Deutsche Treiben

All week my coworkers have been telling me things to see in Bavaria. King Ludwig’s castle on the lake, King Ludwig’s castle on the mountain, his castle with an artificial cave and lake, the historic cities of Regensburg and Bamburg with city centers hundreds of years old…there’s a lot to see in the Munich area…on a sunny day.

The clouds rolled out on Friday night and the reports said they’d stay until Monday. Well, at least the art museums are only one euro on Sundays, and my GRE prep book just came in. ugh.

Before leaving work, and leaving the internet for the weekend, Wesley and I looked up toytowngermany.com real quick to see if there was anything the English-speakers living in Munich thought would be interesting for the weekend. I should check this site more often. It said on Wednesday Tom Cruise was in Munich for the premere of Knight and Day – German cinema is a little behind, it usually takes two to four weeks for the German versions to come out. Although Germany’s version of Hollywood is in Berlin, right next to where Becca works (last week she saw Jackie Chan and the Smith family walk down the red carpet to promote Will Smith’s son’s karate movie), an Englishman would think that Munich were the movie capital. Under the listings for that night’s notable events, Wesley and I found a cinema that does “sneak previews” of the original versions of American movies before their German versions are released. The catch is you never know what movie they will play until the camera starts rolling.

We hoped it would be Inception. So did everyone else, when the scene opened on DiCaprio washed up on the sand of a beach in his dreams the whole theater cheered. Pretty good movie, worth watching, have to pay close attention in the beginning.

The movie got out at two am, still raining. Woke up at 9 am, still raining. Not a good day for castling. So I took a practice test, immediatly glad I had got the book, ten I went to the gym, didn’t energize me like it normally would, the weather was really weighing me down. That was obvious playing spades later that night. I hit null my first six hands in a row, ha but that was great for our score, once I started doing it “intentionally.” We made some chicken and pasta during the game. Tried to use the premade tomato sauce that I had opened the week before but we capped and tossed that as soon a possible. Luckly I had some canned peeled tomatoes somehow, can’t remember why I bought that. We got creative, added it to the carmalized onions on the fly. Mashed up the tomatoes, threw in salt, pepper, and oregano. Wesley handled the spices like a pro, it was the best thing I ever helped bring forth from the stovetop. We shared some with my flatmates. They were impressed, want to combine forces on Tuesday.

Olivier and Monica came over for dinner and cards too. Monica is working in a biochem lab at Freiberg University, making good use of the email list MISTI sent out with listings of who’s where. None of us had met her before but she fit right into the card game, kept reminding Olivier that it was only a game while Wesley and I racked up the points. She was staying at Olivier’s place for the night before going to see the Neuschwanstein Castle as all asian tourists do. The weather had gotten Wesley and I down but she was so set on going that I got excited about castling again.

We left early the next day on the 9:13 train, two hours to Fuessen. The train was crowded, ha, the majority asian. Monica is fluent in Chineese for having lived in Bejing for the first seven years of her life. She was able to pick up some touristy hints from the conversation around us, and identify the third language on the information boards – Japanese. I usually see English translations at notable sites but often with many typos and spelling errors. This place also had Japanese.

The castle has absolutely no historical value. It was built in the mid nineteenth century. At a time when the rest of the world was building railroads and skyscrapers King Ludwig was building fairy tale castles. Dynamite was used to excavate up to twenty meters of stone to level the mountain peak. A steel encasement supports the sheer tenuous walls.

It is spectacular to see. The castle is beautiful, and would draw tourists if it were built in a field. Instead, it rises right out of a mountain nearly as steep as the castle walls. A winding road brings you to the castle gate, there is no way to walk around the castle without climbing gear. The back drops off to a stream running down a waterfall and through a gorge. The castle looks out over an open field which runs to an expansive lake. The Alps and valley lakes back the castle. The best view, short of taking a ski lift to the high mountain just behind the castle and hang gliding down (as two people were), is from short bridge high above the waterfall.

The bridge was built at the same time as the castle. It bridges a mountain trail, but the old wooden bridge would have done that. Ludwig knew that the bridge would become a place to admire his castle so he rebuilt it with a steel frame. Good thing, it’s very windy there and all of the thousands of tourists who visit the travel make the short hike to the bridge.

We arrived at eleven in the morning. The line to buy a ticket for walking inside the castle was so long, about twenty minutes past the “forty minute” mark. We decided the wait was not worth nine euros. We later found out that even with a ticket inside you have to wait until they call you and then you cannot take any photos. We decided to visit the Residence or Nymphemburg Palace if we wanted to see the absurdly lavish rooms of a castle.

