Day 8, Sunday 09.21.08

The plan today was to have breakfast at our hotel, then catch the train southward to see the "fairy tale castles" of the southern Bavaria Alps. Breakfast was tasty at the Angelo: eggs, bacon, veal meatballs, fruits, croissants, and fantastic preserves. As we finished our meal, we realized looking at the train timetables, that we missed a key train and would end up with a rather lengthy layover. So we scratched the castle gig and decided to hop on the metro a fair bit to the north edge of town to go to the BMW Welt and Museum. "Welt" meaning "world".

An enormous complex with their world headquarters, a manufacturing plant, the "welt" where people can pick up their newly purchased cars in a ceremony, and the museum. It was here in the welt that Chris has found his new car: the pictured BMW 120i. Sure it ain't $80,000 of pure luxury, but it's relatively fancy, and has fold-down backseats for luggage, Home Depot trips, and fat black Lhasa Apso's to travel around in. Loved it.

In order, the first BMW aircraft engine, the first BMW motorcycle, and the first BMW car all displayed with pride. Race cars, old cars, futuristic cars, and a hydrogen car. As it was a museum, and they had panels in English, we spent quite a bit of time here. Quite a fun complex to visit.

From here, we took the metro in to the Pinakothek der Moderne, the modern art museum. Four museums in one actually: art, design, architecture, and works on paper. Some pretty eclectic pieces here, but not filled with the real oddities and crazy stuff that really make us think. Some Warhols and Picassos adorn the walls, so it wasn't a failure by any stretch. And non-flash photos were allowed! Cool!






Afterward it was dinner at Weisses Brauhaus, the home of Schneider-Weisse and Aventinus beers. Another beer hall with old wooden bench seating. Dried hop vines, as seemingly in all of Bavaria, adorn the walls, windows, ceilings, bannisters, everything. Kimberly is almost at her wits end in finding anything edible in Germany besides Italian restaurants, hotel pizza, and wine. More interesting sausage dishes on the menu here. The pig is an animal that Germans love to butcher. Nothing goes to waste. Nothing. Observe:

Yum! Diaphragm!

Then it was off to the hotel. We had an internet connection in our room, so the 4:15pm Browns/Ravens game occurred at 10:15pm local time. We fired up ESPN Gamecast to follow along until it got out of hand and we shut it off. Damn Browns.