Munich – Part three – The Deutsches Museum of Technology

On my last day in Munich I decided to go to the Deutsches Museum of Technology.  This was similar to the Chicago Museum of science and technology except it was a lot bigger. The building is 6 stories tall and over 500,000 square feet of space.  It was very interesting because every area of the 64 different exhibits went through the history of each subject.  It had the of everything including aeronautics with a full size Wright brothers plane, to a World War I plane, to a modern day fighter jet.

Another area they had was shipping / marine navigation.  This area had a full size old ship with a cut out in it so you could see the insides, tons and tons of anchors, replicas of ships, and even a German U-boat (submarine from World War I).

Some of the other areas they had were Power Machinery

Musical instruments

Textile technology

Ceramics

Photo and Film.  These items were the start of film.  The thing on the left had a bird cage on one side and a bird on the other.  When you spun the thing fast enough the bird looked like it was in the cage. 

I didn’t even come close to stopping and reading (most items had both German and English) all the information and even with just walking through it all it took me over 6 hours to do that.  It was definitely an overload of information.  Everyone said that you could be in there for days and they were right.  If your interested and want more information you can go to Deutsches Museum  I walked back through the town for one last time and got to the train station to board my train back to Stuttgart.  This was a very eventful and interesting adventure and I can’t wait for the next one.

Munich – Part two -Neuschwanstein castle tour

On the second day I signed up to take an all day tour to the Neuschwanstein castle tour.  This started off by meeting the tour guide and the rest of the group at the train station at 9:15 in the morning.  It was interesting to talk to the people seeing this was an all English tour.  The majority of the people were college kids that were in one of the study abroad programs where they spend three months or so in a foreign country studying and seeing the world.  The all said there classes were very easy and they were having a great time.  There was 25 people on the tour and they were from places such as Indiana, Wisconsin, Kansas, Florida, Italy, and London England.  The tour guide was from Texas who graduated from college with a degree in German.  He said he packed up a suitcase and moved here.  So the trip started off by taking two trains and a bus to get to the castle.  It took a little over two hours to get to the castle and it was in the Alps.

Once we got there we spent a little bit of time at the lower level and the guide gave us some history about the king and the two castles that were there.  One was the smaller older castle that the king used to watch them build his new castle.

When you looked up at the big castle it was quite a ways up the hill.

 We had to climb the hill to get there.  We decided as a group if we wanted to take the long flatter way or the shorter steeper way.  Of course all the kids wanted to go up the shorter steeper way.  This ended up being quite the challenge.  The good new for me was that I made it and I wasn’t the last one.  I did beat a few of the kids up the hill.  Once up there the view was just great. 

 We toured the inside of the castle  which was interesting.  The castle was built over a 17 year period and the king only lived in it for 178 days before he died.  There was a lot of carvings one was part of this bed and they said it took a team of four carvers two years to complete.  There was a bridge that you could get a view of the castle.

Then we climbed down the gorge along the water where it was interesting to find out that they build a water way to the castle so it would have running water for the sinks and a flush toilet.  

On our way back the guide wanted to finish the story about the King but we weren’t able to get all in the same train car.  So he said if we wanted we could go to a beer garden and have dinner and a beer and he would tell us the rest of the story.  There was only three of us that took him up on this.  I think the majority of the people were just tired seeing it was after 7 pm at this time.  So we went to the beer garden had some food of the area which was a pig knuckle and some local beer.  He told us the rest of the story and we traded stories about what brought us all to Germany.  By the time I got back to the hotel it was after 11pm and I was exhausted.

Munich – Part one City tour

This past weekend was a four day holiday in German we got Good Friday off and Easter Monday.  So with the help of one of my coworkers he set me up on going to Munich.  He printed me off where to stay, how to get there, and a list of things that I might like to do.  He said it would be a shame for me to waste this long weekend by staying in my apartment the whole time.  I agreed and set up the train ride from Stuttgart to Munich.  It’s the high speed train called the ICE.  It makes only limited stops and gets there in about two hours.  I left on an early train and got to the Munich main train station and found my hotel.  It was located only about 2 blocks from the train station and they had my room ready so I could check in early and unpack my bag and only take some of the essentials that I would need for the day.  Then I decided the best way to see the city in a fast open air double decker bus tour.  This turned out to be great.  I got to see:

Konigsplatz

Palace of Nymphenburg (this was less than 1/4 of the actual place)

Olympic Park (This is the stadium, it was built to look like the Alps)

English Garden and people surfing on the river

Rathaus mit Glockenspiel (New City Hall)

Then I ended the day eating at an outdoors restaurant, having a beer and people watching in the Karlsplatz (pedestrian zone shopping center).

