On Tuesday February 19th, Denise and I departed for Munich, Germany! This would be my first time out of the UK to a European destination since the start of my adventures abroad. I was pumped!
I spent most of the day on Tuesday packing and getting organized for this short trip. Denise witnessed my very methodical way of packing as I went through each day and decided each piece of an outfit to wear. All while talking to myself. Yes, this is how I pack folks! It's hard, and the shorter you are going to be away, the harder it is! Plus, I was packing our suitcase for Paris as well.
While I packed and got myself sorted, Denise ventured off to a BMW dealership here in London on Park Road to do some research of her own. If you want to see pictures from this adventure of Denise's, you can 'like' Performance BMW St. Catharines on Facebook to view her album of pictures.
Around 3 pm we headed to Victoria Station to catch our train to Gatwick Airport. Our flight departed around 6 pm and we were off! While waiting in the airport, Denise and I brainstormed about the German words that we knew, and googled some crucial words to remember and saved the image to my iPhone. It had occured to me that I wouldn't know the language, but I don't think I had really actually processed what that would mean in terms of communicating to locals. We then boarded our flight and since Munich is 1 hour ahead of London in terms of time, we arrived close to 9 pm at the airport there.
Now, here is the exciting part of our arrival! We went to our car rentals and picked up our BMW 120d which would be our transportation for the next 24 hours! The not so exciting part of our arrival was that after lovely sunny weather in London we arrived to snow and cold in Munich.
Thank goodness our BMW had a GPS navigation system in it (which we named Emma) that was very helpful to us. I don't think we would have found our hotel without it! Or we would have, but not without frustration and difficulty. Note to travellers to Munich - street signs are very very tiny and hard to read when covered in snow! So Emma told us when to merge left or right and which way to turn, and when we had arrived at our destination.
We passed this on the way to the hotel...still not sure what it is but it was pretty, and you can see how it was snowing at the time as well!
We arrived at our hotel safely, and the second Denise and I stepped into the lobby I immediately felt foreign. You could tell those working (all men) knew we were foreign as well! However, a nice young man helped direct us to the parking garage and we unloaded our bags and headed up to our hotel room.
The room was very nice, although a bit odd because we actually had places for 4 people to sleep if you count the 2 twin beds and 2 sort of couches. Anyways, we were starving so we dropped our bags and headed back downstairs to the lobby to ask where we could find a traditional German pub or restaurant that would still be open at 10 pm at night!
We were in luck because there was actually a place right down the street, and it was exactly what Denise and I had in mind! We had the cutest German lady as our waitress, who also immediately knew we were foreign too! She brought us over the English translated menus...mind you I could understand a few words on the menu, like schnitzel (which is what I ended up having to eat).
As well, we had our first German pints!
Here we go!
Tasty!
And to top off our meals we had the most amazing Apple Strudel!
That meal left me falling asleep that night with the hugest smile on my face! :)
The next day should just be called BMW day. It was the day Denise had been waiting for, and I was going to enjoy it the best I could.
We started off the day by going to the BMW Welt to check in for our factory tour, a special treat that we got to be apart of by special arrangement. The factory tour is an option for those who have custom ordered BMWs from the 3 series that are made in Munich, so they go through the tour and then pick up their car at the end! Maybe one day that will be Denise and I, however I found my dream car in the showroom at the Welt and it's not exactly part of the 3 series...
Hanging out in the BMW Welt showroom
A beautiful Rolls Royce
I found my friend Big Ben in Munich!
And then this would be soccer mom SUV for those busy days.
After our tour of the Welt, we headed across the road to the BMW museum in the 4-cylindar building.
Here there were lots of classic BMW cars on display as well as information about the BMW company from when it began as an airplane engine building company and became what it is today.
This is James Bond's car.
This is one of the first automobiles made by BMW. Isn't it cute and little?
Just having a little rest in the museum.
At the BMW shop inside the museum I purchased a teaching book with worksheets and activities for students to do in regards to a unit on cars and automobiles. I am sure this will come in handy in my future teaching practices!
Once we finished at the museum, we headed into central Munich for dinner before we headed for our Autobahn experience!
While the meal at the restaurant was good, the service was terrible. The most interesting thing to happen during that dinner time was probably my adventure to the bathroom, where I took for granted the symbol for the male and female washrooms (dress - women, no dress - men). This washroom just had the German words...words that we had forgotten to look up in the airport the day before! Luckily a woman came down the stairs and headed towards the bathroom (she said something to me in German but I have no clue what!) and went into the door on the left. So, I followed her in! Phew! Problem solved!
Our last experience in Munich? The autobahn. Luckily, made up the time we lost waiting for our waitress at the restaurant to bring us our bill so we could pay and get out of there!
I was ready for it, and I knew it was coming because the speed limits kept getting higher and higher...first 80 km/h, then 100 km/h, then 120 km/h, and then...the limit does not exist! Vroom Vroom! Off we went, and Denise reached 220 km/h! I held on for dear life, which she squealed with excitement and thrill!
We made it to the airport in one piece, checked in for our flight, and it was bye bye Munich, Hello London again!...until the next day at least.
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