Today we went to Castle Nymphenburg, which is really a palace as it has no fortifications whatsoever.  It is quite large and incredibly ornate, as you would expect of a king’s palace.  What I found most interesting was that although it is currently just outside the city center of Munich, when it was built it was basiclly in the middle of nowhere.   Of course because of that it means that it has a huge garden that is impecibly landscaped.  Since it was still winter there wasn’t much there, but they had just put in a few pansies and by a few, I mean about 16,000.

One of the smaller side palaces was unique in that it was trimmed out in silver, as opposed to the more typical gold.  Although I suppose that might be because silver is more fashionable now.  From there we got to have our first experiance with the legendary German Autobahn.  This was promptly cut short as we had to get off to get gas… $100 worth of gas.  When we got back to the autobahn we hit the first unlimited section which basicly felt like driving down the parkway.  Driving in heavy traffic with every once in awhile hitting a break and getting passed by someone doing 130mph.  The road itself wasn’t much different either, although it was only two lanes, and much twistier.  I probably would have been more impressed if I was limited in my speed by the BMW’s break-in period, as well as the aforementioned crazy expensive gas, and the paranoid wife in the passenger seat.

Today we went to the wonderful new BMW Welt to pick up my car.  The whole experiance was amazing.  Right fromt he get go they treated us like VIPs.  After checking in we were given some little ID cards with our schedule on it, and brought to the ‘Premium Lounge’  where they had an amazing spread of food and drinks, as well as a plethora of leather couches to relax in.  We got some breakfast and then headed off to learn all about my new car.  They had a silly little simulator that showed all the fancy traction control  features, as well as the first implementation of Microsoft’s Surface technology that I’ve seen.   The electronic car that they were showing me around was an exact duplicate of my car, right down to the correct liscene plate.  From there the big moment arrived when I was given the keys to my shiney new BMW 335i Coupe.The car was in this unbelievable hall on its very own turntable, making the whole experience seem special.   I got to drive the car around a bit and then it was time for our factory tour.  My car was made an hour or two up the road from Munich, however the factory here makes 3-series sedans and wagons.  We saw a good portion of the factory, from the stamping line to the body shop to final assembly.   Not surprisingly it wasn’t much different from many other modern car factories.  Almost all of the welding and body work is done by robot,  with the assembly being done largely by hand.

Then after another small stop back at the lounge for a rest and some drinks, we went off to the BMW museum.  Here they had pretty much everything BMW has ever made.  From the first airplane engines all the way to some of the new concept cars.  My favorite was this 1956 BMW 507  Roadster.    At this point however we were rather exhasuted though so we kind of flew through the museum.  From there we headed off to get the winter tires we rented, to prepare for our upcoming journey threw the Alps.