Meine erste Wochenende

I'm back with more from Germany...

My first weekend here turned out to be a long one....literally. Monday was a holiday in the Catholic regions of Germany. The holiday, Whit Monday, is a celebration after the Pentacost (which was on Sunday). Anyway, I got the day off. So I had three days to explore.

Saturday, I took the train into Munich. It's about a 20 min train ride from Garching into the center of the city and the train drops you off at the Marienplatz, a Füßgängerzone (pedestrian only zone) in the heart of old Munich. This is where you can find the Glockenspiel, the Neues Rathaus, most famous of Munich's churches and the Viktualienmarkt, an open air market teeming with fresh fruit, vegetables, German food, and Biergartens. It's a huge tourist zone so I tried to get away from there as quickly as possible.

I hopped on another train (speaking of trains Germany's public transportation system is super efficient. Many people in large cities don't own cars and choose the easier and chearp alternative: trains and busses. You could literally set your watch by German trains. Needless to say you can get anywhere in Munich using public transportation. For only 7 Euros I got a ticket that was good to go anywhere in Munich all day.) to go towards the Deutsches Museum. The Deutsches Museum is the world's largest technology museum...it's like the Smithsonian on steroids. You could spend an entire month going through the history of every technological advancement in the world, from the world's first automobile to glassblowing. There are a ton of science exhibits as well. I only had a few hours. Definitely worth the stop for science/history buffs.

The real reason I went into Munich on Saturday was for the UEFA Champions League Final being held in Spain, against Inter Milan

and Bayern Munich (mentioned in the last post). Awesome environment to watch a game! European soccer fans are the best. Bayern Munich's home stadium, the Allianz Arena, sold out and the game wasn't even being held there! I ended up watching the game at the Hofbräuhaus. Although its a typical tourist trap, it has great food and serves the best beer by the liter. Anyway, the Biergarten was full of crazy Bayern fans. Unfortunately, we lost 2-0.

Sunday, I was back in Munich. This time I road the IPP bike into the city along the river Isar. Its about a 10 mile ride on a dirt path through the forest. Much more scenic than along a busy road. I spent the day riding around and exploring the city more or less riding around aimlessly. I probably easily road 30+ miles for the day. Towards the end of the day, I road into the Marienplatz because they have a public water fountain and I was super thirsty (and too cheap to buy anything). When I got there I was totally blown away...the entire Marienplatz was filled with Bayern fans and blaring music. There was no room to move. During the week leading up to the event the team owner/president/whoever had promised the city 15,000 free beers if Bayern won. Despite the loss, he decided to give the free beers anyway in thanks to the fans for being so great over the course of the season. It was awesome to see. Unfortunately, I didn't stay for the beer because I still needed to ride home and it was getting late and I was hungry. A picture and a video of the scene are below. In the video you can hear Bayern's coach talk about who the team beat on the road to the final...basically just cheering on the crowd. The whole team was there too so it was awesome to see world famous players in person....Franck Ribery is even more ugly than I thought haha...If you don't believe me look him up on google.

Monday, I spend the morning/afternoon by the local lake, Garchingersee (AKA Garching Lake) on a real bike ride (with my racing bike). I road about 35 miles, down into Munich and then up to Freising and then back to Garching.

This week I've finally gotten more into the physics besides just reading literature. For those of you interested, my mentor, Armin Manhard, and I are researching the diffusion of hydrogen into Tungsten and seeing how this diffusion is related to the material structure of Tungsten, i.e. whether it has been annealed at low temperatures or at higher temperatures, allowing it to recrystalize. My main job will be sample prep and charicterization, although Armin is letting me be apart of and see everything. I'm learning so much physics! If you have any questions just let me know.

At the end here I'm posting some pictures of the scenery around Garching. If you have any requests for more pictures of my room or those that I've taken in Munich let me know.

In the woods near the Isar River. It's great to run on trails back here.

A look from right outside of town near a local park.

For now, wiedersprechen.