Monthly Archives: decembrie 2012

Extended Weekend: Bavaria

Posted by on decembrie 12, 2012
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Versiunea română aici.

The road

Map

Because we are talking about cities a few thousands kilometers from Bucharest (Munich and Nuremberg mainly), the transport will be made by plane. Of course, if you feel like a road trip, you could go by car, but it will take you at least 2 days to get there.

Both TAROM and Lufthansa have daily flights from Bucharest Otopeni to Munich, both early in the morning and later in the afternoon. Prices are usually around 120-150 EUR per return trip, except in Oktoberfest season. From Munich airport, there is the S-Bahn that can take you downtown or wherever your hotel is in the city.

To get from Munich to Nuremberg, you can take the plane (another 100 euros) or the ICE (high speed train), at about 50 euros the non-refundable promo ticket.

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Accommodation

The first time I was in Nuremberg, I stayed at a rather shady Mozart Hotel, an experience I don’t want to repeat. Fortunately, at my other trips I decided to use big chain hotels – both Accor and BestWestern have hotels for all budgets throughout Bavaria. This makes Germany compete win France at the number and variety of chain hotels.

You can safely pick a hotel in the suburbs of Munich for example, as S-Bahn service is regular and almost always on time.

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What to see

Nuremberg

Nuremberg is a little on the downside when it comes to sightseeing – in fact, except the Castle and a few small museums, there is not much to see. However, if you’re interested in Nazi reminders, you can take the tram to the suburbs for some WWII-related places. In downtown, you will find the famous „Way of Human Rights„.

See the Wikivoyage article for details.

Human rights way
Human rights way
Tramvaiul-metrou
The tram sometimes becomes a metro here…
Nuremberg 2009
Castelul
The Nuremberg castle

Full collection of Nuremberg Photos at Flickr

Munich

Munich, on the other hand is a jewel of old architecture (as with many German cities, some of it was rebuilt after WWII) mixed with amazing 20th century architecture like the Olympic area and the BMW Museum and building.

Downtown

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Many bikes on a pedestrian road
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Metro (or U-Bahn)
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The palace (Rezidenz)
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Odeonplatz

Panoramic Views

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TV tower – from the cathedral’s tower
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Panoramic View. To the right of the picture you can see the BMW headquarters.

Museums

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Hyperinflation before the War meant stamping the money instead of reprinting.

The BMW Museum

(Almost) Everything in Munich revolves around BMW. So it makes sense for them to have a huge museum, just across the street from the huge factory and headquarters. As a note, the BMW headquarters are registered as a historic monument in Germany.
Sediul BMW
BMW headquarters
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The museum’s building
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The first exhibits: the classic BMW 326
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…next to the future fuel cell…
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…and electric cars.
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BMW started with planes, the went on to produce motorcycles, cars and now even bikes.
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They also have an impressive F1 tradition, both in the past…
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…and present
And all that because of their great engines:
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The car above misses a red button. Can you guess where it should be?
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Well, probably in the gear lever, it’s a Bond car after all, right?

I’m ending the BMW Museum tour with one of the great-looking BMW art-cars. This one from Esther Mahlangu (1991)
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More great photos from the BMW museum and Munich at Flickr

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Alternatives

Any City Break in Europe will probably do it – just find a cheap plane ticket and go for it. We’ve already covered Prague, London, Lyon among others on this blog.

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Crowdsourcing în Europeana

Posted by on decembrie 10, 2012
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Săptămâna trecută am fost invitat, ca organizator al Wiki Loves Monuments, la colocviul de închidere al proiectului CARARE, la Institutul Național al Patrimoniului. Pozele de la WLM vor fi încărcate pe Europeana prin acest proiect în urma scrisorii deschise trimise anul trecut către minister.

La acest colocviu am ținut o prezentare despre acțiunile de implicare a maselor (aka crowdsourcing) în realizarea de materiale pentru Europeana, pe care o puteți citi mai jos sau o puteți descărca în format pdf, odp sau pptx.