Packed and Ready

Three of our four bags, packed and ready to go. Our 20-year-old bags were at the end of their lives and the boys didn't really have decent bags, so we decided to upgrade this year to new Tom Bihn bags. Aeronauts for Kathy and Brad; a Tri-Star for Henry, and a Western Flyer for Charlie. They're all small enough to carry-on and have backpack straps that hide away in a secret compartment. We've been Tom Bihn fans for years and absolutely love these bags. They're made right here in Seattle and built to last. And yes, for 2½ weeks in Europe, we had just one bag each.

Exhausted

We arrived in Frankfurt after a long overnight flight during which none of us slept much. We zipped through passport control, bought German SIM cards for our phones, and headed for the train station, which is attached to the airport.

Zzzz

Of the four of us, Charlie slept the least on the plane flight.

Glass Roof

The Frankfurt Airport train station has a cool glass roof.

Losing the Fight Against Sleep

We all tried to fight sleep to help us switch over to German time, but we weren't always successful. These were our second-class seats on the ICE train. We'd reserved four facing seats with a table. Most of the seats in our car were regular rows facing forward.

Novotel München City

Our Novotel Hotel in Munich. We arrived in Munich at about 2:30 pm and switched to the S-Bahn train to get to our hotel. The hotel was about a 5-minute walk from the S-Bahn station. The window of our room is visible just above "Willkommen" sign.

Pizzesco

We decided to get a quick dinner near the hotel and found this pizza place just around the corner. It was packed thanks to the World Cup game against France (which Germany went on to win 1-0).

True & 12

A few doors down from the pizza place is this ice cream shop. Charlie skipped the pizza and just had ice cream for dinner. Vacation rules.

Flavors

Everything we tried was excellent. I think my favorite was the simple Milch & Sahne (Milk & Cream), though the Melon & Black Pepper was pretty great, too.

Ice Cream Zombies

Frische Eier (Fresh Eggs)

After dinner, we stopped at the grocery store for a few things. Even though I knew that eggs aren't usually refrigerated in Europe, it was still a surprise to see them just sitting there on the shelf. Note the colored eggs and soccer ball eggs on the bottom shelf.

Plugged In

It wouldn't be a Mohr vacation photo album without at least one picture of everyone using an electronic device of some sort. The Novotel had decent WiFi, which was nice. Also, you can see the backpack straps on Henry bag.

Water Flow Experiments

Our first full day in Munich started with a visit to the Deutsches Museum, which was just down the hill from our hotel. This is the Auer Mühlbach, which originally provided waterpower from the Isar River to mills and industries. Today, it's just a swift stream with a walking path next to it. Charlie decided to see how fast the water was flowing by throwing sticks and leaves in and trying to chase after them.

Deutsches Museum

The Deutsches Museum sits on an island in the Isar River. It's one of the largest museums of technology in the world. Virtually every area of technology is covered: hard and applied science, engineering, aviation, medicine, telecommunications, computers, weaving, printing, photography, music, and on and on.

One Cylinder

A single-cylinder steam engine.

Steam Turbine

Blades of a steam turbine.

R. Wolf

Mohr+Federhaff+Losenhausen

The museum has an exhibit on material testing, including many machines for doing such testing. This company was apparently a big player in testing equipment.

Borkumriff Lantern

This was the lantern from a Germany lightship that kept the seas safe off Emden.

Stairwell

Lantern & Stairs

Those are paper airplanes on top of the lantern.

Transportation

Ships and balloons in the foreground, planes, kites, and dirigibles beyond.