4th of July, Part 2

I will pick up where I left off from my last blog as that took me through until a little past noon.

Strasbourg is also known for the surprising number of art museums. I sure didn't have time for all of them so I picked the two that seemed to offer the biggest bang for the buck (or in this case, how much could I see given the few hours I had).

I decided on the Mussee des Beauz-Arts (fine arts from European Masters mostly from 1300s through 1800s, but some were as old as 1100). Once I got there and started looking at the pieces on display but I wasn't really sure what I was looking at because the placards were in French. Additionally, I didn't recognize many of the artists. I can tell you that I am sure I saw some very famous paintings. I was really struck by more then a few. Some objects in some the paintings actually looked real. True works of art. Saw some of the works of El Greco, Peter Paul Rubens, and Raphael. Also saw a couple of pieces by Rembrandt.

The second floor gallery was very big. The paintings were mostly tied to Christian themes, Christ, Virgin Mary, and the crucifixion, as well as many of the early saints. I really wished I knew more about what I was seeing, I just knew it was something special.

It was refreshing that these works were not behind glass and you were not kept 10 feet away from them. Sensors would go off if you got within 12 inches of the painting, but, at 12.5 inches away, you can really see lots of the details.

Next was the Musuem of Modern and Contemporary Art. I decided on this museum because they advertised that they had works by Claude Monet, Rodin, and Picasso. I especially wanted to see Rodin's "Gates of Hell" which turns out to be at a different museum.

Well, I never found the Monet or Rodin. The Picasso's were a bit of a disappointment. There were about a dozen drawings on paper about the size an 8.5"x11" and it seems like half of them featured testicals and a penis. I would have said "phallic symbol" but there was nothing symbolic about it. It was just testicals and a penis. I just didn't get it and I was not going to stare at it for an hour and then go on about the symbolism or how it made me feel. I simply didn't like it. I didn't need to sit on the provided veiwing/contemplating bench to determine that.

Other pieces of art that I saw included an old suit coat on a hanger suspended on a nail, a polycarbonate cube filled with scraps of paper, a wall painted orange (not sure if that was one of the pieces of the museum or just a wall painted orange), a piece of canvas painted black, an igloo made of broken panes of glass, and a piece of furniture from the '50s nailed to the wall. I suppose I was not sophisticated enough to understand the significance of what I saw. Other then "I just didn't get it", I don't know what else to say. I guess my Polish heritage and blue collar background is showing.

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Unless you are a big fan of contemporary art and "get it", then you can pass on this one.

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One piece that was very impressive was of Christ walking down some steps to start his journey to his crucifixion, soldiers holding back the crowds. This piece was probably 40' tall and 40' wide (this piece was f**king huge, sorry GOD, but it was, just think about the dimensions, how was it even worked on?). It was pretty amazing. Even with a little research, I can't find the painting online.

You thought I forgot about my "stereotype" comments earlier, didn't you. It struck me as unusual that a surprising large percentage of the male population carries a man purse/clutch like bag. Talk about not getting it. I posted a number of pics of this on my flickr site for you to check out. Keep in mind, I took all these pics in the span of a few minutes. It is not something I spent all day accomplishing.

I have never seen American men carry these things. I have never seen German men carry these things. I have not been to the UK, but I bet Englishmen don't carry these things and I am quite certain that you will not find an Irishman carrying a man purse.

I've got to wonder, what do they carry in their handbags? If I need to carry something, I put it in my trouser/jeans/shorts pocket. That is why they are there right? I don't recall ever having to carry so much stuff that I ran out of room in my pockets. Even if I had so much stuff to carry, I would put it in my wife's purse. Did they not use their pockets or was this a case of having to carry too much stuff and not having their wife around? Those man bags were some dainty little things though.

I even saw fathers walking with their sons. They both sported these man purses. Old men carried them. I even saw a guy with a tattoo on his neck had one too. Guys with neck tattoos should not carry a man clutch. It was very confusing.

I am really happy that my Dad bought us baseball gloves instead.

