Deutsches Museum

Last night, Zach and I decided to have an easy night, so we stopped by the hotel restaurant after work.  It... wasn't that great.  Much better than other hotels I've been to, but not as good as the restaurants we've been too.  Guess you can't win 'em all.

Today, however, we caught the tram nearby the hotel and made our way over to the Deutsches Museum, which is the world's largest science and technology museum.  We got there around 10:00 and made a beeline for the Astronomy floors, on which we spent about two and a half hours reading every sign and playing with every interactive exhibit.  We also found a computer that had an astronomy quiz.  We actually managed to answer 63% of the questions despite the fact that there were no English translations!  We were able to use a lot of context clues to figure out most of the German words, and on the rest we just guessed.  It was really fun.  After that we realized we needed to move a little quicker if we wanted to get through the whole museum, so we went to the Physics area and spent another hour and a half in what I would consider the coolest part of the museum.  I guess we didn't really move much quicker, but the physics area had hundreds of hands-on exhibits to demonstrate fundamental physics, like momentum, inertia, mass, conservation of energy, waves, aerodynamics, and much, much more.  What made it extra fun was trying to figure out what each exhibit was demonstrating because very few had actual English translations.  I think, once again, we did a pretty good job.

Fundamental physics.

The rest of the time at the museum we spent going through the Historic Aviation (Luftfahrt), Energy Technology, Metals, Machine Tools, Power Machinery, Foundry, Marine Navigation, Environment, Electric Power, and Nanotechnology.  We still didn't even make it through the whole museum, but we were able to hit everything we wanted to before we left at 4:30.  Afterwards, we were feeling very hungry (we skipped lunch) so we went back to Marienplatz to Der Ratskeller to get a nice hearty meal.  Both of us had the Grillwürstl Schmankerl, a "great sampler of all delicious Bratwursts we offer, like Nuremberg style Bratwurst, skinless veal sausage Wollwurst, smoked Beef-Beerknackbratwurst, Schnapps Bratwurst, grilled bacon, sauerkraut, [and] mashed potatoes."  Alongside a full liter of Löwenbraü dunkel, this hit the spot.  Once again, another great meal.

After catching the U-Bahn back to the hotel, it's now time to digest and prepare for some Munich sight-seeing tomorrow.  Gute Nacht!

Go here for more pictures.

Arrival and First Few Days

Hi everyone,

I've decided to start a blog to use as a way document and share all of the great things I get to do, eat, and drink while on my business trip to Munich (München).  I'll probably end up talking a lot about food and beer during the week since I'll be working, but the weekends should be full of good activities and pictures!

So anyway, work sent me over here to test an engine with our partner company MTU Aero Engines (MTU = Motoren- und Turbinen-Union).  I'll be over here for approximately 6 weeks, and work pays for the flights, hotel, car, and food.  It's a pretty nice gig.  Also over here working with me is one of my good friends Zach, who likes traveling and food just as much as I do.  It's going to be fun!

We left Hartford at around 7:30 am on Monday, January 20th, had a 6 hour layover in Atlanta, and then caught our flight to Munich, landing at 7:45 am the next day.  It was a long trip, and the crying baby on the flight didn't really help me get much sleep.  That's okay though.  I felt worse for the parents than I did for myself.  Once we landed, we got through Customs very quickly, grabbed our bags, and made our way to Avis to pick up our cars.  I had requested a manual transmission car just because I wanted to feel like a local, and ended up with a sporty Citroën DS5.  It took a little getting used to, especially figuring out how to get it in reverse gear, but I made it back to the hotel without killing myself or the clutch.

After resting up a bit at the hotel, Zach and I made our way down to Marienplatz at the center of the city.  The geographical center of the city is actually marked by the Mariensäule (Column of the Virgin Mary), from which all of the distances in the city are measured, apparently.  Marienplatz and the surrounding area are part of the original area of the city, so the architecture is gorgeous.  Once I get to explore this area during the day, I'll be able to share some pictures.  One of the most stunning buildings in the area is the Neues Rathaus (New Town Hall), which houses a restaurant called Der Ratskeller in its cellar.  This place serves up traditional Bavarian dishes with local Munich beer and does it all very well.  With lots of good options to choose from, I finally settled on lamb bratwurst, green beans in tomato sauce, and roasted potatoes.  Everything was washed down with a half-liter of Löwenbraü lager.  Boy, was it good!  I'll definitely be going back there.

Lamb brautwurst, roasted potatoes, and green beans

in a tomato sauce with a half-liter of Löwenbraü.

On our second night we walked through the Englischer Garten (English Garden), which is a park larger than Central Park in NYC, from our hotel to a nice restaurant called the Seehaus.  The restaurant, situated on the edge of the park's Kleinhesseloher Lake, was recommended to us by the guys we work with at MTU and has outdoor beer gardens in the warmer months of the year.  Maybe I'll be able to enjoy that someday in the future, but for now, we were stuck inside.  Inside, however, wasn't bad at all.  Once again, the menu had too many great things to choose from, but I went with the filet vom schwarzer hailbutt (Greenland halibut) served over a lime-thyme risotto and a saffron velouté, whatever that is.  Served with a cold glass of Paulaner Lager, this meal was incredible.  Definitely going back there too.  That's two for two so far.

On our third night, tonight, we took another suggestion from the guys at work and headed back down to the Marienplatz area to a very highly rated beer cellar called Der Pschorr.  The interior of this place really makes you feel like you're in Bavaria (which you are).  I suggest searching for it on Google and looking at the pictures.  The food matches the atmosphere with traditional Bavarian meals that they tout as "a taste of home on your plate."  And the beers on tap are some of their own beers brewed in-house, under the name Hacker-Pschorr.  Hacker-Schorr is a brewing company formed in 1972 after the merger of two separate breweries, Hacker and Pschorr.  Hacker was founded in 1472, 20 years before America was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus.  That's crazy!  Anyway, I ate some delicious beef medallions served over mushrooms with a port wine sauce.  On the side were some excellent things called tomato/potato balls and a half-liter of Hacker-Pschorr Münchner Dunkel.  Again, another delicious meal.  Zach and I decided that Der Pschorr was our favorite place of the three we'd been to, and we'd have to make it there at least once a week to try more of the menu.

That's about it for now.  Munich has been great so far, and it will hopefully get better with time (and on the weekends).  I'll keep updating as much as I can!

Dan

P.S. I will be keeping a Flickr album full with pictures I take along the way.  Blogger doesn't seem to handle photos well, so this will be a lot nicer for those.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/finigdan/J2d4vP