Advertisement
Published: December 22nd 2006
Edit Blog Post
ME 262
The Deutsches Museum Munich: Deutsches Museum and The Residenz
Deutsches Museum: Germany’s Smithsonian After a light breakfast provided by our hotel this morning we set off for the Deutsches Museum. In keeping with our hands on approach to museums, the Deutsches Museum seemed like the perfect place to start our day’s adventures because it contains 10 miles of exhibits that range from aeronautics to food processing.
When the two mile hike through 30ish degree weather was done, we were really looking forward to some serious inside time. Thankfully the museum was warm and large enough to keep us inside for hours.
We started out with the history of shipping section which contained a few full sized ships and about 200 small scale replicas of interesting historical ships. Kel spent some time in the ancient section of the shipping where she was most interested in the “Eskimo Roll” which the Eskimos had been doing for centuries but no one else had been able to figure out. After some serious study the rest of the world learned how to do this which you now get to see every time a kayaker flips over and has to get upright
again.
From there we went to the aeronautics section where we got to see some cool German aircraft. I particularly enjoyed the WWII aircraft. The museum contained a couple of the most famous German aircraft flown in WWII, the Me 109, the Me 262 (the first effective military jet aircraft) and a V2 rocket which were used to terrorize the Allies throughout the final years of the war.
After taking a quick break we headed into the basement which contained the mining exhibit. This area was amazing and scary at the same time. The whole basement area was created into full size replicas of various types of mines. At first this was really cool and we learned a lot, but after about a half hour of walking through tunnels that resembled underground mines, we got really tired of being down there. All we could do was keep walking until we reached the end, which took a serious amount of time.
Even though we were tired after the 45 minute walk through the dungeons, we decided to head on for more exhibits. We headed to the musical instrument area (Big Surprise right?) which contained many old instruments which
V2 Rocket
The Deutsches Museum weren’t all that cool after seeing the display in the German National Museum in Nurnberg. But, there were exhibits that were cool; this area contained some fun hands on experiments which Kel and I both enjoyed. We got to play a Theremin, see how pianos work and play some synthesizers which are always fun.
Kel really thought the food processing area might be interesting so we headed that way next. While this area wasn’t all that neat in my opinion it did point out how absolutely huge this museum was. While in that room, and the history of clocks room after it, we saw no one. Not one person walked through for almost a half an hour. Crazy.
Once done with the last two areas we decide to call it a day and head to lunch. Despite the fact that we missed more than half of the museum we were pooped and couldn’t really imagine seeing any more.
The Residenz: The Wittelsbach Family Mansion After a lunch of easy-to-get Mexican food, we headed over to the Residenz. The Residenz is an absolutely huge mansion which feels like extreme over kill for a family that
were only Dukes and Duchesses who ruled over Bavaria. There are over 7,000 rooms that can be viewed by the public and this doesn’t account for the rooms that are still being lived in by some of the remaining family members.
Much of the palace is very beautiful, especially that antiquary which was built to house one of the Duke’s collection of statues. With that said, the more annoying part of the palace is the fact that most of it was rebuilt after WWII because it was destroyed by the air raids. Thus, many of the beautiful rooms, especially the second and third floors, are reproductions that barely capture the elegance that once was.
Despite the disappointment, and annoyance, at constantly seeing in the description of 80 percent of the rooms “This room was lost in 1944 and was rebuilt in 1980,” the palace is a beautiful place and was definitely worth the visit. Some of the rooms that survived are the best examples of rococo design that remain in Germany today.
Italian Escapades for Dinner Once we had rested for a little while we headed out for dinner. We went to a local
Mike Flying the Jet
The Deutsches Museum Italian restaurant that was recommended in our guide book. The restaurant, La Veccia Masseria, is truly a special place. It is filled with locals who enjoy good Italian food. Thanks to the holiday and the staff’s lively personalities, the place was full of cheer and happiness. Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the food was outstanding. I put my faith in the chef and ordered the tasting menu despite not knowing what any of it was and all of it was great. The gnocchi and the lamb courses were great! Kel enjoyed her fettuccini with ham and peas. Its always fun to find restaurants that are rarely discovered by tourists.
Hope you had a good Friday and that you enjoy your holiday weekend. We move on to Fussen tomorrow and will be there for Christmas. We may not have internet so it may be a few days until you hear from us again. With that said, HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0337s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marge
non-member comment
Merry Christmas from Arnie and Marge. Family will be at Dawn's for Christmas Day. Love your travelblog. Sending you both much love...