Deutsches Museum

Super nerd alert: this girl LOVES museums. Pretty much universally, doesn't really matter what they are for or where they are located. I love art museums, I love old one-room schoolhouses, I love zoos (which are basically animal museums, right?), I loved the weird bunny museum my grandma took me to when I was nine. Right near Leigh's apartment is the famous Deutsches Museum. A museum of science and technology and everything German. I had never been, but heard various relatives rave about it, so on a very rainy morning we decided to give our hosts a break and give the museum a go.

Awesome fact number one: this place is located on an island. What's it called, you ask? Museum Island.

Awesome fact number two: you cross right over Zeppelin Straße to get there.  So that's fun.

 

Awesome fact number three: it's HUMONGOUS. We're talking 8 stories, a giant maze of buildings, hangars large enough for a variety of ships and aircraft, hundreds of winding hallways leading to even more rooms, full size standing rocket on display, get completely lost inside for days type huge. There's even a full-scale replica of the Cave of Altamira, the Spanish site famous for being the first discovery of prehistoric cave paintings. 

  

Awesome fact number four: all access. As is typical in Germany, the safety of the place is almost entirely self-regulated - there are very few guardrails, minimal lines behind which you must stay, etc. You can get right up close and personal with almost everything on display here. Go ahead, climb on into that chopper! Try out the air traffic control tower! Shake hands with the creepy conductor man!

The shipyard is pretty amazing, filled with everything from insanely detailed miniature replicas in glass display cases to canoes carved from a single log to a full-size tugboat and sailboat pair displayed side by side for comparison of quickly changing sailing technique and technology. The history of everything that has ever floated.

  

Beyond the shipyard are multiple rooms housing all kinds of aircraft, 

from kites and simple gliders to mid-century war planes to modern fighter jets. 

There's also quite a bit of space travel history, which is a particularly detailed.

My favorite room to discover was the printing room.
  With hundreds of presses on display,

it was incredibly interesting to see how the techniques have developed over the years.

And the creepiest room award goes to: photography and television!

Spent some time in the children's math wing. 

 

 Couldn't figure out the puzzles. Stupid smart Germans.

What's a museum visit without a browse through the giftshop?

Finished up our morning with a coffee and some postcards!