The Deutch museum has yes even more cars.   This is a general purpose museum of all things historical achievements in Germany.  Also trains, trucks, tracks, signalling and many other things.

Self-driving cars.  We know this technology is getting close to be ready for highways in the western world.  This self-driving Mercedes Benz S class from back in 2000, and has three desktop clone PCs in place of the back seats.   I guess if it were running software from back then like Windows NT its highly dubious if it should be safe to go out on its own!

Porsche with stainless steel body, think this was built as a one off.

All things engineering.

Get there early.   I didn’t – so I saw only half of it, looked at my watch (which was set to UK time) as 4pm, and a message over a tannoy system said the museum was closing so I missed a lot of it.   This is a truly superb collection of German engineering.  https://www.deutsches-museum.de 

GERMANY 1. Dachau concentration camp – 2. BMW museum – 3. BMW World futuristic showroom – 4. Neuschwanstein Castle – 5. 1972 Munich Olympics village – 6. Tourism and going out in Munich – 7. Deutsches Museum – 8. Business in the UK, Germany and Israel – 9. Friedrichshafen, a pleasant German town on a lake

SWITZERLAND 1. Trying to do ‘cheap’ Switzerland – 2. The town of Grusch – 3. Clever Swiss made things – 4. Train from Grusch to Zurich – 5. Zurich, the more liberal Switzerland – 6. Swiss dinosaurs

LIECHTENSTEIN 1. Plans – 2. Getting into this tiny nation – 3. Motorbikes, cars and kebab shops in Vaduz, Liechtenstein – 4. Small country topography – 5. Road up to the castle – 6. The Prince’s castle and vineyard – 7. bars, shops, Olympics – 8. Tiny country, big output – 9. Vaduz church – 10. Government buildings and museums

When you think of holidays in Germany, you normally think of Munich and beer.   I was here in March, so the wrong time of year for this big famous event.

The pubs here like these big beer halls, are pretty huge, with waitresses with lacy blouses and aprons who serve you at very long tables.    These pretzels are great too.

I think there is live music offered, and relatively easy to chat to other people here.

Yes, it seems people want to buy these kinds of costumes to get into the spirit of the Oktoberfest!!

My Youth hosel was around the corner from here and the main station along with many other hostels.   Most of the folks seem to be very young, often American teenagers on their first trip to Europe, who go a little crazy finding that they can finally drink without needing to be 21 as in the US.

The food here, is well, nothing special.   I like sausages, and these frankfurters were ok, but it seems a bit small portions.

Right by this grand looking archway in the centre of the city was a couple with a table full of Christian literature.   I’m really glad the local churches here are reaching out to the public with the gospel with teaching in not only German, but also Chinese and Arabic and other languages.

GERMANY 1. Dachau concentration camp – 2. BMW museum – 3. BMW World futuristic showroom – 4. Neuschwanstein Castle – 5. 1972 Munich Olympics village – 6. Tourism and going out in Munich – 7. Deutsches Museum – 8. Business in the UK, Germany and Israel – 9. Friedrichshafen, a pleasant German town on a lake

SWITZERLAND 1. Trying to do ‘cheap’ Switzerland – 2. The town of Grusch – 3. Clever Swiss made things – 4. Train from Grusch to Zurich – 5. Zurich, the more liberal Switzerland – 6. Swiss dinosaurs

LIECHTENSTEIN 1. Plans – 2. Getting into this tiny nation – 3. Motorbikes, cars and kebab shops in Vaduz, Liechtenstein – 4. Small country topography – 5. Road up to the castle – 6. The Prince’s castle and vineyard – 7. bars, shops, Olympics – 8. Tiny country, big output – 9. Vaduz church – 10. Government buildings and museums

Built in 1869, Schloss Neuschwanstein is in the town of Schwangau and is the quintessential fairy tale castle.  Schloss is simply the German word for castle.

This iconic asymmetrical cylinder turreted structure is the basis for the Disney logo.   The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and in honour of Richard Wagner. It was open to the public shortly after his death in 1886.  Over 1.3 million people visit this jewel of southern Bavaria each year.

Yes, it looks lovely in the snow, but construction and scaffolding in progress aren’t quite so desirable for photos.    There was no snow in Munich where I was staying, although this is a two hour train ride away.

You have to get your ticket in advance, and get a tour in English or German.   You have to be outside the entrance of the castle itself at the right time for your tour.    When you are waiting for your slot, you can just wander around the other attractions.   You can walk up a zigzag path up the hill to Neuschwanstein, or you can take some other type of transport like this.

There are a number of other interesting buildings in the complex including two other smaller castles close by.

Photography and phones are verboten during the tour which is a real shame, as the insides are just as exquisite as the outside.   There are Jesus and the apostles and other scenes painted on to the ceilings.

Once the tour is done, which was probably about 45 minutes, and you exit out of a little door in the side.    The overwhelming number of the visitors I saw at this place are from China, when I got back on the train to head back to Munich, I sat on the nearest empty seat and surprised to hear the people next to me are Israeli and are speaking in Hebrew, seeing as the basis of my blog on travel and faith, started in Jerusalem.

Coming out of the BMW museum, across the plaza is a big space age looking building.

BMW World is a giant dealership which complements the museum, but with free entry as a special dealership showroom on a big scale of all their current new products.

Every car is represented, as well as BMW Motorcycles.

Not every car is for sale, some seem to be just ideas.   This i8 electric as a police car?   hey if the Dubai cops can do it, why not in Munich?

