Trip to Munich - Part 1

I am headed to Munich, Germany to visit the Bioinformatics group of some students that I met at a conference last April.

Even on the plane and train descending into Munich I could tell it is different here.  There were no giant skyscrapers and the buildings all have color.  I have been told that Munich is a series of villages that have grown together, but that it still maintains a village atmosphere.  The city is only 20 km across (12.4 miles) and is nearly a circle.   My nephew, Dakota, was here last summer and I heard that he did not like Munich because it is a large city, but after 6 weeks in Lyon, Munich does feel like a village. There are wide open spaces with paths, large boulevards and walkways, and a great transportation system to make getting around without a car easy.

I arrived on Saturday and Franziska picked me up from the train station.  She is the administrator for the department and was nice enough to volunteer to let me stay at her house during my visit.  Her two oldest kids are out of the house and she let me stay in one of their rooms.  We toured the city in her car and she showed me the major sites, explained public transportation on the U-bahn and tram systems, and talked about the history of the bioinformatics group.  She made me dinner at her house and we talked for hours.  She warned me when we were making arrangements that she likes to talk.  She told me stories about her family, travels to foreign countries in an old VW camper van, and about Munich.

On Sunday Franziska had a brunch to attend outside of town and she dropped me off at the BMW headquarters where I met up with Thomas. I met Thomas in Barcelona last year at a Bioinformatics conference. We walked around the BMW displays for both cars and motorcycles and then walked over to the Olympic village.  There is a large hill next to the stadium.  I don't know if it is natural or man made, but from the top you can see across the whole city, as you can see in the first picture on this page. From there we caught the U-bahn over to the Marienplatz, which is a nice pedestrian plaza in a retail district.  On this sunny morning it was full of people strolling. We walked over to the Glockenspiel to see the tourists and then climbed the church tower in Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church). 

Once we climbed the 15 stories of narrow stairs (one person wide, had to turn sideways at times), taking turns climbing and letting the people coming down pass us, we arrived at the crowded top.  I have a bit of a fear of heights and I don't like crowded places.  This was both.  The balcony around the top of the tower is almost as narrow as the stairway and was packed with people.  I made it outside, but could not get myself to move very far, staying within 5 feet of the doorway.    After about two minutes I went inside.  Tried again, but with a large number of people out there, I could not easily pass and it was more than I could manage.  I finally gave up and stayed inside looking out through the doorway and windows.  You can see across the whole city and even see the Alps in the distance.  I need to go back on a less crowded day so I can hug the wall and walk all the way around the outside. It really was a spectacular site. 

Thomas is a fantastic photographer and he showed me some of his compositions.  He has already had one of his pictures on a magazine cover.  The owner of a local bicycle shop is also a fan of his work and has offered to have a showing of Thomas' photographs.  He needs to pick about 10 works to show.  I hope he will be able to post some images of the showing to share with those of us that cannot attend.

From there we went to lunch and it was the only time that I actually ate German food.  I ordered the Schweinebraten with Kartoffelknödel and sliced cabbage in a vinegar.  Schweinebraten is a Bavarian pork roast that was very tender and flavorful.  Kartoffelknödel is a potato dumpling that is the size of a baseball.  It was a very filling meal.

During lunch we were joined by Gergley, with whom I have been emailing and Skyping during the last year.  It was his efforts that allowed me to make this trip.  When we met last year in Barcelona, we had an instant connection because we have taken similar paths to being graduate students.  We both spent a number of years in industry and consulting before finding our desire to pursue research.  His journey is more difficult than mine as he and his wife have three children at home all under the age of 10.  His mind is always active and he seeks answers to the questions that continually arise. 

Gergely took over as tour guide from Thomas for the rest of the afternoon. We walked around the area where the University is centered and along the wide open boulevard. We headed for the Englischer Garten, a large public park, to stroll with hundreds of couples and families.  It was nice to have such a large park inside the city and we must have passed 10 different groups playing football in the grass.  Gergley is originally from Hungary and I talked about the differences between the cities we are living in.  We talked about his research, my research, the recent results of the ENCODE project, and possible projects for the future.

It started to rain and we even saw a few flakes of snow as we walked, so we hopped on a bus and headed back to his car.  Gergely received a special release from parental duties for the evening and we met up with Thomas for an evening out.   They wanted to go bowling.  We ate Mexican food at the restaurant in the bowling alley.  Not bad.  I have been told that there is good Mexican food in the area.  It was nice and spicy.  We bowled for a couple hours and they, being the perfect hosts, let me win two games and tie for high score in a third game out of the four we played.