Deutsches Museum

So...this should probably be a blog that Brian writes because he knows what most of the pictures are, but I will give it a try.  Perhaps Brian can do another blog with some more pictures and actually tell you what the pictures are and what was interesting about them.  :)  I will try my best and show you my favorite parts of this museum along with some of the things that Brian thought was cool.

The Deutsches Museum is in Munich and we went there the Saturday after we went to Luzern.  We drove to just outside of Munich and then took the train in.  Because we went to the wrong stop, we had to pay twice as much for the train as I had planned on, so now we know to go to the right stop so that the train ride is cheaper even though the parking is free at both places.

The Deutsches Museum has a lot of displays about different kinds of technology throughout the years.  Brian loved it because there were lots of engines and other things that he knew I about.  I liked it because they had a room full of musical instruments and one whole display full of bassoons!

But....to start at the beginning.  We went through a bit of the museum and then decided we needed to use the bathroom.  On our way to the bathroom, we discovered the cafeteria and decided to stop for some lunch.  I had currywurst for the first time and it was very yummy!  It's basically a big sausage covered in some sort of curry sauce and served with french fries.  Very German (a giant sausage!), but very good.  After lunch we spent about 5 hours in the museum and got to see most of the things there.  There were a few sections that were blocked off for a remodeling project.

Here are a few things that Brian liked.  I'm not sure what they all are, but I do know that some of the had to do with drilling for oil.

I saw a huge black ball and had to get a picture by it.  We're not sure what it was for, but it was a fun thing to have my picture taken by.

A few more things from the oil/gas area.

The museum had quite a collection of aircraft.  It was displayed on several different floors and a few things were even suspended in the air.  I was impressed by the life-size cutout of an airplane because I never realized how much space is beneath the passengers' feet.

There also was a room full of boats.  There were two life-size boats in ditches in the room with their sails going up several floors.  It was interesting to see how the boats were decorated differently.

There also was a room with different things that go in the air.  I liked the display of kites the best because there was a really long dragon one.  Brian liked the Wright Brothers airplane since we have seen ones like this at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

The next part of the museum might show how young we are and how old some of you reading this are.  :)  There was a display with different objects from the 1950s.  All of our parents were born in this decade, so it was interesting to see what they would have grown up with.  My favorite was definitely the first display, which was a Beth-sized car.  Brian said you would swing open the front windshield to get in.

I also thought the toaster was pretty cool because the pieces of toast would flip in and toast on one side and then flip around to toast the other side.  I told Brian he should make one of these for me.  :)

They had some pretty sweet bikes too.

We had to take a picture for Katie and Kyle of some of the old cameras.

And Brian could have done without the Beth-sized car if he could have had this 3-wheeled truck.

The next section of the museum was definitely my favorite!  There was a whole wing that was just musical instruments.  We started in a room that was all different types of keyboard instruments.  Some of the pianos even stood with the strings going straight up into the air instead of out from the keyboard.

There were different displays for each type of instrument that showed the progression of them throughout the years.  There were often the beginnings of the instrument and then they showed how they were changed and improved over the years to what we have today.

But...the BEST display was the BASSOONS!!!  I didn't even look at the rest of the room when we went in because I saw the bassoons right away and had to go check them out.  Brian was trying to be funny and ignore the bassoons, but eventually I got him to come over and take a picture of me with them and get some close-ups.  It was interesting to see what bassoons had come from and which one was most similar to the ones I have played.

Unfortunately, the other room with musical instruments was closed for remodeling, so perhaps we'll have to go back sometime to see them.

The top floor of the museum was space stuff.  It was interesting to see how much of the space stuff was actually American and not necessarily German.  There was a piece of moon rock that the US had brought back for Germany.

There were some pretty neat holograms that Brian tried to take pictures of.  This is part of a piano.  You could actually see the whole piano in person, but it didn't work so well with the camera.

One of the last sections we went through was about robots.  Brian thought this first robot was pretty cool because it was a machine to milk cows.  The second picture I had to take for my cousins in Indiana who build robots with a group from school.  Last year they made a soccer-playing robot for a competition and there actually was a soccer-playing robot in the museum!

Overall, we had a great day at the Deutsches Museum.  We hope to be able to go back sometime when the whole museum is open and see the things we missed.