Day 11: An Afternoon in Munich

A brief note from the Brussels airport, where we’re waiting for our flight to Munich. Our flight out was stupid early, but I wanted to get into Munich with time to hit a museum.

We took the train, obviously just waiting for us to board at the station, to the airport in Geneva. Public transport passes were included with our nightclub stay, so I found myself with an excess of Swiss francs at a chocolate shop. Oh, the horror! The delicious, delicious horror! Geneva was good to us, and we’re leaving with recommendations to fill another day should this prove a convenient stop on our next European adventure.

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And now it’s late and I am tired. Our luck is wearing thin, I think.

I've wanted to visit the Deutsches Museum in the center of Munich since Miriam blogged about it a ways back. She didn't seem to love it, which I think indicates a serious fault in her judgment. Our flight was scheduled to arrive at 1:30, and the museum closes at 5. We’re staying at the airport Novotel, so even with the 40 minute S-Bahn ride into town, should be plenty of time, right?

Except that the luggage was delayed. And the hotel isn't actually at the airport. And inside the airport, the signs direct you to the hotel shuttles to wait – there is even a Novotel logo on the shuttle sign, but there is no Novotel shuttle. Careful inspection will reveal that the airport shuttle that runs to long term parking says Novotel (on the actual shuttle, nowhere on any of the signs), which we figured out eventually. Then we got directions to the S-Bahn, and of course the ticket machine wouldn't take our money, not when the train we needed was right there in front of us. And then when we boarded the next one, we found out that due to construction, this train no longer goes all the way to the stop we need, so we’ll need to transfer to another train. Oh, and then the train just stops for a while just outside of the station where we’re supposed to make the transfer. This. This is how I expect travel to go.

We get to the museum a little after 4, which is so late that they just wave us in without tickets. And, luckily, the portion I’m most interested is the set of steam engines right near the front.

Bill is not sure he'll be able to get me to leave this room full of junk ever.

Possibly a valid concern.

 

Just look at how pretty this is.

Oh! An opened up turbine engine! Lucky day!

I could really use more giant dials in my life.

Or steam powered trains.

 

Or steam powered space ships.

Bill gets more comfortable as we move into electrical devices.

And high voltage lighting strike simulators.

Back outside.

Goodbye, Museum, we knew you not nearly well enough.

So, that sort of worked out, but I would have liked to have stayed longer.

Afterwards we roamed the adjacent park for a while.

Obviously you'll want to know everything about the river you're crossing.

Yup, it's full of water.

Maximilianeum.

One of many street art panels in an underground tunnel.

Friedensengel.

A closer look at the angel of peace.

Grabbed some beers and tried to figure out where the hell we were and what we’d do for dinner.

Hello, beer.

Bill remembered that I had found a promising looking restaurant in our travel guide, so we headed off in the correct general direction, with some missteps.

I have no idea where we are.

And eventually found it.

Hello, different beer.

It also rained a bit while we were eating, but our table was mostly dry thanks to the foliage. Basically, the only effect from the rain was to keep people from sitting in other tables, and ensure we had a quiet meal. While we were finishing the last of our beers, I offered the table to a pair of gentlemen considering the outside tables. One was French and the other Egyptian, and we chatted a bit about Munich, Carcassonne, and Cairo before we headed back to the S-Bahn.

For a rough start, the day turned out fairy well.

Tomorrow I get to try driving here.

Day 11: "Airport Hotel", Deutsches Museum, Dumplings

No sleeping in today.  This morning’s rise and shine is a brutal 5:30 AM.  We have an early flight from Geneva to Brussels to catch.  Thanks to the free public transportation cards that were part of our hotel stay we’re able to catch a train at the train station that drops us off at the airport.  I should point out how amazingly lucky we've been with public transportation in Geneva.  Everytime we want to go somewhere we figure out what tram or train number we need to catch, look up, and that tram or train is just waiting there for us about to leave.  That’s how it worked again this morning.

The Brussels airport is very nice indeed.  Dawn comments that this must be the airport that other airports are built in the image of.  It’s clean, quiet, busy but not crowded.  Our luck sours a bit when we get to the Munich airport though.  Dawn has booked us into the Novatel which claims to be an “airport hotel” so we naively start looking for signs for it when we get off the plane…. Eventually I didn't so much find signs for the hotel but clues as where I might want to go to search for the next clue about it’s location.  Eventually we end up outside waiting for a bus to shuttle us there THAT WE HAD TO PAY FOR.  When the magic bus we needed finally did show up it wasn't even parked in the location that the clue said it would be.  After a short ride we were dumped off near the long term parking for the Munich airport.  Now I ask you, does that count as an airport hotel?  What logic is there in I need a hotel AND long term parking?  It’s stupid and I’m tired and that’s not a great first impression Munich Novatel.

The room itself is pretty nice.  After we check in we have to turn around and leave to try and catch a train to Munich city center.  There is a museum that Dawn wants to visit that closes at 5:00 and we wasted an hour trying to find our “convenient” airport hotel.  The train station is a short walk and it’s another 40 minute train ride to get to Munich proper.  All of our public transportation luck must have been used up in Geneva because there is also construction going on the necessitates that we get off at an earlier station and change lines...which just adds more time onto the trip.  By the time we get to Munich it’s just before 4:00.  By the time we find the Deutsches Museum it’s about 4:05…. we now have less than an hour.  Due to tight schedules we've have to barnstorm more than one museum on this trip.  We gird our loins and prepare to appreciate this place on a deadline.  The ticket people just wave us in without paying because it’s so close to closing.  According to wikipedia the Deutsches Museum is the world’s largest science and technology museum.  This place is huge spanning multiple buildings and locations.  Fortunately the exhibits that Dawn wants to see are up front in the building we’re currently in so we plow right into them.  The contain all of the early steam engines, turbines, and electrical generators.  The rooms are awash in gleaming brass, and copper, and in muted iron and steel. They are very very cool.  The museum is huge so we aren't able to cover all the ground in our 50 minutes, but we see what we came for and have a good time.  

