2018 Olympics: The Decision
Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 9:00 The 2018 Winter Games were announced today, and (sniff, sniff) Munich did not win. They'll be held in Pyongchan South Korea instead.
After months of campaigning and signs everywhere, Munich held a day-long party culminating in the broadcast of "Die Entscheidung," or The Decision at a couple of public viewing points. The biggest festivities were at the BMW World by OlympiaPark, which would have held many of the games.
We stopped by Marienplatz to watch the announcement. It was far more crowded than the average summer tourist Glockenspiel viewing - actually very close to the point of being dangerous. Rather unusual for Germany and its usual efficient crowd control!
Despite not having a win to celebrate, they went ahead and released the balloons and shot off some cannons or fireworks or something from the tower as the crowd quickly dispersed.
All in all, it was a nice bit of sun on an otherwise busy work day! And any perfect summer day is a day worth celebrating!
P.S.....I really don't know what this was, but had to take a picture. If anyone knows the story behind these types of vehicles (and the related crazy Austrian backpacks), I'd love to know! I'm not sure how to describe these in English, so I have no idea where to begin Googling them in German! But I'm curious.
Here's the Austrian cousin we saw at the World Cup downhill skiing event
Frau A ... 2 Comments Germany & German Culture, Sports tagged Munich, Olympics ... Print Article Email Article Share Article 
Reader Comments (2)
That's a Wolpertinger... it's a mythological creature that is supposed to be found in the Alps and they run around in circles. There's a shop on Tal that sells them. Creepy!
Wow, thanks! I'm going to have to research these guys further....I saw a postcard of one this weekend at the autobahn stop where we bought a vignette for Austria.