I Went to Germany and Came Back with a Car: Day 2, Part 1

Day 2 and Day 3 have been combined since the point of this journey into the past is focused on the car pickup. Apologies for some of the photos, they were primarily taken with an iPhone 3G.

After arrival, the next day was spent seeing the sights in Munich. I won't relate all the typical sights, but it was a pretty dense day of walking, taking photos and figuring out where everything was. The day passed quickly and I turned in early - both for the next day's event and because of some residual jet lag.

Friday morning was spent seeing the last few sights that I had missed the previous day and shopping for a few souvenirs. Though the delivery appointment wasn't until 3:40PM, my excitement got the better of me and I left for the Welt around 1PM. I'm glad I did too - the station at Marienplatz confused the heck out of me. The ticket kiosks which were translated into English at the airport were not so much in the city itself. And even the location of the U3 platform was not completely obvious to me. I felt like a complete dope - but like most men refused to ask for help and eventually figured it out on my own.
20 minutes on the train. And there we go - arrived!

At this point, I should mention that BMW Welt (translated: World) is BMW's own delivery and brand venue. It sits across the street from their headquarters and one of their factories and is pretty amazing. When I walked up the stairs from the train platform, I saw the building take shape in front of me. I was really awestruck. 

First of all, it is incredibly large. Consider that dozens and dozens of cars are driven around inside this thing and you'll start to have a sense of it. But from the outside, the lines of the building, its shapes - they are something that no pictures really can do justice. The image below is from an evening view from in front of the BMW HQ, but it's quite amazing from virtually any angle. Even if you aren't going to pick up a car - if you're in Munich, try to stop by.

Linked from BMWblog.com

The inside is large and open... Flowing lines and organic shapes and curved layout... a sense of openness and space. Startlingly beautiful. It's also well integrated into the rest of the campus with views to the factory, the office building and the museum from many points inside the building.




 

The bottom floor of the Welt is composed of a display of most of their European models, a cafe, many technology show pieces and a gift shop.

And as much as I was drawn to exploring, it was going to have to wait for later. Time to get the ball rolling on the delivery. I found the elevators for level 3. I apologized for being early, but they did not seem disturbed by it. After a short wait, I met my delivery advisor, Harald. He took me through the delivery paperwork, the registration and insurance papers, etc. and then was able to move up my delivery by 30 minutes because of a gap in the schedule.I was shown to the premium lounge and had a snack and a drink. Checked email at the Internet terminals and then snuck out to the balcony to give myself a spoiler. Sure enough, she was right at the bottom of the balcony going through her final check out. I snapped a few more shots from the balcony - caught an M3 getting ready to be delivered as well.



However, since it was still almost an hour before delivery I returned to the ground floor for a while. This was time well spent. There's a lot going on down there that I didn't have a chance to completely explore with that hour. I did have a chance to see a few models that weren't available in the U.S. at the time such as the 1-series hatchback, the various diesels, etc. However, I didn't have time to go through everything.

The kids area was interesting and warranted a walk-through from an overgrown kid like myself. I also stopped into the gift shop to pick up the required safety vest for Austria. [Here's an area I misunderstood. Thought you just needed one in the car. You actually need one for each passenger.] And, no you don't need to wear it while in the car, but if you have to leave the car on the roadway you'll need to have it handy.

Time ticked away quickly and I found myself back upstairs standing in front of the reservation sign. Matt was assigned to help me and, as you'd expect with a German, came out right at the appointed time. We were essentially at the top of the steps that you can see in the earlier photos. The car had been slightly relocated for a better view and we took a walk down the deliver staircase chatting about my previous BMWs. Even though I had a "spoiler" glimpse before, there is something special about having your car lit up under spotlights and spun on a giant turntable ala an Auto show. 

Between the amazing building and this "introduction" to my car, it was really a special moment. I was rather reticent to even touch the car since it didn't seem like it was really mine. However, it certainly was. Climbing into the driver's seat to see an odometer with literally 0 miles on the dial was amazingly cool. As we setup the car and got it all dialed in the reality sunk it and yet I don't think the smile left my face the entire time. 

(continued in Part 2)