Great news, Jerry (Jodi's Dad), I got you a souvenier from Strasbourg. Just wait until Christmas! (yes, it is a man bag)

Stereotypes exist for a reason. They are generally not just created out of thin air. When you think about Americans, you think cowboys, pickup trucks, hard working, ambitious. When you think about Germans, you think brutal efficiency, industrious, hard working, stoic, structured. English? Tea drinking, cricket, polite, love the queen. All this stuff in pretty much true. BTW, Europeans think Americans are loud and brash. You know what? We are.

The French? You tell what the stereotype is. I will say that the wearing of proper leather footware (like in Germany) is less common. Lots of sandals here. Collared, tucked in shirts in Germany...not in France. Well groomed. Germany. More hippie like. France.

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While the women in France may, overall, be more fashionable, German women seem better dressed.

The people of France seem to embrace a more bohemian lifestyle which would be seen to have little value in Germany. I think Jodi would like France, only for this bohemian leaning society. I like Germany a lot better. It just suits me.

All and all, it was a very worthwhile trip. I really wished my wife could have been with me. Walking along the waterways of a very old European city would have been very romantic (if you have anything smart to say about that, I will hit you with my man bag).

That's all for now. Next weekend is the Grand Prix of Germany, a Formula 1 race. Probably the only one I will ever see, so I am pretty geeked.

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Be sure to check out my flickr site. I took lots of really good snapshots and added a little description so you would know what you were looking at.

Michael

Accidently Deleted 4th of July Part 1

Sorry Folks,

I am really pissed at myself because I accidently deleted part 1 of my post. I will not have time to recreate it and it cannot be recovered.

Thankfully most of it was city history stuff. Pls wikipedia it and read the first couple of screens. The city has been around in some way, shape or form for over 2000 years.

The main draw to the city is the Cathedral. It was much better then the one in Ulm.

Also went to St. Thomas Church and saw a pipe organ Mozart played. Pretty cool. Saw the sarcopogus of the first bishop of Strasbourg. He died 1200 years ago.

Also took a boat tour around the city which was a different perspective then on foot.

Ok, with that and the pics on flickr.com, you will get a good idea of the first half of the day. Part 2 is already posted.

I thought the pic of the bike was funny. I have determined that this is the bike equivalent of having your car "keyed". It reminded me of the Carrie Underwood song titled "Before He Cheats". It is about a girl whose boyfriend is cheating on her so she goes up to his nice 4 wheel drive pick-up truck and keys the paint, slashes the tires, smashes the headlights, and shreds the seats.

I can imagine that the same thing happend to some French woman and this was the end result of her boyfriends bike. Remember ladies, he is not worth it. Leave his bike alone.

Checking a box on "Things To Do Before I Die" list.

Great news, everyone!

Like everyone, I have a list titled "things to do before I die" and I am happy to say that this has been a good year.

I got off to a good start on 1/24/09 when I got to check the box titled: "marry the woman of my dreams" (Hi Honey, look, I have a blog). Now, on a good year, you check one box. This year, I also checked the "make an extended visit to Europe" box. However, I recently check a third box, titled "climb to the top of the world's tallest church steeple"

If this is not on your list, it should be. It was really something. However, based on the way I felt after climbing to the top of the world's tallest steeple, I have decided to erase from the list, "climb to the top of Mt. Everest". Turns out that the world's tallest steeple, which I will refer to as "TWTS" from now on, is 530 ft high (161.5 meters) and is reached by climbing 768 steps. The stairway all the way to the top is spiral staircase. So, you have the pleasure of being dizzy, as well as tired, when you get to the top.

Mt. Everest is 29,029 ft above sea level, which is 8,848 meters or 5.5 miles. I decided to sacrifice the last 28,499 ft and scratch it off the list. I will downgrade it on the list to "see Mt. Everest".

I wonder how many "steps" it would be to climb Mt. Everest? Turns out it is 42,064 steps (on TWTS conversion scale), so I am only 41,296 steps away, not to mention oxygen starvation and possible death. Maybe I could climb TWTS 53.7 times and call it a day.

