgarten or the Botanical Garden would be my guess).  But I liked it and though I would share.

Have a wonderful day!