Is this Japan or Germany?

I’ve been walking around Munich with a camera since losing my job recently, and I genuinely had to stop and ask myself where I was.

Every April, for roughly two weeks, Munich transforms into something that looks completely impossible for Germany. What most people don’t know: the cherry trees in Olympiapark are 54 years old and they came from Japan. They were a gift from the city of Sapporo for the 1972 Olympics. Munich hosted the Summer Games. Sapporo hosted the Winter Games. The trees have been blooming here ever since. I love that back story!

Fun fact: Munich gifted Sapporo a Maibaum in return which apparently stands in the city centre.

If you follow this sub, you might have seen my last post about the cherry blossoms at the Westfriedhof bus stop — that one was picked up by Süddeutsche Zeitung today, which genuinely took me by surprise. What’s interesting is that the two locations bloom at different times: Olympiapark goes first, usually early April. By the time the last petals fall there, Westfriedhof is just getting started. So if you time it right, you can chase the blossom across the city for almost the entire month.