At a cost of Euro $4 per climb, that would run me Euro $216 or USD $302. That is a lot cheaper then the cost to summit Everest, which is around USD $60,000 (fully supported). So, I saved $59,698 going with plan "B". I feel like my net worth just increased. Maybe I will spend the difference on a pre-owned, well cared for, Ferrari but it would have to be an older, more common model as $60K doesn't buy much Ferrari.

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On a side note (I have lots of those, don't I), I will share an interesting (to me, anyways) story about Ferrari ownership. The house I owned in Denver was only 10 minutes away for the Ferrari dealership. I would wander around the dealership periodically and got to talking to the sales manager about a particular car for sale. It was a 1984 Ferrari 308 (like Magnum PI drove to help the (more seasoned) ladies form a visual). The sale mgr told me that the last time they saw the car was for its 5 year maintence. Every 5 years, a Ferrari has to have all its belts changed. Well, a Ferrari, up until the last 10 years or so, had to have the engine pulled to to this. The cost of a 5 year maintenence was around $8000 assuming nothing else needed to be done. This car was brought in for its 5 year maintenence and then returned to its owner. The car was brought in again, 5 years later for it maintenence, and had been driven only a few hundred miles before being offered for sale. Needless to say, that was a very expensive few hundred miles. A 1984 308 can be had for around $45,000 but who wants to pay for maintenence. Maybe me at some point in the future (its on the list, btw).

On a side, side note, ave mileage for a Ferrari per year is around 1,000 to 1,500 miles. So, you can expect a 10 year old Ferrari to have about 10,000 to 15,000 mile on it. I think 12,000 miles is the average yearly mileage for a car operated in the US so you can see that driving a Ferrari is limited to weekends mostly and not used as a daily driver.

On a side, side, sidenote, I have cars I drive less then that at a rate of only a few hundred miles per year. Probably need to sell those (at least the '91 Toyota MR2 but not my '88 BMW M3, which is considered an entry level collectable).

Now where was I?

The Ulm Cathedral is technically not a cathedral since no Bishop was ever seated there. However, it is the largest Lutheren Church in Germany and the second largest church in Germany overall. This is unusual that the largest Lutheren Church is found in S. Germany since most of S. Germany is Catholic (Lutheren's own N. Germany though).

In 1377, the foudation stone was laid. The steeple had reached a height of 100m in 1543 and construction was halted. In 1817, some 274 years later, work on the final leg of the steeple restarted and was completed in 1890. It was the tallest building in the world for a few years.

The town of Ulm itself is very old as is the case with many cities on the bigger rivers in Europe like the Danube River. It was founded in 850. The city doesn't look very old although there is a fortified wall that is pretty long and has gun ports (slits) in it as well as a fort-like tower overlooking the wall that was built in the 1350's.

Most of the town doesn't look very old because a lot of it has been rebuilt after WWII. Turns out that Ulm was home to a couple of truck factories which were very important to the German war effort (logistics is critical to any campaign). Lacking the ability to produce end items critical for war and/or get them to soldiers was the reason Napoleon and Hitler were defeated.

When the war was all over and the dust settled, 80% of Ulm lay in ruins. It was rebuilt in the plain and simple ways of the '50s and 60's.

Miraculously, the chruch sustained only minor damage. Thankful, there were no military targets close to the chuch (keep in mind that precision bombs did not exit then, job got done using massive quantities of bombs using a drop point determined by the best guess of the bombadier in the lead aircraft). Turns out that the church was used as a navigation point for aircraft as well as the bombing the city. Remember, there was no GPS back then and landmarks that could be identified from 20,000 ft confirmed that an aircraft was where it was suppose to be or if they were off course, the landmark told them where they were, thus, helping them get back on course.

Like every town/city I have been to, this one had a very active town square and on Saturday, the farmers' market was in full swing. Best I can tell, most places which could not really be called a "city" don't have supermarkets like we know them. The farmers' market had everything you would need to prepare meals including butchers, fresh eggs, fresh pasta, spices, all kinds of vegtables, cheese, fresh bread and olive oil.

