Random Thoughts

Well, it depends of course both on your physical fitness, time at had and whether you define "around Munich" as "within the city itself and its immediate surrounding era" , or whether an hour away from the city in the direction of the Alps also counts. I shall therefore start with the easy ones and go f or a grand climax of a mountain tour. ;)

Within the city of Munich, nice to walk even if your knee or foot should still trouble you:

1) Nymphenburger Park. The park surrounding Nymphenburg Palace. In addition to being a nice park, it has four tiny little mini cottage-palaces within, all Rokoko, and they're open in later spring, summer and early autumn. (The central palace itself isn't half bad, either, but that wasn't asked.) There's both a reasonably good coffee shop and an actual restaurant for the hungry and exhausted. One can reach the park via streetcar.


2) Der Englische Garten / The English Garden . Largest park in Munich, and I do mean large. Offers something both for easy strollers and people wanting to exhaust themselves. One of the modern attractions, the surfing wave of one of the rivers, is currently gone and the cause of much acrimony between the city administration and the surfers. Another attraction reliably shocking or enticing a certain brand of tourist is the fact that in summer time, a lot of Bavarians come here topless to sun themselves on the lawn. Architecture-wise, there is a nice "Chinese Tower" around one of the most popular beer gardens exists, and a Japanese Tea House, but mostly, like a park should be, it's trees, trees, trees, and large lawns. One can take both short and loooooong walks, depending on the time. Because of the size of the park, there are several entrance points close to subway stations available.

3) Olympiapark : what it says on the label. Originally created for the 1972 Olympic Games. Still very very popular to walk or jog through. The arena within it is very popular for concerts (I saw both Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen there.) Offers, among other things, a nice view over the city and to the Alps from one point. One of the starting points for hiking can be reached via subway.


Still within Munich, but incorporating the suburbs:

4) Isarauen/ Isar shore. From where I live in Munich, cutting through the Englischer Garten to the Isar shore means you can then turn left or right and in either case can do some really nice and lengthy hiking. If you go left, you eventually end up in Freimann near the arena where our football (soccer to Americans) club Bayern München plays, i.e. a place of much ire and admiration, depending how you feel about that club; due to the arena, there is of course a subway connection, so what I do is walk along the Isar to the arena and then go home by tube. Conversely, if you go right, you first walk in the general direction of the city centre and can see our Bavarian parliament building on the other side of the river, then in the middle of the river the Deutsches Museum (one of Germany's foremost science museums), then if you walk on you're leaving the centre behind and head towards the belt area. Most of the way is an appealing mixture of (mostly) trees and architecture. Though if Itake a really long hike, I take the Isar shore road from the opposite direction, i.e. I take the subway to Thalkirchen, where the Munich zoo is, and walk back from there in the direction of the centre. Hardcore hikers and bikers can go even further by S-Bahn and walk or drive back from Wolfratshausen.

Both Isar walks are something for when you have half a day or longer to spare.


Far Over The Misty Mountains:

5) One of my absolute favouriite hiking spots from all time is reached via train from Munich. One takes the train to Schliersee (that's about an hour), then hikes from Schliersee to the Gindelalm, from the Gindelalm to the Neureuth Alm, and from there it's possible to go down to either Tegernsee (town) or Gmund (also located at the Tegernsee lake). They both have a train station and you can take the train back to Munich, which again takes an hour. Now you don't need to be a hardcore Alpine sportswoman or -man to do this - it's not that difficult a way, upwards and downwards - but it does take at least two hours, usually more, to reach the first Alm. So this is only an option if you have the entire day to spare.

The other days

cahn tells you more about how these two attempts to brighten up our lives came to be here, but I can't resist sharing them over here as well. Both are filks of We didn't start the Fire for the 18th century. The one with my lyrics is somewhat Prussian centric (though it includes other nations as well) and chronological, plus it ends with the arrival of the French Revolution which started a different era of history, while mildred_of_midgard went for an non-chronological, but all encompassing approach, covering the French Revolution and Napoleon's debut as well. Enjoy (we hope!)