Müchen (Part 2)

As much as I built it up, nothing much happened that Saturday night.

I had called Rainer, the Venezuelan dude Peer put me in contact with, and he and some friends were going out to this salsa club. Of note, I actually called him on Friday when I touched down in Munich, but because Thursday was his birthday, he was pretty much out of commission from the partying the night before. Anyways, we ended meeting up in front of the Hofbrauhaus close to midnight and me, him and 3 of his friends (his girl and another guy/girl combo) hopped a taxi to the first spot.

It was basically a hall where during the day I think its like a food court, but at night they set up a stage and hold events there. Tonight just happened to be salsa-night. So I got a mojito (yes, with Havana club rum) and made my way to the floor to pop my salsa cherry. It wasn't anyone on the floor, or even some lady of latin-decent, who ended up teaching me the VERY VERY limited basics of salsa dancing...but a German lady who looked to be in her late-40's. I would bore- (or even lol-) you with how much of a catastrophe I was on the floor, but I'll just leave it at "once the song was over she expediently fled the scene of the crime". Which was good cause everyone was ready to head to the main event, "Cohiba"--another salsa club (not one but 2 salsa clubs popping in Munich, Germany on the same night...go figure).

We hopped another taxi and were there I'd say probably around 1 or 1:30am. I stayed all of about 15 minutes. Not only was I done with packed clubs (this one was just as super-packed as Friday night's "Crowns") playing music that my body hasn't figured out the equation to yet, but my mind and body were just done--this was like the 14th day in a row where I had to get up early (and Sunday was going to be the 15th). So I politely bid Rainer and the crew adieu, and hopped yet another taxi home (the 3rd in one night--those that know me know that this is probably a record...I HATE taxis). I was asleep not long after hitting the couch.

Keeping with tradition, Sunday was gonna be my "cultural" day in Munich. And what better way than to visit...

3. BMW-Welt: (www.bmw-welt.de)

Museum just beside the BMW-factory and the Olympic Parc with
an interesting architecture.

Now, before I get to the picture reel, it is worth noting that BMW-Welt is just one part of the BMW headquarters/plant:

http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/index_highend.html?content=http://www.bmw-welt.com/web/portal/en/home.html

Unfortunately,

• The BMW Museum is currently under renovations and won't be finished until Spring 2008. They had a temporary museum set up, but 1) it was a tent; 2) it supposedly didn't show half of the stuff the finished museum will show; and 3) they charged to get in. Needless to say, there are no pics of the museum.
• The BMW Munich Plant is only open to the public Monday through Friday, and you need to make a reservation far in advance (as it is quite the tour--I hear is ABSOLUTELY amazing). Needless to say, there are no pictures of this as well.

All that leaves is the newly constructed/opened (i.e. 2 weeks old) BMW Welt (pronounced "velt") building. Prepare for the picture reel...


As much as I tried to get the entire building in one shot, with the exception of one other shot (to be seen at the end of this blog), this was about the best I could do. On a good note, you can see the Olympic Tower in the background. On a bad note, the weather was dreary like this all Sunday (not to mention the weekend), so all of the pics outside have a bit of a "bleak" aesthetic to them. Sorry.


One flag for each of the models they produce (if you look closely, yes there is a 1 series...and as far as I know its only produced for/in Europe...and yes it is small).


Pic of the BMW Headquarters office building (left) and the BMW Museum to be completed Spring 2008). Please note that when you look at the BMW Museum from a birds-eye view, the roof of the building looks like the BMW emblem.


Before you get into the main portion of the building, you notice one of the most striking aspects of the building's architecture--the "connected-at-the-tip" cones that support one corner of the building. However, upon closer examination, you see that this area can not only be entered...


but is also used for functions.




I also saw what would be the first of many cafes where you can purchase all sorts of exotic desserts and sandwiches (I ended up getting a brie on baguette sandwich).

Anyways, onto the interior of the main building...

This area (showing every single BMW model on rotating floors) was not accessible to the public
The upscale restuarant located on the upper floor.

The book store on the upper floor.
The cafe adjacent to the book store.
The two-level gift shop...

...where you can buy rare model BMW's designed by Andy Worhol...

...and David Hockney (remember him from Haus de Photographie?).

Now, coupled with these pictures, if I then showed you this...


...you would think that this was THE place to see not only every single model that BMW produces, but also that rare-breed BMW automobile that would make even the most jaded of car-enthusiasts salivate. Well, you'd be in for a very big let down.

For all of its architectural hype (not to mention location at the BMW Headquarters in Munich), this place didn't really show any "ooooohh/aaaahhhhh" cars...other than this M3,


with a V8 engine...


And this 650...


with the maroon guts that did actually make me go "oooooooohhhh".


In all honesty, it really just seemed to me like a BMW dealership on steroids (and yes, each one of the car displays had a BMW representative present to open the doors/hob-nob with the apparently well-to-do, while simultaneously non-verbally shunning away the non-German speaking layman (I'll let you guess whom the latter is)). However, to their credit, I'd say about a third of the building was dedicated to explaining/demonstrating the superior mechanical and safety aspects of their vehicles (i.e. their braking system, hybrid technologies, etc.). Below is this cool set up where I believe you can construct your own BMW.

They also had a video game type simulation where you drive a BMW on this snowy road (not pictured).

Well, kiddies, that's about it. After this I went back outside and took a couple more photos of the exterior...



...then went back to the condo, got my already-packed belongings and missed my train trying to find postage and a mailbox to send off ya'lls post cards.

Yeah, I had to mention that. :-) No worries though, they run on the hour...I just found a spot at the bar, got a beer and wrote the outline for these excruciatingly long blogs.

Cheers.