Lazy tourists in Munich

Now I'm not saying that we were lazy tourists whilst we were in Munich over Christmas, but let's just say we didn't exactly push the boat out...

Take the Bavaria Filmstadt for example. This was just 15 minutes away from us on the number 21 tram, and featured a tour round a film studio that included the set of the submarine "Das Boot", the set for the live action village of "Asterix and Obelix", and most importantly of all, a certain luckdragon from a certain fantasy movie that is Claire's favourite movie of all time.

Yes, we were mere minutes away from a stunt photo opportunity featuring Claire and Falkor...and didn't go.

Well, it was a while away, and it was €10 each, and we were warm in the hotel and had the PlayStation, plus you could only go on an organised tour in English right in the middle of the day, and it lasted 90 minutes, rather than a strategic nip in, look at Falkor, nip out type of visit.

But Claire wasn't the only one who couldn't be bothered with visiting an attraction that at any other time of year would have been a "must see".

Now if you are an American, you know full well that Americans invented the computer, that IBM was the first computer company, and that Microsoft and Google are the natural heirs of a long line of companies that gave computing to the world. And if you are British, you know full well that Alan Turing invented computing, and it was Tommy Flowers and Colossus at Bletchly Park which was the world's first computer, which single-handidly won the war for the British.

And if you are German? Well, then you know that actually Konrad Zuse built the first true 'Turing-complete' computer in May 1941 called the Z3. The original was destroyed by Allied bombing in 1944, but a replica is on display in the Deutsches Museum. We walked past the building where it is housed, but to my shame I failed in my patriotic duty to go and have a look at it, shake my head slowly, and say, "No, this is no computer. It was for sure the British who invented computing" :-)