After getting kicked out of the museum we walk through a park along the river for about an hour.  The weather is of course perfect and we have a nice relaxing stroll.  Eventually our thoughts turn towards dinner.  We stop at one or two cafe’s but the menus don’t really catch our eye.  We finally decide to grab a beer and regroup.  At that point we realize that Dawn found a really promising place to eat in our Munich guide book and it’s not that far of a walk from where we currently are.   We head that direction and visit Wirtshause in der Au that specialized in Bavarian home cooking.  Dumplings in particular.  

The place is packed so we can’t eat inside.  Fortunately they have a bunch of outdoor seating… but the clouds look threatening.  We decide to risk getting rained on.  We order two dishes.  One is a dumpling sampler that comes with dumplings three ways.  The other is a pork and duck dish that comes with yet another type of dumpling.   All the dumplings are excellent.  The duck leg is also very good.  The pork was bit dry for my tastes.  Towards the end of our meal it starts to rain...but it never really gets going.  We’re able to finish our meal without having to break out an umbrella.  On our walk back to the train station the weather holds out until we duck into the underground portion.  By the time we get off the train by the airport it’s done raining.  We’ve had the best luck with weather so far.

Day 11: Food

This is probably the most colorful food we ate in Germany.  From here on out the color pallet skews to white and brown.

Day 10: Diplomacy, Detectors, and Dinner, Geneva

Today is the day of exciting confirmation email number two:

We are going underground, so everyone needs closed-toed shoes.

But more on that later.

We slept in a bit, and didn't get quite as early a start as I wanted. As we can’t pre-register for a tour of the UN with just two people, it’s not like I could make firm plans for the tour anyway. So imagine my surprise when Geneva, with seemingly no effort, bent itself to my will for basically the entire day.

We walked to the closest tram station to look at the map and a tram labeled “Nations” pulled right in. Which took us to the gate at the front of the complex, not the visitor gate. We had a pleasant walk around with a shortcut through a park.

A pleasant walk through a park full of statues.

The website said the English tour was at 10:30, which was exactly when we arrived. In reality, the tour is hourly and we were in time for the 11:00 tour, so we had enough time to get through security and visit the gift shop before then. The tour consists of some of the history of the organization while visiting 3 of the meeting rooms. The Human Rights review of Ethiopia is currently in progress so we didn’t get to visit that particular room, but here are the ones we did see.

We have found the correct entrance!

Look at me all visitor badged.

The first meeting room, where the tour guide covers the history of the UN. Switzerland only joined a few years ago.

The halls are decorated with artwork from all over the world.

This painting depicts one of the League of Nations success stories.

This room has a lot of marble.

The ball no longer spins, but still looks cool. Thanks to "changes in security" we aren't actually permitted to walk the grounds.

So many lovely rooms.

Ceiling in this meeting room painted by a Spanish artist.

As are all of the walls.

I'd recommend clicking on these to see the full size versions. Each panel defines human progress in a different arena.

The last meeting room we get to visit.

We arrived back at the tram stop in time to catch the tram back to the transfer point for Tram 18. At the transfer point, I grabbed a sandwich and our walk to the station ended with the right tram just pulling up. Tram 18 goes to CERN - where else would I be excited about going underground. Ian, our tour guide is a physicist, who is a coworker’s cousin.

Because, obviously, if you’re going to tour CERN you should do it with one of the researchers working at CMS. As one will.  

Section of a magnet.

Silicon detector close up.

Strands of wiring.

Yeah, I'll pretty much touch anything you let me. This is much heavier than it appears.

He handed us over to another tour guide for the underground portion of the tour. Right now, the detector has been opened up for upgrades.

The hard hats are tracked, so if there is an incident, first responders can locate everyone.

We're underground, but not all the way just yet.

There are lots of servers here. I promise it gets more exciting.

Oh, good. Stairs.

About 48 hours ago, they opened up this portion, making this the best possible time to see the detector's innards.

Our first peek.

Just look how big it is.

And the upgrades and maintenance are ongoing.

This is the eighth wonder of the world as far as I am concerned.

Ah, the romance.

We have quite a few more pictures.

What do you think? New profile picture?

So, yeah, that was pretty incredible. I’m just blown away by the complexity (technologically and politically) of the project and how successful they’ve been. It’s amazing, and I am so thrilled to have gotten to see this.

Also, it’s traditional to have a beer on the patio at 5:00, so of course we did.

Almost 5. Beer soon.

Just amazing. I am so glad we were able to do this.

And, obviously, the tram back was waiting for us when we were ready to leave.

How do you even follow up seeing one of humanity’s greatest technological achievements? How about a 7 course tasting menu at Michelen star restaurant? With a view of Lake Geneva and live music filtering in from the next room? Well, I guess that will have to do. Our table was right at the window, so we got to enjoy night’s slow descent while eating an amazing meal Bill will surely detail in his post. I would have a hard time picking a favorite course. The veal was amazing, but so was the foi gras. The muscle who’s shell was actually a biscuit? Maybe the chocolate course?

The view from our table.

All in all, quite a good day.