We took a lot of pictures at Neuschwanstein and the other castle nearby belonging to King Ludwig’s uncle.

Yesterday Daniel and I went to the Tollwood Festival in the Olympia Park. I had heard about it all month, there are posters in every subway, even directions to the festival specific to each subway. It looked like a bunch of ticketed concerts, none interested me so I didn’t think about going. Instead, when I thought about what Daniel should see before he leaves Munich, of course I brought him to the Olympia Park. It was too grey for him, he would have had it in more colors. He’s from Paris, whatever.

We climbed to the top of Olympia Mountain for  a view of the city and park. The city is not that interesting from an aerial view. It was designed for walking and that really is the best way to see it. We got halfway up the hill and looked over the park. I found out that he had read the same book that I just finished, One Hundred Years of Solitude. What are the chances that one of the only Americans I meet in Germany has just read the only book I have read this year? That stopped us in our tracks, but once we got up the hill we saw the city and, right below, Tollwood.

“Toll” means crazy. The festival is pretty interesting. Lots of foriegn food, none of it American, and crafts. A lot of African and Arabic culture. One big tent that looked straight out of Aladin had an active pottery station, instruments and trinkets. At the back eight Arabs were sitting on pillows rattleing bells and blucking a deep bass. It looked pretty silly, sounded great. If you looked away you could imagine it coming out of a club. Right outside there was a big round tent enclosing a bar and seats with a stage in the middle. A pop/folk “symphony” was singing some english language songs to a drum, guitar, and five horns. There were some gated tents that would open later for a larger band if you had a ticket, but you didn’t need to pay to watch two aluminum foil gremlins give random members of the audience the wackiest haircuts ever to a techno beat. You’d see the victims wandering around the festival afterward. One had his hair wired with fish and animals, his head spraypainted like a globe. Another had a lion parting the blue grass of another fool’s spiked hair.

There’s a lot to look at, I might go back this week and listen to one of the bands. On Thursday there will be a few thousand 6k runners finishing in the Olympic stadium. I should go back for that. Herr Eisenhower, across the hall from me, told me about that race. He used to be a marathon runner in college, now he’s only allowed to bike. He rides 30 kilometers each way, to and from work everyday now. He told me that Tollwood happens twice a year, in the winter and the summer. The joke is that if you are going to Tollwood in July, you had better bring an umbrella, and a lifevest. We were lucky, Sunday turned into a nice day after being cloudy all morning. Saturday afternoon lived up to the myth, it poured around 3pm.

We had four good hours of sun before it started pouring, then we sat in the cabana and played cards, Presidents. Wesley knows, he always has a deck of cards, more often than I have a Kinja.
It cost 3 euros to get in but was worth it. The train dropped us off right at the lakeside but we walked fifteen minutes to the Badsee area – a grass beach with a restraunt and bath house. They even had a low and hi diving board and a floating trampoline!
Becca and I had barely missed the 9 am train. I thought we had time to eat a big breakfast and maintain my summer long shaving streak but as we ran towards the train Becca’s phone shattered and we watched it pull away as she put it back together. So waited for the 10. It worked out though. This allowed Wesley to come along. He didn’t want to get up so early, or be the sixth man on a five person train ticket. Hiko, Alex and Ralph were laying in the sun when we got there, but the first thing we did was swim to the trampoline.

It’s a ridiulous thing. There’s no good way to go from jumping on the trampoline into the water. Everyone plops in a uniquely absurd flop. The diving board was hilarious too. A rather round old man spent the whole day rotating between swan dives and what I guess you could call a duck dive. The goofiest thing, he waddled out to the edge of the board, squatted facing forward, and dropped justs over the board so his butt pushed down the board enought to launch him up just enought to rotate into a vertical dive straight into the water.
There were some real swans at the lake too. They walked right through the thirty people spread out along the grass. Two big swans and three ugly ducklings. After watching them maul a bush I know what makes them so ugly. They fall down over their feet and their bills move so fast they become a blur and their head jerks from leaf to leaf. There is no way those leaves provide enough energy to maintain the act of eating.
We did well eating too. There’s a big grill at the back of the beach

We got an early start today. Ate breafast at the hotel and left at 8 am.

The track wouldn’t be closed until 1:15 am but we had a lot of equipment to unpack before then. It took us about 3 hours to unpack everything and lock it up next to the track. Oddly, we didn’t see a single train go by on this Friday morning, on a track which runs 100 trains a day. We later heard that a spraypainter had been hit by a train a little ways down track. No trains could pass until the regional state representative investigated and things were straightened out. Scary.

