Sunday Stills : Olympiadorf in Munich

“One Village, One Community”

Forever Young, Olympic Village in Munich

Our spontaneous destination today is Munich. It´s only an hour drive from home so its an ideal family daytrip.This time I wanted to explore more of the Bavarian capital, Munich. Here in Bavaria, we called it “München“. We arrived on time and we still have an hour or so to kill time in order to go to Pinakothek and Rezidenz Palast.We found a great parking spot just beside the Olympiazentrum.In fact, it´s the ideal point for us to see all the nearby sights It´s practically few meters away from the U-Bahn station and just a stone´s throw away from BMW Welt Museum.

It was chilly, windy but the sun is gracious. I packed some snacks for my kid so first we explore Olympiadorf, or Olympic Village. The village is very quiet, perhaps most of them are still sleeping.This is where the athletes of the 1972 Olympics in Munich stayed. The last time we visit the Olympiazentrum, we watched the Metallica concert and went to Sealife when my daughter was only 4 years old I think. This place is super huge but so many things to see that a day is not really enough.

Turned out that the apartments were turned out into comfortable living spaces.They called it ” living in a city within a City”. We saw the model of these living spaces in the Museum of Conrete Arts ( Neue Pinakothek) .After the Olympics in Summer, 3,500 units were listed for rent. Some are furnished apartments and student housings.Olympic Village became quite a trend esp. for students or for those in need of temporary housing. The location was ideal though it´s quite away from the main city center.7 km from Marienplatz, 7.6km from the central station, and also around 36km from the nearest airport. The location is connected by U-Bahn so actually navigating is quite easy.For the record, rents in Munich is super expensive, imagine, a furnished 1 person room with an area of 33 sq./m costs around 1,150 Euros!

What I found interesting are the rows of student´s apartments.These small maisonette apartments were build 4 sq/m smaller than the original ones and with an aim for “cristical historic preservation” but not compromising the student´s budget. Bottomline, a total of 1,072 apartments are cost-efficient and served as model for individuality and minimal disturbance.

Clean up your own room, Olympic Village, Munich

The tenants are allowed to paint their facades in different themes, just like expressing their own freedom of expression and personalities.Here are some of the fascinating “apartments” we´ve seen so far.

I was thinking that maybe my daughter would stay in one of these apartments when she decides to study in Munich someday…

Murals and Bikes goes well together, Olympic Village, Munich

Fleish ist mein Gemüse- Meat is my vegetable, Olympic Village, Munich

The village was built for the athletes participating in the summer games of 1972 and it was quite an ideal location. They won´t need cars to navigate the area and the area of the competition were within walking distances.I have written before that this place was quite historical and marked the Olypic history on Sept.5,1972.On the early morning of this day, a group of Palestinian terrorists called “Black September” hostaged 9 of the Israeli athletes and killing two of them during the massacre.The terrorists demand the released of 234 prisoners and 2 left wing militants detained in Israel.The olympic competition was suspended for 24 hours to commemorate the slain of these athletes.The 2005 Stephen Spielberg film “Munich” was based on this.

We sit in front of the apartment of Connollystraße 31 and reflected what a tragic massacre happened here. Actually it was a hard thing to explain this tragic event to a 7 year old.She just read all the names of the victims.

Walking further through the rowhouses, I was busy looking out for unique graffiti murals on each facade. Each one is unique and the window elements are really fascinating. I even saw the Ukrainian flag hanged in one of the houses which is quite in trend nowadays here in Germany because of the war in Ukraine. The village has a designated places for recycling bins and garbage containers. I even saw few students hurling out matresses from one of the rooms which probably seemed that they are on the move.

The residents called themselves “Olympianer” probably because the whole Olympic park is their playground. The village itself is nestled in lush greens parks and lakes, with plenty of recreational areas nearby. What´s great thing also is that is is connected with major accessibility options.