Tuesday morning
Cara and I slept in a bit and stopped at a cute little bakery near the hotel for breakfast. Cara ordered a pastry and water and I ordered a kroeller and macchiatto. The doughnut was out of this world, and when Cara had a bite, she justifiably said "Oh my stars!". :)
After breakfast, we trained over to the Olympic park where BMW Welt complex is located. The subway system is very efficient and amazingly clean. It was really easy to get around and I would rank Munich with London in terms of accessibility.
The Welt center is truly a piece of artwork, starting with a "vortex" of glass, we were told "sucking all the creativity and ideas from one area and blowing into "clouds" into the rest of the building." Really beautiful!
We went to the reception, where they showed us up to the Owners lounge. We sat while we waited to speak with our specialist. She came over and introduced herself and called us to her desk. Then, she had us fill out the necessary paperwork and helped us plan our whole day's schedule for the museum, factory tour, and delivery itself.
Museum
We only had an hour before the factory tour at 1130, so we hurried over to the museum across the street. The museum was beautiful inside and thoroughly detailed BMW's history and contained some amazing examples of their engines, motorcycles, art and of course cars. I wish we had more time to spend there, but we saw enough. I kept telling Cara "10 minutes to go", "We leave in 5", etc. I loved the Isetta, and the 2002 which I posted in the last blog entry. And there were tons of cars which were breathtakingly beautiful!
I thought this looked like a toy:
I'd like to have this set:
and this one too:
Factory
It was very hot outside, so we broke a sweat walking back across the street bridge, to meet the factory tour group. We sat in a room and a young German girl showed us a presentation before getting us all hooked up with remote audio. Every BMW is built to order and identified at a given point with a specific customer. She led us through the entire process of creating a 3 series, from the metal press to the robot welding. We saw the paint rooms and then the engine creation.
Finally, they automatically "marry" up the body with the chassis and suspension in one step. Really amazing to watch all that automation. The last step is driving the car onto a test machine and checking all the specs. It was fascinating, but very hot and we were worn out when it was over. Sorry for no pictures, but they wouldn't allow it.
The Delivery
We walked back to the lounge and caught an exciting peek of the car in the delivery area. Can you see it?
We were both starving, so we grabbed a complimentary sandwich, some fruit and drinks to cool down. Soon after, our delivery specialist came over and told us it was time for delivery.
He reminded me of a mix between my uncle Tom and Caesar the dog whisperer. He was very kind and genuinely dramatic about the process. As we walked down the stairs, he had us look over the rail as a spotlight shone down on the car and it began rotating. It was very cool! (And the car looked beautiful)
He walked us on down to the car and was very patient while we inspected and took pictures. I asked if I could sit in it and he exclaimed,"Of course! You can do anything you want, its your car!". He took his time pairing up my phone and ipod, and showing me the intricacies of the new iDrive car computer menu system, which is awesome and intuitive. Finally he said, "I know you can't wait anymore, it's time to start the engine!"
I hit the Start button, and the engine turned over twice and purred to life. He took our video camera and told us to drive the circle lap inside the building, which it was hard to do without smiling. Many people had gathered around to watch, so we definitely felt on display. He told us we could lap as many times as I wanted, but we were ready to go.
Goodbyes and Autobahn
We said gracious thank you's and "auf wiedersehen" and drove down the circular ramp to the exit. He had shown us how to enter locations in the nav and even put the monastery we were going to visit that evening in for us. The nav worked very well and easily guided us there. At first I was a bit nervous, but driving on the autobahn is so natural and easy. The signs are very instructive, and people drive incredibly well. It helps that the lanes are wide and smooth as glass. Most of the way we were cruising at 80-90mph, but when the magic "end restrictions" sign appeared, I dropped it to 4th gear (out of 7) and we head up to 120 easy as pie and all legal. What was truly amazing is how undramatic and smooth the car was at that speed. All the while I remained focused, as people would even come up behind at much higher speeds, and I would move over well in advance. Did I mention what a lovely sound the car makes? Wow, it's truly a pleasurable sound. What an experience.
Andechs Monastery
The monastery was back in the country, so we got off the autobahn and had a blast driving through beautiful green hills. Cara commented that it reminded her of Wisconsin, and I heartily agreed. No wonder so many Germans settled there.
The monks at Andechs actually brew an amazingly smooth beer, and use the proceeds to build an incredible church. We sat on the hillside to eat dinner, overlooking a picturesque town, which was backed by the snow capped Alps. We couldn't understand a word of the menu (except for bratwurst) and we'd already had that the night before. The waiter recommended the duck, which he said was "fantastic". It was good, and was served with pasta balls and an apple kraut. Cara and I both agreed it wasn't as fantastic as the view.
We toured the church and surrounding village before driving back to the hotel in Munich.
We reluctantly parked and parted with the car on the side of the road since it was extremely expensive to park at the hotel. Although we were exhausted, Cara and I sat down I the lounge for a couple hours and "people watched" to keep from going to sleep too early. Finally at 10, we called it a night.
What an amazing day, and apologies for the long posting (and delay) but at least I gave you a preview before!
Thanks to you all for your emails and well wishes! My next post about our drive and stay in Verona tomorrow!
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