We’re supposed to stay 3 meters away from the track. There is a cement stripe which indicates the distance, it’s right at the bottom of the rocky burm which elevates the track, not far away. At that distance the wind from the train knocked down our spotlight. I stay back.

Normally, trains run on the tracks for all but two hours of the day. Even in that brief window in the middle of the night friegt trains come at frequent but irregular intervals. Depending on the conditions of the rest of the network it is common for the headquarters to redirect cargo. When we are working on the track three saftey officials come and get communication from the headquarters. One track is closed while the other is open. They tell us when we can cross and blow a horn when a train is coming. I could not believe how loud the freight trains are.

After we laid our supplies next to the track and had no work to do until the night we went back and got our swim suits from the hotel. On the way to the lake we stopped on the side of the road for Gulash, sold by a guy with a crazy mustache. He had a trailer/oven full of stew and noodles, something you can only find in East Germany.

Another thing you can find in East Germany is sand. Among the sprawling fields of corn and wheat there are patches of land filled with sand. When enough sand is excavated the quarry is abandoned and rain fills it with water for a perfect sandy pond.

That night we got to the track at midnight and hung around with the safety officiers unitl the tracks were clear. An hour was enough time for me to wake up from the three hour nap I got in beforehand. Once we got working it was interesting enough that I had no trouble staying awake.

We had four hours and were able to do the heavy work that night. As I mentioned, in order to standardize the different track beds we take measurements on we always lay about 15 meters of plywood on the track ahead of the sensors. We did that with six sheets pre cut to fit in between the cement rairoad ties. Each one weighed 75 lbs and had to be maneuvered around the communication wire which runs down the middle of the track along its whole length. The hardest part was getting comfortable on the track, not only because a train would pass every half hour but because the footing is so awkward. You have to scramble up a 45 degree rocky embankment and dodge ties and wires on top of the track. I thought my sneakers would be fine for the job but was very glad to have borrowed Herr Eisenhower’s steel toed boots.

The sun came up at 4:30 am, we were done by 6. Went back to the hotel and waited for breakfast. I fell asleep until 8am, went down and ate, slept until noon. We went out for lunch and found another sandy lake to swim and nap at. Watching the World Cup consolation game now, about to take another hour nap before we finish the intallation at midnight tonight. We have the track for six hours, should be able to finish and get back on a normal schedule. It’s hard to keep track of time like this. And the heat! 35-40 C today, hottest place in Europe right now outside of central Spain.

the dynamic sensors

prandlt pressure tubes

We set off for Stendal today to begin a four day installation of sensors in one of the high speed tracks leaving Berlin. It’s a 6 hour drive. Yesterday we packed the rig which Herr Bunk and Herr Jurgens have been building for the past two months. We’re interested in the air conditions inside, and especially, outside the tracks. We are measuring dynamic pressure, static pressure, wind force, boundary layer thickness, and wind direction. The rig is a giant circuit of wires and hoses mounted to sheets of plywood which will be clamped onto the track, inside and out. We are also installing 15 meters of plywood before the sensors in order to have a uniform track bed. We do this at all measurement sites because some tracks have rock beds, others have cement beds, this allows us to make comparisons. In addition to all the sensors we have on the track we have a series of data processors and hard drives to collect the readings as well as three track sensors which detect and count the passage of train axles. I can’t believe it all fit in the two vans. We spent the morning making sure we had everything we need and that it would not slide around during the long ride. It was clear that Bunk and Jurgens had done this before.
I met Herr Deeg at the Nordfreidhof station where he had parked one of the vans this morning at 9:30. We were to leave at that time while the other guys drove two other vans. Once we got to the parking lot we realized we had forgotten the keys. Deeg caught a cab and hustled back to his place so we could get on the road. No need to rush though, the MessVan – our van-turned mobile office – had no power. Jurgens could not make it go faster than 40 kph. That would have made for a very long ride. We rode over to the van service station and found out that they could fix it in 2 hours. Bunk and Jurgens took the working vans and headed north, Deeg and I waited for the repair. It did not take as long as expected, during the time we ate our complimentary lunch at their kanteen – which was remarkably similar to ours – the van was mostly finished.
Back on the road, hit the Autobahn in no time. Riding through hills and fields at 130 kph with the traffic. Great views, long ride though, so glad Deeg speaks English. We spoke a little German too. He also know French and Spanish, no excuse for me not to pick up German.
German license plates begin by denoting the city of origin. Big cities will use only one letter, smaller cities will use two, and little villages use up to three letters. We drove out of M, stopped for a gas and a walk in BH, Wagner’s hometown where they have a huge opera festival once a year, and finally arrived at 8 pm in SDL, Munich-Wagner’s hometown-The Middle of Nowhere, I mean, Stendal. What’s funny is every town in between was called Ausfahrt.
There are a TON of windmills near the highway. On the ride north I saw more windmills from the car than I thought existed in the entire world. Some were under construction. Herr Deeg pointed out that they have the same ultrasonic wind sensors mounted to them that we use for our measurements. The windmills us the sensors to turn and face the strongest gusts of wind. I expected them all to be facing the same direction, the rarely were, confirming my doubts about wind as a source of energy. Herr Deeg says that right now, even the best solar cells, working over their entire lifetime, are barely able to return the amount of energy spent in manufacturing them – they are effectively big batteries. Germany has many heavy subsidies upon clean energy sources and the grid is required to buy from the clean sources. Practicality aside, is cool to see fields of hundreds of windmills hundreds of feet in the air, I wonder if the locals get annoyed.
Only brief traffic, listened to two hours of “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Very funny and random book.
Tomorrow we begin at 8am.