Mini is a British marque but owned by BMW.   There is a decent collection of merchandise on sale with the Mini logo on shirts, bags and other items.

Rolls Royce is British, but also under ownership of the Germans.  Here, this ultra prestige marque has a cabinet with swatches and samples of interior fabric and paint options as well as more specialised customisations like LED stars set into the interior roof, that’s what the thing is on the right of the top picture.

This place has a car park underneath with a sloped road that goes up into the middle of the showroom, offering an extra-special experience to take home a new car that’s been ordered.

Later on, I got to see even more motoring exotics in Germany….

GERMANY 1. Dachau concentration camp – 2. BMW museum – 3. BMW World futuristic showroom – 4. Neuschwanstein Castle – 5. 1972 Munich Olympics village – 6. Tourism and going out in Munich – 7. Deutsches Museum – 8. Business in the UK, Germany and Israel – 9. Friedrichshafen, a pleasant German town on a lake

SWITZERLAND 1. Trying to do ‘cheap’ Switzerland – 2. The town of Grusch – 3. Clever Swiss made things – 4. Train from Grusch to Zurich – 5. Zurich, the more liberal Switzerland – 6. Swiss dinosaurs

LIECHTENSTEIN 1. Plans – 2. Getting into this tiny nation – 3. Motorbikes, cars and kebab shops in Vaduz, Liechtenstein – 4. Small country topography – 5. Road up to the castle – 6. The Prince’s castle and vineyard – 7. bars, shops, Olympics – 8. Tiny country, big output – 9. Vaduz church – 10. Government buildings and museums

When you think of German products you often think of motorcars which have got the reputation of being the most desirable in the world, with brands like Volkswagen, Mercedes, Porsche and BMW.

This tower block on the right looks like four cylinders is the office block of BMW’s HQ here in Munich.    Behind this is the actual assembly plant.

Just around the corner is BMW’s actual museum which a collection of historic cars.

The M series has been BMW’s sub-brand for cars tuned for extra performance for a long time now.

Not all of BMW’s products to start with were aimed as premium grade autos, this little Isetta car from 1955 was built as a simple tiny vehicle with the emphasis on economy.   I love the way the steering wheel has to pivot forward as part of the front opening door.

Mock ups of technology-enhanced new vehicles.

A collection of bigger 5 and 7 series sedans on shelves.  On the right is every generation 3 series until now (seven of them) plus the car in the foreground is a 2001 which was the model before in the late 1960s I think.

There were more car related attractions to come later.

GERMANY 1. Dachau concentration camp – 2. BMW museum – 3. BMW World futuristic showroom – 4. Neuschwanstein Castle – 5. 1972 Munich Olympics village – 6. Tourism and going out in Munich – 7. Deutsches Museum – 8. Business in the UK, Germany and Israel – 9. Friedrichshafen, a pleasant German town on a lake

SWITZERLAND 1. Trying to do ‘cheap’ Switzerland – 2. The town of Grusch – 3. Clever Swiss made things – 4. Train from Grusch to Zurich – 5. Zurich, the more liberal Switzerland – 6. Swiss dinosaurs

LIECHTENSTEIN 1. Plans – 2. Getting into this tiny nation – 3. Motorbikes, cars and kebab shops in Vaduz, Liechtenstein – 4. Small country topography – 5. Road up to the castle – 6. The Prince’s castle and vineyard – 7. bars, shops, Olympics – 8. Tiny country, big output – 9. Vaduz church – 10. Government buildings and museums

Whilst I have been travelling to different parts of Europe I’ve noticed something.   Some places have very formal looking borders with a checkpoint with police or army and some places you can go on a bus across and blink and not see a tiny sign that marks another nation.

I don’t see borders and checkpoints as a bad thing, even if you are friends with a neighbouring nation its necessary to check who comes through and get information about the movements of criminals from another jurisdiction.   Often its necessary to keep a watch on tobacco and alcohol or illicit drugs.   It could also be that you need to pay a toll on certain roads.

This isn’t an EU/not EU thing, as while I write this my government of the UK right now (16/1/2019) is a bit of a mess with a future outside of the European Union not quite planned.

I decided to try an experiment because I am a nerd and work with data, I decided to use Google Streetmap view and a big chart to show information of what it looks like to cross from one country to another.

Here are some examples of some oddities;

TOP This is what happens when you from Spain to Gibraltar, a tiny piece of Britain.  I visited there in 2015, a year before Brexit vote so I was surprised to see such a military connection between modern two European places, but it seems the Gib government and Spain have fraught relations for years.

This is Moldova and Romania, not been to either of these places.    Both countries are poor, and this is as close as Google cars will take me.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rU0iAvXX6TuS5flRfQnvq1WnmChaml3tXvLPJSI4Ezw/edit#gid=0 

If you want to use this on your web site, I rather you just link to this if you could thanks, rather copy the whole thing.

I’ve not included UK, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus or Iceland as I was only interested in seeing land borders.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rU0iAvXX6TuS5flRfQnvq1WnmChaml3tXvLPJSI4Ezw/edit#gid=0 

Some caveats.  1. Roads that go from one nation to another chosen at random.  2. Germany doesn’t have any Google street map view data as their government had a falling out with Google.  3.  Russia shown is the “little” Russia which has the city of Kalingrad.  4. The Pink values that show two different gov borders are a bit experimental as don’t get a good look from GSMV.  4. No confidential information exposed, only what Google tells me.  5. There is probably some mistakes and improvements that could be made.  

Feel free to comment.