Wednesday May 29

I was determined to use up the last third of my combined ticket, so I took a train out of Zone 1 to the third Deutschesmuseum, in an old airfield to the north. It was the equivalent of $11 for a one-way trip taking twenty minutes from the Hauptbahnhof; no wonder people in Europe don't travel very far.

One there I discovered that there was yet another schloss in the vicinity, with a large open garden, so I strolled in there and had a look around. This one was baroque-style and completely symmetrical around a central canal; this saved time, since I only had to see one side. There were little black squirrels in the grass, and once again I saw a deer -- quite close up and seemingly undisturbed till it heard the voices of an old couple coming the other way. Just call me Francis of Assisi.

I could have viewed the interior and its artworks, but I decided to cut my schlosses and walk to the museum. It's set in empty grasslands, and I found the building before I even knew what it was. It's a lot less pretentious than the other two sections, set in two big old hangars that have been connected by a glassed passageway, and it has the feel of a hobbyists' establishment. The clientele was largely male, and most of them seemed to know each other. Some were flying model aeroplanes in one corner of the hanger, while others were busy in the restoration workshop. As usual, the more modern signs--most of them--included English while the older ones didn't.

There was a bit on the history of the airfield, but the central attraction is the aircraft themselves. These range from simple kites through gliders, flight trainers, commercial aircraft, fighters and bombers. There was a special display with two VTOL craft, one of which had no fewer than four jet engines on the end of each wing to give it upward thrust. The Lockheed Starfighter was there, along with an early model Eurofighter and one of the experimental planes in the US X-series. There were fying wings and the Nazi Messerschmidt. And one plane made over the course of twenty-five years by an unfortunate man whose wife forbade him to use it any more after his first flight. So although the presentation was fairly Spartan, the collection itself couldn't be faulted.

Rather than backtrack to the station I decided to press ahead to the next one via a series of bike paths. I was going fairly well until I got to a sign that said, in effect, 'Path blocked ahead due to bridge construction'. I was going to take the road instead when a party of elderly women ambled out of the path, so I figured from that it must be open, and proceeded onwards. It was a very pleasant walk through farmland by a little creek, and I met a few people coming the other way, so I knew it couldn't be totally blocked. And it wasn't, but the bridge work did require quite a long detour, and I ended up at another U-Bahn station altogether, out in the dormitory suburbs, where I had lunch. Luckily the rain held to a mild occasional drizzle throughout. I suspect if I had approached the blockage I could probably have found a way round it for pedestrians, but I wasn't in any particular hurry.

Back into town by two, I decided to see the Alte Pinakotek, which is a fancy way of saying Old Art Gallery. This was old in the sense of old art, rather than an old building, though it was that too. And luckily for my feet, the bottom part was closed, so I just browsed through a long, long, long series of galleries on the top floor. I tried the free audio guide, but the commentary was just too long-winded for most of the paintings, and they all had written English descriptions at the side anyway, so I didn't use it much. I went through Dutch masters and French landscapes. I went through the vast Rubens room, and then the other vast Rubens room. I spent a while in front of what must be the least-watched Da Vinci in a public collection. And they had a lot of Durer, whom I quite like, including the famous depiction of himself as a Christ-like figure.

Left about four-thirty and ambled back to the Hauptbahnhof through town -- or tried to, since they seemed to be digging up most of it. I still haven't found a real centre to Munich, perhaps because most of my travel has been underground. Anyway, I caught the U-Bahn home for dinner and bed.

Love to all,

Jon.