The second day brought on another big adventure going to the Neuschwanstein Castle.

Fed Cup Tennis

I am finally back on track to keep up the blog.  I have many stories to tell since the last time I wrote.  I have been back at home in the USA for two weeks, then off to China for two weeks, and now I am back in Germany.  Over the next few weeks I will update you with all that has happened there but today’s blog is going to be on what I did this weekend.   I was made aware that the Professional Tennis players were going to be in Germany this week but before that there is a tennis match that is called the Fed Cup tournament.  This consists of teams playing each other by country and by the end of the year there is one country that can be called the winner.  There are a few  matches that go on throughout the year and they consist of winner brackets and other matches where the teams are positioning themselves for the next year to try to be in the main draw to try to become the overall winner.  Ok enough said about that.  This weekend Germany was playing the USA in Fed Cup matches.  This consisted of two singles matches on Saturday and three matches on Sunday, two singles and a double.  I have been to a handful of tennis tournaments but never to a fed cup match.  I decided to go to both Saturday and Sunday’s matches.  This was being held at the Porsche Arena.  It took about 45 minutes to get there by train and a short 5 minute walk once at the train stop to the arena.

The stadium only holds about 5,000 people and at best it was 1/3 full.  I got tickets that were in row 6 and at the base line.  Not bad at all.  The USA was the underdogs and had two very young players.  They tried but ended up loosing both matches on Saturday.  On Sunday they played again and lost.  There were moments that they looked really good and then there was other times when the wheels looked like they were coming off.  The doubles we were favored to win but in the end we lost that too.  So for the five matches we were 0-5.  During the intermission between the matches I was able to go watch some of the qualifying matches for this weeks tournament at the same place.  It was interesting seeing some of the players I have seen play in Miami.  I will have to see how this week goes and maybe see if I can get back there to watch some of the matches for the tournament to.

Fasching

First for a little bit of the background to what I did this past Sunday.  Just so everyone knows were I am located in the Southern part of Germany.

What is Fastnacht?
The Germany equivalent of Mardi Gras is known as Fasching, or Karneval.  It is a celebration before the coming of Lent.  It is like Mardi Gras in the fact that it ends on Shrove Tuesday which is the last day before Ash Wednesday. Fasching officially begins on November eleventh at the eleventh second of the eleventh minute past the eleventh hour, and reaches a riotous crescendo during the weeks before Shrove Tuesday. Wild parties, gluttony, and sexual promiscuity are found in abundance. In reality, for the first month and a half, Fasching pretty much takes a back seat to the Christmas holidays. Come New Year's Eve, known as Silvester, however, everything geht's los. Every weekend, bars and nightclubs are packed with people dressed in costumes from sexy to outrageous.  Festivities rise to a fever pitch the last weekend before Ash Wednesday. Rosenmontag is the Monday before Ash Wednesday. It has nothing to do with roses, but rather stems from the slang word rasen, which means to rave and generally go wild. Faschingsdienstag is the last day of Fasching, with everyone getting in their last merrymaking before Lent starts.

History
European fasching has roots in ancient Egyptian rituals, sustained through the Roman period by the feasts of Bacchanalia and Saturnalia. Although the carnival attitude was somewhat lessened by the church in the Middle Ages, festivals still flourish today in France, Belgium, Italy and Germany.

Differences In North And South Germany
In the north, it's commonly called Karneval, and the biggest party seems to center around Cologne.  In the south, especially in the region of the Black Forest, Fasching is often called Fastnacht and its roots are pagan.
The northern Karneval has its roots in Christianity. The whole season is intended as a celebration before the seriousness of Lent. It's similar to Carneval in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Mardi Gras in New Orleans, USA. The parades are quite a spectacle and are well worth seeing. Most are held the last weekend of Karneval or on Rosenmontag. The last Thursday of Karneval is called Weiberfastnacht, when women are allowed to act as brazen as they choose. For those men wearing a tie, this includes cutting the tie off with a pair of scissors.

