More tales from abroad...

Free Day in Munich
During our trip we had an appointment or two every weekday. When we did not have a visit we were driving (time on the bus varied from two to six hours a day). Though we usually had our evenings free, we only got one free day in a city where we were staying during the two week trip. That was in Munich, the only city on our itinerary that I had visited previously. So, what do you do in a city that you have visited six years ago (almost to the day)? The exact same thing as last time (well, almost).

On Saturday morning Anwar, Loreen, Helga, and I went to the train station and discovered (remembered?) that Munich has a fabulous deal with their day passes (probably the best public transit deal in Europe). For €9, a group of up to five people can travel together until 6AM the next day on all the trains within the city. For the four of us our whole day pass cost each of us less than one ride. We began at the Marienplaz to watch the 11AM performance of the glockenspiel (carillon) on the Neues Rathaus (town hall). It's basically a few statutes spinning to music near the top of a spire, but it was something that you have to see in Munich. I was just as unimpressed, yet satisfied, as last time. From there was a pleasant walk to one of my favorite museums in the world, the Deutsches Museum. Though most of the exhibits are still right out of the 70's, it is a museum of science and technology with planes, ships, rockets, cars, drills, bridges, and a cell that you can walk through. This is the what the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago was based on.

After wandering back to the center of town for some bratwurst, we went to the Olympic Park, only to get caught in the rain while strolling around. We took the elevator to the top of the Olympic Tower for some great views of the Park, but the fog prevented us from seeing the Alps, or for that matter, the center of Munich which was only 3km away (though managed to find the Hauptbahnhof).

Adjacent to the Park is the BMW Museum, which had some beautiful cars that we couldn't touch and very limited information. It gave a nice brief history of the company, though it seemed to be geared towards people who actually like cars, as opposed to people who just like museums. But it was still a nice visit. Like an observant civil engineer, my favorite part was the parking lot (please note what the location of the puddles can tell about the quality of the construction).

We ended the night with one more flashback, a trip to the Hofbrauhaus (a picture of McHale and me here at age 21 is my key chain) for a liter of beer with the locals. OK, I admit that about half the visitors are foreign tourists, but we shared a table with some German guys around our age who tried to convince us that the Hofbrauhaus was a stereotype and not typical Bavaria (though we already knew that, considering how few people we saw on the streets of Munich with lederhosen, dirndls, and feathers in their caps). The beer was good, the food was great, and the people were friendly. It was the perfect way to end our stay in Munich and prepare for a six hour drive to Zurich on Sunday.

What is a Trevian?
My high school mascot. Or someone from Trier. I finally visited Trier, Germany, the namesake of my high school, New Trier in Winnetka, IL, USA. Trier is thought to be the oldest city in Germany, founded by the Romans in 16BC as Augusta Treverorum (thus the locals were known as Trevians). I managed to get my picture snapped behind the Porta Nigra (from the front the whole gate didn't fit in the photo). We were only there for an hour and a half, and it rained as we were leaving, but Anwar, Loreen, Helga and I managed to have lunch in front of a graveyard in front of a thousand year old church. It was a bit of a shame that our time there was so short, but we had to return to Luxembourg for our last night before heading back to Delft.

Luxembourg
We spent two nights and one day in Luxembourg. Our hotel was near the airport. There was nothing else nearby, even though the airport is only 6km from the city center. Luxembourg City is beautiful, its placement on a fortified cliff yields amazing views from almost everywhere. Even from the bus. After our Friday morning meeting with the Ministry of the Environment, we drove through the city (to go to Trier). From our bus window we saw valleys and parks and castles and churches and...the Environmental Science class? Pounding on windows to get their attention (we didn't), the only time we saw any of our IHE colleagues was through the bus window on the last day of our trip. It would have been nice for the school to coordinate field trip schedules so we could have a futbol match with the other group, or at least a cup of coffee. But we went onto Trier and when we returned a few hours later they were gone.

Executive Summary
The field trip was great. I would have liked a few afternoon hours free in the cities, but I do realize that the primary purpose of the trip was not tourism. Still, it would have been nice to make it to a few more museums. A few of the hotels were a bit far out of town (Zurich, Luxembourg) which limited our access to inexpensive/local food (basically the only place to eat was the hotel restaurant). And after 48 hours back in Delft we were off to Limburg.