Bad smell along the river Isar - Munich

I happened to cycle along the Isar yesterday, from Prinzregentenbrücke to Liebigstrasse, one short city block. I am used to the smell of the sewers sometimes being noticeable at various places around town (Odeonsplatz for one), but the stench rising from the Isar almost took my breath away. It was so bad that I was retching and had to resort to mouth-breathing just to avoid having to smell the almost gangrenous air coming up from the riverbed.

Is it this bad along other stretches of the river? Can it be due to the relatively low water level, leading to exposed and now rotting water plants? Any insight and warnings are welcome, I would hate to organize a bike tour along the river only to be driven away by the stench.

A build up of algae can be pretty wiffy towards the end of summer.

But is this really Munich News?

Is this as exciting as life in Munich gets?

I could tell you that the chain barring the access to the Feldherrnhalle will be removed. Sorry we can't provide you with any xenophobic attacks in the past few weeks; maybe things will be looking up during the Wiesn.

I went for my usual morning run along the Isar up to the A99, Isar smells normal all the way between the Mittlerer Ring and the A99, can only talk about that stretch.

I go from Prinzregentenstr. all the way down to past the Wittelsbacherbrücke twice every day and haven't smelled anything out of the ordinary. I was gagging at some horrible smell on the road recently myself for a block, and when a huge furniture delivery truck turned off I noticed the garbage truck that'd been hidden by it. Maybe the same happened to you?

Nope, no garbage truck or tractor-trailer combination picking up the leftovers from Bayerischer Hof and taking them to the pigs. It was from the bridge all the way down to Liebigstrasse, and not just a whiff, this was stagnant stench.

'fraid so. Ever been to Munich? The Isar is one of the two nicest things about Munich (the other being the English Garden). The Isar often stinks, sometimes it is so bad that I wonder how people can swim in that water. A week ago we took a walk on the riverbed and boy, the stench was so bad that we went back. You know the smell of Volkspark Hasenheide on a hot day? Perfume in comparison. Now you know why this made it to the Munich News. A stinking Isar is a thing to fear. Munich in general often stinks, depending on the wind direction. The smell of chemical fertiliser from the surrounding farms often gets blown into the city. Give me exhaust fumes any day, this farm air is certainly the most vile-smelling thing ever. Taking a ride in a convertible and eating something at the same time is an absolute no-no.

Well today it's kind of greenish brown, instead of the nice clear green it has been all week. I figure something got dug up upstream, because when it's rained a lot it's a very light opaque brown. Maybe this evening it'll have cleared up so I can take a dip. Near Badewasserqualität! Besides, the surfers are in it all the time.

[url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/I5h38W/3020315/Isargrillen-Wo-Muenchen-glueht.html]Nice article from the Süddeutsche about Isargrillen

I love the smell of "Mist" in the morning. It smells like...ahhh...a farm

aphid poo?

That was what was blamed for an unpleasant odour in Helsinki city centre last year. Apparently, the wrong type of leaves (thought that was just a British rail excuse) fell and encouraged aphids to poo a lot!

The horror...the horror.

majorbummer, I have to thank you for making me laugh with your last line re driving in a convertible and eating a sandwich.........I was feeling a little sorry for myself........arbeitlos and freundlos..is that a word.....but that comment mad eme laugh out loud.....

oops eating something not sandwich........

Sure some river surfer hasn't gone missing?

I thought IE6 users only travelled by horse and cart?