In fact one booth, which was rather large, sold nothing but cheese. There must have been 100 different kinds available. My Brother In Law, Don, a chef by profession who has spent time learning his trade in Europe, probably wishes something like this could be found in towns across America. The supermarket chain where he is the Executive Chef, Wegman's, works very hard at trying to replicate this vibe in their stores.

When I left for Ulm, about an hour away, it was raining pretty hard in Stuttgart. I wasn't going to sit in my room all day so I left while it was still raining hoping it would break by the time I got to Ulm. Luckily, it did. However, the rest of the day was overcast and it drizzled occasionally which is not very good weather for taking high quality pictures. I apologive in advance that they are probably not what you have come to expect. I hope to get back on a nicer day to better capture what I say. That's it for the world's tallest steeple. Check my flickr page for pics.

Coming up: Strasbourg, France, where I will celebrate the 4th of July. Take that, Frenchie!

Cheers,

Michael

Happy Belated Fathers' Day to all the Dads out there

Last Sunday was Father's Day and I was really happy to get everyone's cards! Even got to webcam a bit with my daughter, Sarah, which was a real treat. Thanks to her, I am an honoree on this special day. Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there.

Spent last Saturday doing mundane things that have to get done no matter where you are including grocery shopping and laundry. Chose to do that on Sat, my usual day out, so I could enjoy Fathers' Day chore free.

I found out about a museum about an hour away that sounded promising, The Auto and Technik Museum. This place boasted that largest permanent collection of Formula 1 cars and the only place in the world where examples of the only two supersonic jets were on display and well as countless other vehicles, military equipment, and planes of all kinds. Sounded good....sign me up.

When I first arrived, I was a little surprised at how touristy and commeralized this place was. People were hawking LG cell phones out of nurmous booths which struck me as rather unusual. I walked up to the kiosk selling entrance tickets and said "eins, bitter" ("one please", getting to know that phrase pretty well). The cost of entrance was Eur $13 or about USD $18. Seemed like a lot but it was pay or turn around and go home. I was happy to find out that the admission fee had been waved today. It was a Fathers' Day miracle!

As I wandered around, I determined that this was really just a collection of old stuff and not really a museum. The displays were pretty low budget and most of them had these stupid department store mannequins dressed in period correct clothing in some ridiculous pose trying to "bring the display to life". All it did for me was make what would have been a decent snap shots, no longer worth taking. All the cars in the initial displays were parked on white stone mulch like you might use for landscaping. Seemed like a very odd choice. Probably got a good deal on it somewhere. Additionally, except for what I outline below, there was really nothing noteworthy here. Just old, poorly displayed stuff.

On a positive note, there were a fairly large number to road-going (non-race) Ferraris there. Some were run of the mill street cars (as far as Ferrari goes) but others were very limited production, very special and very expensive models like the F40 and F50 (only 349 produced). They also had a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO on display. For a Ferrari enthusist, this practically the holy grail of Ferraris. Only 39 were produced (don't know how many are left, many were destroyed in race relatated crashes). The currunt value of a car like this is around USD $4,000,000 to $5,000,000. Examples have sold for as much as $14,000,000 back in the '80 when the Japanese were buying up everything including Peeble Beach. If this one is authentic (wouldn't be surprised to find out it is not), then it was the crown jewel of the collection.

Also on display were a dozen or so Formula 1 cars from over the years including the 1st Ferrari that Michael Schumacher drove for them in '94, the car he drove during his first season in Formula 1, the race suit he wore during the season he won his first world championship, and some other interesting cars from various teams and various years.

On a side note, Germans (and many Formula 1 fans from around the world) are nuts for Michael Schumacher. Schumacher, a German, broke almost every record in Formula 1 history and won a record 7 world champonships. It will be a very long time before that is ecipsed, if ever. He is much loved in both Germany and Italy, the home of Ferrari.

Also on display was the other reason I went to this museum. Examples of the only two supersonic planes were on display, the Air France Concorde and the (Soviet) Tupolex Tu-144 (NATO name: Charger). Both were mounted on a number of steel post and high in the air to give the illusion that they were in flight. I was happy to find out that both were accessable by climbing up a spiral staircase. Both planes were similiar in appearance and size (turns out that the Soviets stole the plans for the Concorde and just replicated it, pretty common MO in the USSR).