Today I woke up at noon, still tired from the flight. I had heard the day before about a sports headquarters building for german students located near the olympic stadium. I could not find it yesterday but found it on google maps this morning. Got on the train and looked for that.

this room is huge

did I tell you today is a german holiday? Something obscure catholic – “the smiling corpses” – so I had bought a small but very heavy loaf of bread the day before for food. I tried it this morning, whole wheat means WHOLE wheat – almost as thick and raw as uncooked oatmeal. It was ok, filling anyway, and portable.

I got a three day bahn pass, 12euro. I’m getting good at the train, it’s pretty easy. The stations are very well organized. thei’re all linear and if one line connects to another you can always (so far) bolt across the platform and get on the connection which is waiting for you. they don’t wait long though…

The Olympic Stadium

Still rainy today. Got out at the olympic stadium and found the TUM sports building no problem. On the way there I had been waking behind a group of three who stopped outside the gate to the building I was looking for. It’s some big building with a gated bridge you have to walk over to get in- the olympia park is very hilly. there was no one in the booth by the gate and the gate was closed. I couldn’t believe that the place would be closed, athletes don’t take days off – and I was imagining that the olympic team practiced there. So I said “entschuldigung” (excuse me) to the group of three and asked about it. The father (turned out the group was a family visiting the park) didn’t know much about it but he told me some search words that might find a track club in munich. We ended up speaking for ten minutes. He, Herbert, had been to america once for a three month bike ride from vancouver to san diego, the family lives an hour outside of munich at the foot of the mountains and decided to spend the day going through munich, hiking’s no good on a rainy day and they wanted to show more of the city to their son. They don’t often go to the city but had earlier this week when Ben had an interview for an apprenticeship with a realty company – he’s 17, around the age when germans not going to college have to find apprenticeships.

We walked through the olympic park talking, they were very friendly, their daughter is spending half a year in canada, Ben is looking for a job, soon to go off and spend 9 months doing the mandatory military service training. Herbert is self employed as a fence maker – he commented on one of the busted fences at the olympic park. I don’t know if the mom, Gaby, works but I don’t think so because she mentioned that she always had to bike around when Herbert is at work – most german families only have one car.

When we had walked through the park I mentioned that I was interested in seeing the Englischer Garten today, sort of like central park. They had no definite plans and suggested we see it together. We drove over there, about a five minute drive, they pointed out all the landmarks and routes. Herbert had lived in Munich for a long time, knew how to get around well. They drove a mitsubishi to my surprise, there’s so many german cars on the road. Herbert used to work as a driver for BMW – to deliver bought cars that the owners are unable to pick up – he got to drive all sorts of BMWs. They visited the BMW world (BMW Welt) – I went there yesterday, it’s right next to the park, did I already tell you this? It’s basically a huge car dealership, with really cool architecture, like a temple for BMWs with a bunch of little exhibits showing off features of the cars. There’s a museum attached to it, I didn’t go, they also give factory tours, I really wanted to see that but missed the last english tour and they aren’t working today or tomorrow with the holiday. Hope I get to see that later.

what else, we ate in their car after parking outside the englischer garten. They had packed a lunch in a basket, different kinds of loaves of bread, little sausages, cheese, apples, carrots. I offered my bread, they told me all about bread and grocery stores and food.

