After a late morning chartered flight, we arrive in Munich around 11am. Our checked luggage was driven overnight, so we are able to pick up with a panoramic view of Munich right away! We spend most of the day at Olympic Park- viewing the olympic pool, the walls recognizing all the champions of the ’72 olympics, and finally a memorial to the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at the ’72 games. While the Olympic community has yet to recognize this tragedy at any of the games (and has concluded it will not make a moment of silence recognizing the 40th anniversary), it is important to recognize that this memorial is forever linked to the Olympic park.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, sometimes we don’t have the words to properly express a moment. Music and its counterpoint, silence, serve as ambassadors, awakening the soul to a new realm of being when words don’t do the moment justice. A somewhat impromptu el malei takes place as members of two of our buses are gathered around the memorial. A todah rabah to Hazzan Bob Scherr for chanting so beautifully, and allowing that space, in that time, for a moment of silence. Having just viewed a short documentary on the bus about the Munich games, the moment was so fresh in our minds.
So where’s the video? I finally realized that if these moments were such “it” moments, I probably would forget to video them because I’d be engrossed in the moment . That’s ok- means we had an experience that cannot be recreated in video or in blog form.

We made our way to the hotel, a few blocks from the old city center. I came to Munich once- as a layover on a Pizmon Musical Outreach Mission six years ago. At the time, I found the places we visited in our short time there (mostly in the historic district) gave me the creeps. There was an eeriness to the fact that Germany recreated historic Munich for the ’72 Olympics (it had been decimated in WWII)- as if to say “lets forget what happened; we’ll rebuild and go on with our lives). Having spent a few more days in Munich, I do believe I’ve softened that sentiment to some degree. We’ll explore more of historic Munich on Tuesday.

PS- I was 1 for 1 this evening as Einstein’s (pronounced Aynshtayn) was an amazing kosher restaurant. The shnitzel/morrocan skewers/cholent/brisket clearly made up for the friday night fish dinner.