I heard the Concorde was pretty small and those reports are correct. There were two seats on each side of the aisle and the aisle was only about 14" wide. It was pretty impressive though to see the large engine bays which seemed a large as the fuselage itself.

The Tu-144 was very similiar to the Concorde and the Tu-144 was the first commercial- like aircraft to exceed Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) or around 1300 Mph! I say "around" because several factors like air density are involved. 16 Tu-144s were built and 20 Concordes. Pretty neat to see up close.

I was on a plane over twenty years ago and the pilot announced that we would be able to see a Concorde out the right side of our plane's windows. I was lucky enough to have the widow seat on the right side of our plane and saw the Concorde in flight. It passed us like we were moving backwards. It was really something to experience and something you will never see if you have not already (much like the lunch I had in the Widows to the World resturant which was located on the top floor of the World Trade Center, also a very memorable experience).

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Pictured above: Concorde, Tu-144, Schumacher's first F1 Ferrari, a 1997 Ferrari F50, and a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO (they crashed a fake one in the move "Ferris Buller's Day Off").

Well, that was about it for this museum/theme park. All and all, it was a worthwhile trip. If you are not crazy for Formula 1, Ferrari, or supersonic jets, you could probably pass on this one. I took lots of pics of the few interesting things I saw and they are on my flickr page.

Cheers,

Michael

Schloss Neuschwanstein (Royal Castle of King Ludwid II)

I will start by wrapping up Sunday's activities which included the BMW Museum in addition to the Deutsches Museum.

Of the three car museums I have gone to (Mercedes, Porsche, and BMW), I would have to say the BMW Musuem was a bit of a disappointment. I got the feeling the marketing department played a bigger role in this museum than the historians.

It seemed like the museum was more about branding than the history of BMW. Very glitzy and really lacked substance. There were many historically significant cars in BMW's history which didn't make the cut like the BMW V12 LMR which scored an outright victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Got some nice snapshots of the museum building itself as well as some of the more interesting cars inside such as the well known (to fans of sports car racing anyways) racing example of the 1988 M3 (I own one of those but not the race version although it is lightly track prepared). Pics, as you probably figured out, are posted on my flickr.com website.

It was actually lucky that a lot of stuff I wanted to do on Monday was closed. Otherwise, I would have never made it to Schloss Neuschwanstein, which was one of the highlights of my visit to Munich.

Before I left for the castle, I wandered through the Deutsches Jagd Und Fischerei Museum (Hunting and Fishing Museum). There was a lot of taxidermy displays which were ok. I really enjoyed the weapons displays which was the entire 3rd floor. I saw cross bows from 1550, blunderbust from 1660, and countless flint lock as well as powderhorns and a collection of spiked collars for hunting dogs (to protect their necks from being bitten by prey they were taking down). The older firearms were really something. All hand made and each one a work of art with inlays and metal carving. I tried to capture some of that in the pics I took but it was hard because everything was in glass cases and reflected natural light as well as the flash. Jodi's Dad, Jerry, would have really enjoyed this museum.

On to the castle. The castle was about 100 km (60 miles) away and my navigation system took me through some winding country roads and small Bavarian towns. As my beautiful wife would say, "stop and smell the roses, slow down and see something besides the highway". I didn't smell any roses but I did see a few (baby steps, right?).

As I approached, you could see the castle off in the distance many miles away up on the mountain side. It was like something out of a fairy tale. In fact, it is said that this castle inspired Walt Disney's design of the Sleeping Beauty castle at Disney World and Disney Land. 1.5 million people visit this castle every year.

Before I go any further, I will tell you that we were asked not to take any pictures inside the castle. To see pics of the inside, click here:

http://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/index.htm (I know english is spelled wrong, but that is how it is in the address) and then click on "tour of the castle"

Once again, I was blown away by what I saw and pics cannot capture how incredible this place was. Look at the pics of Ludwig II's bed room. Notice all the elaborate carving of the items in there? The tour guide told us that 14 wood carvers worked for 4 years just on this room alone.

