Day 12: Munich, Deutsches Museum

A leisurely day at the museum.

The Deutsches Museum is supposedly the largest science and tech museum in the world. It's been a while since I've visited the many parts of the Smithsonian, so it's hard for me to compare which is larger. Both are formidable ^-^

Whatever your interest in science or technology, you will find plenty to see at the Deutsches Museum. Aside from the sheer size of the collection and wealth of information (you could spend several days here if you had the curiosity and patience), we were amazed by the intricacy and complexity of some of the exhibit models. Detail as we've rarely seen in other sci&tech museums! (Picture is a small part of one model in the drilling section.)


Of course, some of the exhibits are similar to ones we've seen at other museums. And it was easy to tell which of the exhibits were from the older years, for example, the physics and chemistry sections. I really liked the chemistry section, despite the Germany-only explanations. But chemical formulas are universal. And when you see the formula, then press the button to mix the two or three chemicals and see the resulting reaction, well, it's too cool not to be cool ^-^

All the demos were only in German, but we did go watch the lightning demonstration. Really cool! And really loud! What else would we expect from the creation of a 5-foot bolt of lightning and other high voltages? There was a part of the demo where a guy sat in a raised metal ball while it dispelled high voltage charges -- scary, but they probably know what they're doing, right?


We took a short break to buy and eat lunch at Viktualienmarkt in the middle sometime, and then stayed at the museum until they kicked us out at closing time ^-^

Since this is effectively our last day in Munich (we'll be training out tomorrow afternoon), time for a couple of random observations and thoughts...

• Cool escalators that go in both directions. If no one is on the escalator, it stops. There's a pressure-sensitive platform right before the escalator that starts it up. There's such a platform on *both* ends of the escalator so you can either start it going up or down! Of course, it could get annoying if both escalators are currently going in the same direction but not the direction you want!


• Facades for buildings under re-construction. The facade, which is just a well-done cloth or cardboard covering over the scaffolding, shows what the building would otherwise look like. We've seen this in countries, too (e.g. South Korea).


• Munich is an economical city for traveling with a few friends or small group. The partner 'tageskarte' ticket for public transport works for two to five adults, with two children counting as one adult! The Bayern train ticket is similar. So if a couple of more people tagged on to K and me on our day trips out, it would still cost the same transportation-wise!

From all our travels thus far, K says Germany feels the most like the U.S. to him (the standard of living, the way people do things, etc.).