Vacation Pictures - The English Garden

Bavaria's kings decided to make their capital, Munich, as pretty as possible, so they commissioned a series of parks for recreation. The largest of these is the English Garden, a swath of green about three miles long by one wide. There are several artificial lakes and streams in it, fed by a small diversion of the Isar River.

Now, I know I posted this picture before, but it bears repeating - yes, that's a surfer. The Isar River is reasonably fast-flowing, and narrowing it through the diversion speeds it up. The waves you see are caused by a series of concrete baffles just under the surface to slow the water down.

Pretty, eh? A lot of the Garden is just huge open fields where people can hold impromptu soccer matches, run, let their dogs play, or (in summer months or in warm weather) sunbathe naked in certain spots.

Like all big cities, Munich does have a graffiti problem, as you can see. Some of these marks are gang symbols.

A Chinese Tower in an English Garden. Well, why the hell not? There's a restaurant to the right in this picture, and a biergarten further on. I had bratwurst there for lunch.

Further north of the Chinese Tower is a large artifical lake. You can rent boats there and enjoy the simple pleasure of rowing among the ducks.

South of the Chinese Tower is a Japanese tea house, on a small island. It was closed when I visited.

One of the entrances to the garden. There are a couple streets and numerous paths crossing through the park.