 In the south, especially in the region of the Black Forest, the season is known as Fasching or Fastnacht and its roots are pagan. Here the parades are not predominantly clowns, but witches and trolls. The old purpose of the Fasching was to chase away the spirits of winter. Similar to an American Halloween, children dress up in all manner of costumes, sometimes for parties at schools, sometimes just to feel the part as they watch their local parade. There are a few towns that are really known for their parades. The areas south of Stuttgart, Weil der Stadt and Rottenburg are considered to have the best. The parades are well worth seeing for the elaborate masks worn. These are true works of art, carved of wood, in the likenesses of witches, trolls, bears, or the Greenman (a sort of druidic forest creature).

This past Sunday a couple guys from work and myself went to Weil der Stadt to see the parade.  I have been to quite a few parades in the USA but this was quite the spectacle.  First this town of about 10,000 people swells to close to 50,000 for this event.  A majority of the people watching are also dressed up without a real theme.  I saw devils, clowns, nuns,  bears, and pretty much anything you can think of.  The crowd grew and grew people were drinking and just having a good time.  The parade started and it was similar to other parades with bands, floats, and people throwing out candy.  Then you start to realize there is some thing different about this parade.  There are trolls and people in very elaborate masks and they get the audience involved.  Mostly involuntarily but everyone is a good sport.  They seam to go after the young kids and girls mostly.  These groups of masked people would do such things as swing people from there hands and feet while another one would spank the persons butt as it swung by.  They would hold someone down and steal the shoe laces out of there shoes.  Mess with peoples hats. And as I found out put lipstick on people’s noses.  The funniest one was where they brought people on a float and put them through this hole that put the netting on them like you would see on a Christmas tree on the top of a car.  This parade went on for 2 ½ hours with something to see the whole time.  We were standing next to some people who were from the US and had been there before so they gave us some tips on what to look out for and to see.  They said they had been in Germany for a few years and thinks this is one of the best parades in the area.  After the parade in the town square it is a festival type atmosphere with food and drink stands and bands still playing.  This day started at noon getting on the train and ended about 7:30 when we finally got back to the hotel.  Following are some of the 150 pictures that I took.  I took so many pictures that my battery went dead.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. 

Saturday Mornings In Bietigheim

On every Saturday morning when I take my walk to downtown Bietigheim it is interesting to see all the hustle and bustle that is going on.  They have on the streets equivalent to USA having a flee market, farmers market, and sidewalk sales all rolled into one.   The stores and shops are open until 1:00pm and the street is filled with racks and tables of cloths.  Then you look further and there will be stands that have fruits and vegetables.

There will be also stands that have flowers.  Again this is nothing out of the ordinary and expected seeing the weather is getting nice.

Then I came across a stand that had meat in it.  Not dried jerky but actual meat that they would cut for you.  There are cold cuts that they will slice for sandwiches, bratwurst sausages, and cuts of meat like New York stripe steaks. It also had fish, either fillets or whole fish that you could buy.  The stand is refrigerated but still a bit different that anything I have ever seen.

The next strange stand that I ran across was the cheese stand.  It had every kind of cheese you could think of.  It reminded me of something you would see in the deli section of the supermarket but instead it was in a stand.

There was another stand that had eggs.  People were lined up with there own cartons of 6 or 10 and buy there eggs.  There was some other things they were selling also but I was just festinated with the eggs

The there just isn’t a flee market without the guys with the hot dog stand.  No mater where you go this is always a good idea. 

As you can see from the pictures there are people lined up at most of the stands.  I see this as it’s the once a week some of these people get out and get the fresh meats, eggs, and vegetables.

Customer Meetings

This week was very busy for me.  We had the customer Shanghai General Motors (SGM) in to the Durr office to review our progress and sign off on our designs.  This went quite well but we were in the office late almost every night to get this completed.  It was interesting sitting in a meeting with three Germans, four Chinese, and me.  There was multiple when the Chinese were talking in there native tongue in one conversation, the Germans talking amongst themselves in there native tongue and me just sitting there.   Some of these conversations especially on the Chinese side would get very heated and the expressions on there face and volume of the conversation made you think that they were determine the fate of the world.  Then they would get done with there conversations so I would ask what the issue was and what they decided and in the nicest voice they would so “ were good lets move on to the next topic”.  It was quite entertaining for me.  When the week was done and the meetings were coming to an end they said that I have to come to China as soon as I can to review their current plant that they have in Yantai, China and go to there headquarters in Shanghai.  So what this means is after I go back to the USA on March 11^th through March 27^th instead of flying back to Germany I will be going to China for a week or so and then to Germany.  So it will be official at that time I will have travelled around the world.