Barb and Baden’s Excellent German Adventure – Part 5
On Monday we were finally set to go for our scheduled tour of the BMW factory in Munich. Needless to say, this was going to be a highpoint of the whole trip for me. The BMW head office and main factory in Munich was built over 75 years ago and at the time it was on the far outskirts of town. Now it is in the middle of Munich as the city has grown around it.
When we signed in at the registration desk, we happened to meet up with some friends of mine, Dane and DeAnna from Seattle whom I met a few months ago at our mutual friend’s (Marty) place. I had expected that I might run into them as Dane said that him and Deanna were also going to be in Germany around this time. Dane and DeAnna were travelling with their friends Jamie and Amy also from Seattle.
The BMW factory tour was everything I thought it was going to be and was well worth the 2.5 hours. We got to see most aspects of the manufacturing of the cars and I was surprised as to just how close to the equipment we were allowed. In most cases, we were only a few steps away from heavy duty metal stamping machines or spot welding equipment sending sparks around our feet.
For the tour, we donned these cool blue BMW lab coats and were given radio receivers to hear the tour guide as we went along. Unfortunately we had to give the lab coats back after the tour. We also saw that the workers on the line were wearing these blue BMW overalls which I was hoping to find out if they could be purchased. I’ll probably have to look into this when I get home.
Later that evening, the 6 of us met for dinner in the centre of Munich. We got to this restaurant and asked for a table for six and the waiter basically said "follow me". We followed him to the back of the restaurant, out the door and onto the street (all looking at each other wondering what was going on). We the proceeded to go down about 5 doors, down an alley then into the back of the completely different restaurant where we were seated. No explanation was ever given and we could only assume that the second restaurant was owned by the same person as the first. Anyway we had a good meal and chatted in the city square until we said our goodbyes.
The next morning we departed Munich and picked up our rental car at the main Munich train station. I had given Barb specific instructions to rent a BMW and we ended up with a 318i. I would have rather have gotten a six cylinder but at the time it was too late to change and still get the good rate that we did by booking over the Internet.
After getting lost several times, we finally made it out of Munich and headed south on the Autobahn to our next destination: Garmisch. Contrary to popular knowledge, the autobahn are not all no speed limit – parts do have specific posted limits. For the first 10 or so Km, it was 120-130 but finally the limits were dropped and cars started blasting by me at about 100km/hr faster than me. I took it up to 160 and was then able to keep up with the delivery vans. With only a 1.8L engine under the hood, the best I was able to do was 195 but I was quite impressed as to how stable the car was even at it’s limit. Most of the cruising was at about 160 and it’s was strange to see everyone doing that speed at it just seemed normal and never unsafe. We ended up reaching Garmisch (about 75km away) in about 25 minutes.
Garmisch is a fabulous resort town and held the 1940 winter Olympics there. The town is situated between several tall peaks and is the quintessential picture postcard town.
This morning Barb and I took the rail and tram ride up to the almost 10,000ft peak Zugspitze (the tallest mountain in Germany). Once at the top, we were treated to an absolutely incredible view of the alps spreading from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It is without a doubt one of the most spectacular sites I have seen in my life. I cranked though three rolls of film just in this area.
I have been sick with a cold since Sunday and have only now been shaking it. On today’s trip up the mountain, we both dressed as warmly as possible as we were told to expect -10 to -20 degree temperatures plus a wind factor. For today’s trip, I wore my usual t-shirt, thermal undershirt, sweatshirt and an additional sweater under my jacket and scarf + winter hat. Double wool socks in my boots were also used just to keep things as warm as possible.
More details to follow in part 6.
Continue on to Barb & Baden’s Excellent German Adventure – Part 6