The throne room has an elaborate mosaic tile floor. Each stone tile of the mosaic is about the size of your thumbnail and over 2,000,000 of these little tiles were hand laid. The chandelier found in this room weights 2000 lbs.

The castle itself was built between 1869 through 1886 as America was rebuilding from the Civil War. I parked in the town (Hohenschwangau) at the base of the castle and walked about 3o minutes up a fairly steep road to get to the castle, which overlooks Schwansee (Swan) Lake.

I saw every one of the finished rooms in the castle which is only 1/3 built out inside. Ludwig II died under mysterious conditions before the castle was finished and all construction halted.

Ludwig II was a deeply religious person and this is reflected inside the castle and there are no pictures or references of him in the castle except in one small spot. He wanted the interior of the castle devoted to religious figures. He was also a big fan of Wagner and this is reflected in the "singers' hall".

One thing that struck me was that every wall surface is covered in wood or a very detailed and large mural.

There is actually a lot of technology (for that period) incorporated into the castle. It has running water and central heating as well as a castle sewer system.

I encourage you to go to wikipedia and do a search for more info. There are a lot of details I haven't covered because the blog would get too long.

I finished up my trip with heading out to a concert venue to see one of my favorite bands, Social Distortion. Social D formed in 1979, hailing from Orange County, CA, and has been at it ever since. They are often credited with as one of the leading bands of the 1980's hardcore punk explosion.

They have mellowed a bit over the years and call Johnny Cash and Hank Williams some of the musicians that influence them.

It was a really good show and I got to hear the usual set (seen them about 6-7 times) and was treated to a couple of new songs and a couple of songs I have never heard live.

Well, I think that about does it for my trip to Munich. Hope everyone has a great week.

Finally Caught Up

I got back from Munich on Tuesday morning and then straight into work. I spent a couple of evenings downloading and sorting pics so those would be available before I actually told you about my trip.

I uploaded 130 pictures which are in 9 different sets. If you haven't checked them out pls go to the flickr link I provided earlier. The photos are not available to the public as I have pics of family members and don't want every freak with an internet connection looking at them.

If I haven't sent you an invite (it is a email I send you from the flickr.com website) and you would like one, pls email me at mk1802@yahoo.com

Now...a little bit about Munich, The Capital of Bavaria. Munich is 2 hours away by car from Stuttgart and it was a nice drive, mostly on the Autobahn. Munich is the 3rd largest city in Germany with 1.5 million residents. Only Berlin and Hamburg have larger populations. It is estimated that the city was founded in 1158 by monks of the Benedictine Order. In fact, Munich's native name, Munchen, is derived from an old German word, Monche, which means monk.

Munich is also where Hitler and his supporters staged the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, shortly after WWI (the Germans suffered a crushing loss to the Allies, complements of the US Marine Corps). This little uprising landed Hitler in prison where he wrote "Mein Kampf"

On a side note, it was the WWI Battle of Belleau Wood where the Marines were given one of their nicknames of "Teufelshunden" or "Devil Dogs" by the Germans because of the ferocity with which they fought. It is also the place where Capt Lloyd Williams (USMC), when told by retreating French soldiers that they should turn around because everyone was pulling back, said "Retreat? Hell, we just got here". Capt Williams died during the battle for Belleau Wood, which historians say was the turning point for the Allies during WWI. He was also a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1907) and a member of Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. Capt Williams is also thought to be the first Virginian to die in WWI (I thought all my readers in Virginia would find this particulary interesting). God rest his soul.

Now where was I? Oh, yes, my trip to Munich.

I booked a room at The Kings Hotel which was very nice. The room was small by American standards but about what you should expect when in Europe. It was located only 5 minutes from the city's central train station and only another 5 minutes to the entrance to "old town Munich" or the city's central square.

This central square area is actually quite large, probably 10 blocks long and 2 or 3 blocks wide. I use blocks just so you can imagine how big it is. Most of the area is all a pedestrian area and it is always fairly crowded as there are many shops and cafes in the area. On Saturday, it was just packed with people. All the shops were open and in the center of the square, many beer gardens had opened and there were several traditional German bands playing music. It was very festive. It seems like Sat is the day when everyone gets out to shop, eat and drink. Most everything in closed on Sun and many of the tourist stuff like museums are closed on Sun and Mon. Most of the Munich picks you see on my flickr site were taken on Sat. The very center of the square is called Neues Rathaus "New Town Hall".

The Neues Rathaus was built b/w the years of 1867-1909 and has a 330 ft facade. The central facade features a 260 ft clock tower known as Glockenspiele. Each day at 11am and 5pm, the bells ring out a carol while mechanical knights fight a tournament and a crowd dances (see pics on flickr). The latter is a reenactment of the first coopers' dance held in 1517. You can search "youtube" and find video. It was ok, just didn't blow me away. It was probably more interesting in 1909.

All within a few blocks are some of the most fantastic churches I have ever seen. I took lots of pics (again, see them at my flickr page), however, I can tell you that no picture can capture what I saw. They are so elaborate and intricate, you could spend hours in each one. The three churches I got pics of are: Michaelskirche (St. Michael's Chruch) built in 1585, Asamkirche (Asam's Church or St Johann-Nepomuk) built in 1750, and Frauenkirche built in the mid 1400s. Each one had something really noteworthy about it such as "the devils foot print" at Frauenkirche, at St. Michael's: the life sized bronze angel that holds the holy water as well as the crypt of Ludwig II (built the big castle I went to Monday known as Royal Castle of Neuschwanstein), and Asam's Church was over the top in every way. There is so much history behind each one of these churches that each one could be its own blog topic. I encourage you to google (or use the search engine of your choice) each one for pics much better then the ones I took.

Also in the town square is Augustinerbrau which is the oldest and most celebrated brewery in Munich which was founded by Augustinian monks in 1328. The Germans take beer very seriously. Beer is consumed daily often with lunch and dinner. It is practically more available then water and the source of much national pride.

On Sunday, I went to the Deutsches Museum which is one of the oldest and largest museums of technology and science. It is Smithsonian in size. It covers all things science. It doesn't have just one or two telescopes, it has 100. It covers, in great depth, the history of printing and paper (my Dad could have spent several hours just in this section). It covers (insert the name of any technology) from the day it was invented to what we use today. Included are such things as the camera, flight, sailing, musical instruments, physics, telecommunications, computers, etc.

Of particular note, they had a life size diorama of Galileos's workshop which featured a large collection of scientific equipment used by the famous astronomer and physicist to establish the basic laws of mechanics. Knowing the achievements of Galileo, it was awe inspiring to be so close to the items in this display. I felt like I was thrown back in history. Stephen Hawkins says, "Galileo Galilei, perhaps more than any other single person, was responsible for the birth of modern science". Truly amazing.

Galileo was found guilty of heresy in 1633 by the Catholic Church because of conclusions he drew from his scientific studies. In 1992, some 350 years later, Pope John Paul II admitted that the Church got this one wrong and declared that Galileo was once again a member in good standing. You go, Galileo.

Tomorrow I will finish up the the BMW Museum and the Royal Castle of Neuschwanstein.

I got distracted by my beautiful wife on yahoo instant messaging. Sorry, she has priority, always . More tomorrow.

Cheers,
Michael

Pics of Munich are posted to Flickr

Hello everyone,

I have spending the last few days getting all my pics sorted and posted to flickr.com. I must have added 10 new sets so pls ckeck them out.

If you would like to see the pics but don't have acces, pls email me at mk1802@yahoo.com and ask me for an invite. The pics are not viewable by the general public. I have pics of Jodi and Sarah and I am leery of thinking that anyone with an internet connection could be looking at pictures of my family.

Will get caught up on my blog this weekend by describing my experiences in Munich. I think it will probably be a multipart blog. I saw a lot and feel like I must have walked 100 miles while I was there.

Hope everyone had a good week and ckeck back in a day or two.

Cheers,
Michael