We’re off on our full day Munich museum expedition.  First stop: The Deutsches Museum, over 215,000 square feet of exhibits spread over 5 floors spanning everything from Aviation to Health to Technology to Agriculture and Food.  A cornucopia of German – and worldwide – technological history. 

Taking the tram (these things are great!), we hop off at the Museum island stop and make our way down the riverwalk to the front entrance. We had purchased our tickets in advance, which allows us to skip the long line forming at opening time and head directly upstairs to the entrance – and the lockers.  Once inside we begin our journey from the top down – no dummies us, we pass through the aviation exhibit on the first floor, knowing most people just go floor by floor in order –  making our way all the way up to the 3^rd floor and the Health exhibit where we have the place to ourselves – nary another soul besides the docent in sight.

This place is amazing – set up like a human body with a huge heart sculpture in the middle and a large foot at the end, all the displays in between deal with pacemakers (the first designed, the smallest), robotics for prosthetics (which the docent turns on to show us how to use), a video tablet that a person swallows to capture images of the small intestine.  Crazy fun stuff.  The Agriculture and Food exhibit is equally fun – with real live stuffed animals, stats on beef and poultry consumption by country, and some great interactive displays.

The 2nd floor holds exhibits on Image script code, mostly dealing with the Nazi codes and British and American code breakers, but also more recent examples of codes hidden in hollowed out walnuts and ticker tape coded messages.  I’m quite partial to the book (they have the actual book and not wired or held down – anyone could walk off with it) entitled “Instructions for British Servicemen in Germany 1944.  As they say – it is almost like a travel guide for British soldiers to prepare them for what to expect in Germany.  From behaviors to culture to German history, even tips about German food! I could have stood there and read the whole thing had time allowed.  There is a photography and film section with great old cameras and photos, plus an electronics section that has a fabulous sculpture in the shape of a tornado made out of all sorts of electronic gadgets and gear (computer mouses, cellphones, mother boards, monitors, video game controllers). 

The first floor holds musical instruments, including this cool horn with a dragon head for the mouth, a trumpet automation machine/person, singing bird automations and a totally cool Phonoliszt-Violina – a player piano and violin combination from the early 1900s.

Then of course, there are the planes.  Every type, every style, every version you can imagine.  Most interesting is the explanation of how, up until the 1990s, the museum “reduced” the exhibits from the Nazi area (i.e., took off all swastika and Nazi reference).  Now they keep things in their historical condition – and show the swastika on the planes – some projected onto the tail in lights to give the idea of the original. There is a display with a pilot dressed in the heavy, insulated gear they needed to fly in the day (all fur lined and warm), recovered engine wreckage from a 1944 fighter plane (excavating from a farm field) and a super cool Lufthansa exhibit with segments of fuselage from an Airbus A350. Totally cool to stand in front of it and realize just how huge the fuselage is, as well as how the space is used – what is right below our feet when we fly these things!

A wonderful multi-hour visit through excellently presented exhibitions.  Outside, the sun is finally shining as we walk down the river, loving the beautiful fall trees and gorgeous river views. Seeing as it is nearing noon – we decide to start looking for somewhere to eat that is open at this hour.  Heading toward our next destination, the Residenz Palace, we stumble upon Chi Thu, Vietnamese Street Food.  Yes, Vietnamese.  Hey, we love it, the place is open, and we’re here – so Banh Mi and Shrimp summer rolls it is.  Perfect little lunch in a very cute little place at the right time.  Lunch done.