Exploring the BMW Museum

After a great night's sleep, we awoke on Friday (Jan. 17) to a beautiful, mild sunny day, refreshed and ready to go. Our plan of staying in Munich two nights to adjust to the time change is working well.

Today we had two objectives: 1) pick up our rental car; and 2) explore the BMW Museum in Munich! The rental car pick-up was very convenient to our hotel, and the process was very efficient. We ended up with a VW Passat Wagon, so we should be able to fit all of our stuff in that, and maybe even have room for ourselves!

We took the car for a spin and ended up at the BMW Museum, which is quite a place. The museum consists of two buildings, connected by a walkway. We parked underneath this first building:

It looks like this inside:

The upper level is where people are taking delivery of new cars! The building also features some displays, BMW shopping, and several cafes.

The BMW Museum is in this building:

The museum can also be seen below, to Brock's right.

The cylindrical buildings behind him (shaped like pistons) are the iconic BMW administrative offices. The factory complex is to his left. (Brock reported that several different people came up to him speaking German. Must have been that German sweater he's wearing!)

My favorite display in the whole museum was an extremely creative kinetic sculpture that eventually takes the shape of a car:

Did you know that BMW is also connected to Rolls Royce and Mini Cooper? Did you know that besides automobiles, they also make motorcycles and jet engines?

Here are some of my favorite displays:

Someone needs to put Derrick Henry onto this ideal Two-Tone Blue Titans mobile: a blue Rolls Royce with baby blue interior and doors that open from the back!

Below is a 3-wheeled Isetta - I used to have an Isetta (matchbox car)! I don't think Derrick Henry could fit into this car!

The color of this $200,000 I-8 was absolutely gorgeous:

Anything with an 'I' in its name is an electric car. We learned a lot about electric cars, and even how to dispose of them responsibly when they reach the end of their useful lives.

The paint job on this car was really wild, and the mirrors behind it were too: