It took a really long time to get to Munich from Strasbourg. This is because there was a lot of snow and ice on the rails that does not allow the train to pass over at high speeds due to safety concerns. At one time, the train came to a stop and then could not make it up the slight gradient because of ice. It had to back up and then build speed.
When I got to Munich it was very dark, I was cold and tired. I stayed with a German lady who is a friends of someone my mother knows in Raleigh. I arrived at the apartment around 9 or 10 PM. She cooked dinner for me and then I went to bed. The 26th of December was pretty much spent just traveling.
When I woke up the next day, she had already prepared a large breakfast of toast, eggs, cheese, ham, orange juice and coffee. She explained the Bavarian (south german) culture to me. I spent the day just walking around Munich. Munich has a lot of old buildings that are very impressive, yet still has brand new shopping districts. That is what amazed me the most, Heidelberg was old while Stuttgart was new; Munich was both at the same time. The city is very large. Interestingly enough, I found myself walking along l'Isère, the river that runs right by dorm room in Grenoble also runs around Munich, so next time I visit Munich, I could try rowing there.
I walked around the shopping district where the main cathedrale is. The food in Germany is closer to American style than French style. They have a lot of sandwhich shops where you can walk in and out very quickly with either a sandwich or hotdog for less than 3 euros. The coffee that they drink is also what you find in America, the French drink what we call Espresso, if you want American coffee in France you have to ask for an Americano. They love to eat pretzels while they drink beer. Hot dogs are also taken very seriously, I ate many
Bratwursts,
Weisswursts and plates of
Currywurst while I was there.
The cars that I saw on the street were incredible. Tons of 5 and 7 series BMW's, in Germany they often prefer station-wagons rather than coupés or sedans. There were also lots of big Mercedes and Audi's, the Germans love to drive big powerful cars from their own country, the French do the same with Citroën, Peugoet and Renault, they however prefer small compact-size hatchbacks.
When I finally returned home, I drank tea while she translated German films and explained more about the culture of the South German region.
The next day, I was again treated to a large breakfast when I woke up. Today I visited the
Deutsches Museum, "the world's largest museum of technology and science". I actually spent most of the day here. They had everything you could think of, in its historical enitrety and fully explained. A lot of things were interactive. There were so many sections that you could spend hours just learning the complete historical evolution and basic principles of lenses or printers. I spent most of the time in the boats, motors and airplane sections. Wanna guess which photos posted below come from the museum?
After
GOING TO CENTRE-VILLE, I WILL CONTINUE TO WORK ON THIS LATER, ITS NOT FINISHED
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| Some government building |
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| The right side of the above government building |
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| Examples of German jet-engine technology by the end of World War 2. |
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| How a large commercial Boeing works. |
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| Assortment of planes. |
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| There were about 5 floors if I remember correctly. |
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| BMW motorcycle in the 1950's cultural section. |
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| Not just for show, you were allowed to choose a song, watch the mechanism pick a record and then listen/dance. |
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| Munich has two soccer teams. To solve the team color problem, they can change the color of the light that they project onto the pillow-like stadium. |
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| Very high-class shopping. Munich is the most expensive city in Germany. |
