Picking it up where we left off in the previous post, I was able to sort out everything regarding the public transport, and now it was time to explore. I did have a few places in mind even before coming here, but when I actually had the chance to go to those places, I basically froze, and couldn’t decide what to do and where to go for a few minutes. Of course, with the limited time that I’ve had, I really couldn’t afford to throw away any more time to my indecisiveness.
In the end, I thought I would go to the Allianz Arena first, as I took one of the trains going that way, but then I changed my mind, and I’m glad that I did! So, the first thing I went to check out was the Manchester Platz. A memorial dedicated to the lives of Manchester United’s players and staff who lost their lives in the plane crash in 1958, marking the place where the crash happened as well. I’ve been wanting to go visit the memorial for a long while, with so many times driving past Munich but never going in. I finally got the chance to see it now, and I will admit it made me quite emotional. Not to the point of shedding a tear or anything, but it was still difficult to think about the crash and the lives lost. You listen to the stories, and watch documentaries about it, but actually being at the place where it happened is a completely different story. Nothing can prepare you for that.
The memorial is quite far away from the city centre, and any major public transport stations, so it took me about 20 mins of walking to get there, and then back to the station again. Have done as much walking today in these 3 or 4 hours as I usually do in a week or 10 days while being home! 😀
Next up was another football related location, the Allianz Arena. Like I mentioned previously, I’ve driven past many times, seeing the stadium from afar, but never had the chance to get closer to it, let alone seeing it light up as it does in the evenings. So that was also one of the factors I considered when deciding where I wanted to go first. Using what little daylight I had left to go see the memorial, cause even if it was dark when I reached Allianz Arena, that wouldn’t be such a problem. You can already see what the stadium looks like before they turn the facade lights on in the cover photo of this post, and it looks amazing already. However, when it lights up, oh my god!
To be honest though, I nearly missed it being lit up, I was slowly giving up on it, as I have been waiting for about an hour by that point. But I said to myself, okay, I’m going to walk away slowly and try to spend as much time as I could being in the vicinity of the stadium, just in case. I decided to sit down at one of the benches they have set up close to the stadium, and I can’t remember what exactly I did, but when I looked up again, there it was! The stadium was all lit up!
Good thing it was so dark already, if anyone saw my face in that very moment, they probably would have thought something’s wrong with me! 😀 This made me so happy that I literally ran back to the spot where I waited earlier, where that photo up there was taken. Seeing the stadium lit up like that on photos is one thing, but seeing it in person, with your own eyes, something completely different! And at least me waiting and standing there for an hour wasn’t for nothing! 😀
From Manchester United memorial, feeling all the heaviness of the crash (after all this time), to being super happy because of some lights, it just shows what a roller coaster of a day I’ve had today. True that I had a few other things in mind to go check out, but unfortunately, time is a virtue I didn’t really have too much of today, but I’m still happy with what I was able to see nevertheless!
I ended up going back to the hotel, go for dinner and even though I had some thoughts about spending some more time exploring, I changed my mind and headed back to my room, get some rest and sleep, because another long day awaits tomorrow. I know I will spend another 6-odd hours on trains, but after that, things will surely start getting more and more interesting, so stay tuned and see where we’re off to next!
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