Tuesday May 28 -- Deutsches Museums

Definitely rainy, so a good day for museums. I looked up the closest and walked north along the river Iser to the Deutsches Museum of Technology. The walk itself was interesting; the river is quite big and quite fast, and obviously floods now and then, so on the eastern side there is a broad stretch of empty ground for it to occupy. I was able to walk along here most of the way without getting my feet too wet, and it was a popular spot with other walkers and cyclists -- especially those with dogs.

The museum is on an island, and the river actually splits in two before that, with one side running level for boats and the other going over a weir. It didn't look navigable at the moment, though -- it was running fast and I guessed it was fairly shallow. And the water is an odd greyish-white colour, possibly from limestone. The local water supply is quite hard.

The reviews were a bit mixed on this, so I didn't know what to expect, but it turned out to be a highlight of the trip. The museum itself is in a huge old building with various clocks and sundials and things which was built for an Expo in the 1930s. I bought a combined ticket from the office outside for this and the other two Deutsches Museums, for land vehicles and aircraft. The woman behind the counter was keen to let me know that the other two museums were 'not here', but I assured her that was fine, since the tickets were open-ended.

The museum had been open for half-an-hour and there were already many schoolkids there, but it's so vast that I often had much of it to myself. I began with the mining exhibit in the basement, which involves a long, twisty walk through narrow tunnels studded with full-sized replicas of miners hard at work. Having covered lignite mining in detail, it then went on to show gold mining, silver mining, salt mining and coal mining as well. It took nearly an hour just to do all that.

Then there were machines of all kinds -- person-powered, horse-powered, wind-powered, steam-powered and electrical, usually with some full-sized replicas or originals. Metallurgy in incredible detail. Machine tools, set up ready for use. A vast hall with boats and submarines on the ground floor and extending into the basement, with replica cabins from a cruise liner and a real U-Boat. In the mezzanine, various aricraft, including a model of my Zeppelin. Ascending again there were mathematical and measuring devices, electronics, ceramics and glass. On the top floor astronomy. It was all just phenomenal. Nearly everything had English signage, and the best part was that the exhibits themselves had obviously been set up over a period of decades, and they encapsulated the interests and methods of the time. In some ways it was a history of museums as well as a history of technology.

It was after two when I came out, and there were still bits that I had missed. I found a lunch place and had a much-needed coffee and a pastry -- a 'Hawiianer', with ham, cheese and pineapple on a danish base -- and set off to use the second part of the ticket at the Vehicle Museum. 

Munich metro is much less friendly than Frankfurt. The signs are less clear, the distance between stops is further and the trains themselves are older and more rattly. You can't buy tickets at bus and tram stops. And as we discovered in London, it's sometimes quicker to walk to your destination than to walk between platforms that are supposedly located in the same station. In some ways it seems about ten years behind. But I got there without too much hassle and -- once again -- was astonished at the breadth of the collection. Cars, bikes, motorbikes, trucks, trains, trams, and even a funicular carriage from Switzerland. Everything (I think) was in English and the place was almost deserted. I spent an hour and a half wandering around, and after that I was quite ready to return home for a rest. I'll probably use the final third of the ticket tomorrow.

Love, Jon.