4 April 2015 - The Zeppelin Museum and other rainy day activities

Having done our research and noted that shops will be closed on both Easter Sunday AND Monday, we knew we had to stock up on supplies today.  At home, the pantry is always full of potential meals that take only a bit of imagination to make.  Without the luxury of such a stock of food when we are travelling, we have to be a bit more prepared.  Having said that, top of our list today was a printer which we have needed/will need for school work and other documents.

The spring sunshine for yesterday has gone away for Easter it seems, so another grey and rainy day welcomed us this morning.  We were so glad that we had made full use of the delightful weather yesterday and that today some of our day was to be indoors.

We took the train back to Friedrichshafen from Bermatingen where the ticket machine rejected a 20 Euro bill we think because it was wet from the rain...and the ticket booth had no shelter....mmmm....German efficiency needs to take note...but fortunately we had a few coins to pay for the last two tickets.  However, German trains are clean and punctual and Melbourne's MYKI system is far from perfect!

Shaun das Schaf!

Mediamarkt was 2 kms from the station and by the time we got there we were sodden from the rain.  We found and bought the printer and some cables with ease.  Mediamarkt was just like Harvey Norman or Good Guys and even had massage chairs to sit in whilst the boys looked at all the techno stuff!  We had to laugh at all the "Shaun das Schaf" DVDs. My camera had failed to charge overnight which was a minor hiccup only discovered when I went to take the Shaun das Schaf photo!  Fortunately Karl had his tablet with him and took the photos today. We had just missed the bus back to the station so we walked in the rain, again.  A quick trip to the supermarket for lunch supplies and we joined the queue at the Zeppelin Museum.  We bought the family Kombiticket for the Zeppelin Museum and also the Dornier Flight Museum close by for 34 Euros, which we can use over the next seven days.

Impressive glass steps at the Zeppelin Museum

Once we were inside the people seemed to dissipate and we only had to wait a little while to enter the Hindenburg exhibition.  The first port of call was to the theatre where we saw two great documentaries (one in 3 D) about the Zeppelin and the Hindenburg Airships.  They were HUGE, as big as 8 football fields and difficult to store.  

The Hindenburg went down in 32 seconds killing 36 of its 91 passengers and crew.  There were as many crew as passengers aboard and catered for them all well.  The luxury of the space and facilities available were amazing.  There was even a smoking room on board - rather hazardous I would have thought! We really enjoyed walking through the life sized model of the Hindenburg and appreciating its vastness.  Economy air travel with knees touching the seats in front really doesn't compare!

Lounging on the Hindenburg!

The lounge of the Hindenburg!

Seeing parts of the actual Hindenburg remains was pretty exciting including some of its fuselage, crockery, uniforms, clocks and navigational equipment.  The fact that the media was ready and waiting for it in New Jersey, where it crashed, means that there is detailed footage of the event.

Fuselage from the Hindenburg

More pieces of the framework of the Hindenburg

 Prior to the Hindenburg, the Zeppelin had made 540 trips all over the world but not quite to Australia, but as far as Brazil, Japan and the Arctic Circle.  Amazing!  The engineers had to climb on top while these airships were flying to check equipment!!  Brave of them!

Hindenburg engineer!

The other exhibition at the museum was about Gustav Mesmer, the Icarus of Lautertal, who spent many years trying to make flying bicycles.  He was a tortured soul in many ways, from a poor family, and he had a poor education and periods in mental health institutions.  In his later years, however, he enjoyed freedom to invent and paint his ideas which are now on display.  It was a lovely exhibit with enough written in English for us to understand.  Ann Hansen (my friend who went in the Moomba Birdman Rally in 2014 in a orange dog to raise funds for the RSPCA) should take note!!  In her case, she plummeted gracefully straight into the Yarra River!

Gustav Mesmer's flying bicycle

More from Gustav!

Gustav's creations

He even modified shoes to help his lift off on his bicycles!

The last bit on our agenda was the supermarket which we whipped around efficiently conscious of the 1523hrs train back in our direction.  The regional trains only run hourly and we were cold and wet enough not to want to wait another hour.  We made the train with a few minutes to spare.  It is great to have the big kids help with the heavy shopping.

Annika was keen to make hot cross buns and we were keen for her to do so!!  Just as well this house had a good sized oven and a tray! The aroma was wunderbar!

Being a Saturday evening, we decided on pizzas for dinner and gathered around Tim's laptop for a movie...just like home!  Yep, another James Bond tonight: "The Man with the Golden Gun" which was filmed on islands near Phuket in Thailand. We had seen similar unique shaped islands on our way to Phi Phi Island. Family traditions are good and necessary!