Blade-Night in the city! And cars stuck in traffic jams on Mondays! During the summer thousands of passionate skaters gather every week on the streets of Munich, given there's dry weather! Over ten thousand people roll tightly through the streets of Munich. Changing routes, sometimes feasible for beginners, but many of them require the art of braking.

State of emergency for the city's traffic? No, it doesn't get that bad. Green City hosts the Blade Night and has Munich's local radio station 95,5 Charivari inform the the city. No rush hour is involved  since the starter's gun is at 21 pm. From Frederics Serviced Apartments the start at Circus Krone can be reached easily by public transport. From S-Bahn stop Hackerbrücke or the tram lines 16 and 17, also Hackerbrücke, it's just a few steps to the start.

Apart from Blade-Night Munich is a great place for skaters. Theresienwiese is vast and only busy once a year during Oktoberfest. The vast space is a delight and if you dare or just want to practise braking you can use the hills around the Bavaria statue.

In Munich's north, in Oberschleißheim, you have two interesting routes at your disposal. One leads along the rowing regatta and the other lies by the castle and airplane hangar of the Deutsche Museum. If you bring outdoor shoes you can visit these two sights during a skating round.

At Ostpark at Michaelibad skaters can combine sports with a beergarden visit. Also beginners will love the greatly entended courses, completely asphaltic and individually alterable. Right next door, in the ice skating rink, there are ramps for pros during the summer. In the city at Englischer Garten the routes are as well individually alterable, but vary more to their big size. Towards the south you can extend the route to Flaucher or Tierpark Hellabrunn (zoo) so that it adds up to 20 kilometers.

If you want to skate to the alleged origin of the "Radler" (half beer, half lemonade), the Kugler-Alm, you must go to Perlacher Forst. No matter if you start from the restaurant with a beergarden near Deisenhofen or in Harlaching: the routes are paved and only on weekends there's more traffic. The Olympiapark, easily reached from both Frederics Serviced Apartments, is destined to challenging skating with its broad paths and heavy divides.

A bit outside Munich, at the former airport of Neubiberg, you will find not only skaters, but also cyclists, paraglider and model vehicles. From there it is far to Landgasthof Werner in Hofolding. From there you can use traffic a calmed route to Aying and back again. The beergardens along the route provide the necessary refreshment. For all activities you should always use protective equipment: helmet, hand-, knee- and elbow protection.

by Dietmar Stanka