Today was day 1 of 1.5 in Munich. Our group got an early start this morning and departed on the bus at 7:15am. I think this lack of sleep has been quite a shock to my system because I was feeling nauseous in the shower, and my eyes burn sometimes. But just give me bread and cheese and coffee for breakfast and I'll be fine.
The drive was scenic and our wonderful faculty leader and program coordinator here at ZHAW, Armin, gave us all the fun facts of the regions we were passing through. I learned that Germany is looking to eliminate nuclear power generation by 2030 or so, and that is why there are so many solar panels on the houses and in fields. What he said was true.
The drive lasted about 4 hours total. We stopped at a rest stop half way through. It was here that I paid to use the public restroom for the first time in my life. It cost me 0.70 euros to get in, but the facilities were state of the art and the toilets cleaned themselves. Along the drive, I noticed several things. First, the cars people drive in Germany are fancy and fast. It was amusing listening to the conversations of the guys sitting behind me on the bus. They were clearly auto enthusiasts and they were clearly excited. In addition, the roads here go under hills via longer-than-usual underground tunnels that do things to the pressure in my ears. Something cute I saw was that the German countryside was dotted with random sculptures. I didn't even have to go to a museum. I also loved the fact that several country roads or paths were marked by a nice line of mature trees, evenly and tastefully spaced. When we dipped through Austria, there were round-abouts everywhere, which very nearly made me sick. They were not large in diameter, and so the bus was making frequent jerks to the right and then left again in order to maneuver around them. Hold on to your stomach.
Later that morning we arrived at the BMW headquarters, which I will describe in a separate post. After our visit there, we headed to our hotel. It was a circus trying to drive a huge coach bus through the city streets. All I can say is props and bravo to our wonderful driver for having patience and dexterity at the wheel. Upon checking in, my roommate, Shruti, and I were pumped to discover that our hotel room had its very own private bath and shower, and hairdryer! (By the way, my hairdryer doesn't work here, like I thought it would. Insert grumpy cat face here). But the bathroom door handle was tricky and nearly impossible to open from the inside once closed. Awkward. It was also very cold in that room that night.
After check-in, we had two and a half hours to explore the city before dinner at the Augustiner Restaurant. Despite the rain, I was pumped to go out. First, we saw the Glockenspiel puppets spin around the outside of the city hall building at 5pm to the sound of bells. The bells: they are so cool sounding! You'll just have to take my word for it. Next, a group of us went off to get a hot drink (it was rainy and cold) and a pretzel in a cafe nearby. I got a milchkaffee and a pretzel. The workers there did not speak English, which made me feel like an idiot all over again. I don't think they were very happy to serve me. But oh well. The coffee was good.
Later that morning we arrived at the BMW headquarters, which I will describe in a separate post. After our visit there, we headed to our hotel. It was a circus trying to drive a huge coach bus through the city streets. All I can say is props and bravo to our wonderful driver for having patience and dexterity at the wheel. Upon checking in, my roommate, Shruti, and I were pumped to discover that our hotel room had its very own private bath and shower, and hairdryer! (By the way, my hairdryer doesn't work here, like I thought it would. Insert grumpy cat face here). But the bathroom door handle was tricky and nearly impossible to open from the inside once closed. Awkward. It was also very cold in that room that night.
After check-in, we had two and a half hours to explore the city before dinner at the Augustiner Restaurant. Despite the rain, I was pumped to go out. First, we saw the Glockenspiel puppets spin around the outside of the city hall building at 5pm to the sound of bells. The bells: they are so cool sounding! You'll just have to take my word for it. Next, a group of us went off to get a hot drink (it was rainy and cold) and a pretzel in a cafe nearby. I got a milchkaffee and a pretzel. The workers there did not speak English, which made me feel like an idiot all over again. I don't think they were very happy to serve me. But oh well. The coffee was good.
After this, we spontaneously climbed the tower of St. Peter's church, otherwise known as Alter Peter, after having decided to wait until the morning to do so. I am so glad we did. It was not even crowded. While we were up there, the sun came out, and when we came back down, it went away again. It was meant to be. I will let the photos speak for themselves here.
Lastly, we all went to the Augustiner Restaurant for dinner and had a nice buffet of traditional Bavarian foods, like sausage (red and white varieties), sauerkraut, meat, potatoes, pretzels, cheese, and of course, a barrel of beer. The beer was not bad, but not particularly tasty, either. Regardless, I now can say that I have had a German beer in Germany.
The next day, a huge group of us went to see the Deutsches Museum, where there are floors upon floors of exhibits that focus on the development of new technologies, from computers to musical instruments. My favorites that I got to see, for of course there was much, much more that I did not even get to, were the robotics exhibit where they had a Furby on display, the aeronautics exhibits of entire airplanes, balloons, and blimps that took up parts of three floors of the museum, and the Foto + Film exhibit where I spent most of my time. There was also a special temporary exhibit that seemed really interesting, but it was all in German and I could not get anything out of it. It was called @HOME and appeared to be about the effects of technology, such as facebook, twitter, videogames, ipads, etc, have on us and our culture, and interactions. I would have loved to understand the exhibit, but alas, I could not.
The next day, a huge group of us went to see the Deutsches Museum, where there are floors upon floors of exhibits that focus on the development of new technologies, from computers to musical instruments. My favorites that I got to see, for of course there was much, much more that I did not even get to, were the robotics exhibit where they had a Furby on display, the aeronautics exhibits of entire airplanes, balloons, and blimps that took up parts of three floors of the museum, and the Foto + Film exhibit where I spent most of my time. There was also a special temporary exhibit that seemed really interesting, but it was all in German and I could not get anything out of it. It was called @HOME and appeared to be about the effects of technology, such as facebook, twitter, videogames, ipads, etc, have on us and our culture, and interactions. I would have loved to understand the exhibit, but alas, I could not.
I feel like I only got a taste of this city, and I did, but I really liked it. I would return if only to see the rest of the Deutsches Museum and eat more pretzels.