Right away we saw the surfers in the park- surfing in munich! there’s this fast river with underwater steps which make waves, they go back and forth.

The park is huge, we saw only a little bit. Not too many people out in the rain. One lady had a very energetic dog, he chases tennis balls forever. I asked her to take our picture in german. She did then Gaby who grew up with some dogs spoke to the lady for a long time, we threw the tennis ball.

Walked back and went through the city center, they kept pointing interesting things out. They pointed me in the right direction when we got back near where they had parked.

We had become friends and exchanged contact information. They said I could contact them any time if I need help finding things or understanding things or want to visit them by the mountains in better weather. They liked speaking english – the mom wants her son to get better at it – don’t speak much english out in the country where they’re from.

Funny how the day went. I didn’t expect to do much, ended up having a day long conversation with some german folks.

cool german family

I might buy a used bike tomorrow. Spoke to a retailer yesterday, he said there might be some cheap ones on Friday. I’ve got a three day unlimited pass on the ubahn, I’ll go back to the city center at least. There’s a bookstore there, the biggest in munich, Ben said they sell books with german on one page, english on the other.

I attached some photos, not the most impressive of olympia park, and it is impressive, it’s like  a glass tent, everything supported by tension

Tag 6 already. Started work today. Environment is very laid back, feels like school rather than work environment. They said the dress code was, “like engineers,” glad to find that means very casual, glad I didn’t bring any ties.

Tag 6 already. Started work today. Environment is very laid back, feels like school rather than work environment. They said the dress code was, “like engineers,” glad to find that means very casual, glad I didn’t bring any ties.Got a lot of help from the group putting together my work papers and application for an Ubahn pass. There are 850 people working at this location. Somehow I had expected a very small office. We do aerodynamics and airconditioning. There’s another office up north that also does AC. We’re meeting with them halfway at Kassel for our annual group meeting. I’m looking forward to that – three days paid for traveling and my first time on the fast trains (ICE – Inter City Express), a three hour ride next Monday.Ha, my direct supervisor speaks perfect English but my office mate speaks none. Dr. H is going to switch over to Deutsch in zwei Wocke… I’ll have to catch on.Eating pizza with a beer Jadwiga now outside of this place on the far corner of my square. My roommates are back from vacation. I’m giving them a chance to get used to having a guy in the WG. I’ll have to be careful with my stuff to keep up with them, they keep the place very clean. Maybe they can show me how to use the washer/dryer combo-written in deutsche-machine.A thousand rollerbladers pass as I write this.So I couldn’t get into the TUM sports facility last Thursday when I met Herbert and his family. He suggested that I come back today and find the coach. I was discouraged when there was no one there on the holiday – olympic athletes don’t take holidays – but I went back today after work anyway. Glad I did. Track and FUN. The TUM sports campus is amazing. All students in Munich are welcome to join. They have track, tennis, skating, skiing, volleyball, inline skating, rock climbing, weight lifting, swimming… and everything is available there. You have to cross a bridge in the olympic park, from the top of a hill – there are a lot of hills in the olympic park (made from the rubble left over from the bombings at the end of WWII – definately made the most of it). So this bridge stretches over a fence far below to the big patio of the sports facility. You can see two tracks across the fence from atop the hill. The first one had a few joggers and one javelin thrower (who I had to talk to). Behind some huge cement bleachers you could hear techno music and see 200 people jumping and waiving their arms as the ran around the track. Look out for a video – it’s hilarious, looks like a great time.Behind the main buildings, which house classrooms in their upper floors and fieldhouses below, there are a dozen sand volleyball pits, a rockwall-mountain, soccer fields, and four separate throwing areas! The facility was great, and everything was in use. I guess it looked like what you could imagine if all of MIT’s IM sports were taking place in the same area at the same time.I went over and spoke to the javelin thrower – Rowina, very friendly, told me all about the program, introduced me to the sprints coach, and showed me the facility.The track team out of TUM is all about having fun, as much about the soccer game after the workout as the workout itself. I’m all about the disco track. If I cannot throw with the Olympians who train across the street at the Olympic Stadium I’ll be ok. But I really want to throw with those guys. The Bavarian Collegiate hammer coach trains athletes at the Olympic stadium, I’m going back on Wednesday to see if I can workout with them. 50m discus might be enough, there are two leagues. The beginners train and have fun on TUM’s campus, the more competetive athletes go into the Olympic Stadium. Meets every weekend. Weather’s supposed to be nice this week. I’ll try to find my way to work by bike tomorrow morning, stop in the Englischer Garten on my way back.