Munich, Germany (2007)

My best friend, Aaron, and our old college dorm/housemate, Matt, flew out to Munich and I met them there. Aaron was there to purchase a new BMW at the BMW factory. We took it on a whirlwind road trip tour through Prague, Dresden, Berlin, Brussels, Bruges, Calais, and on into England, where he dropped it off to get shipped to California (the expense of the entire trip for Aaron was less than the mark-up if he had bought the car directly in the US). Aaron’s roommate, also named Josh, and Josh’s girlfriend, Mia, met up with us in Munich and Aaron’s cousin, Melanie, met us in Prague. We took on “German” names for the trip: Aaron was Otto (he bought the auto), Melanie was Melga-nie, Mia was Mila, Matt was The Kaiser, and Josh and myself were Hanz and Franz (extremely useful for distinguishing us). The entire trip was non-stop laughter and good times with lots of drinking and rapid-fire site seeing. Lifetime memories? Check.

The first night we met up with my friend from Oxford, Rosa, who took us to a classic German beerhaus for a hearty dinner with an over-the-top waitress.

German food up close. I had ox cheeks.

The next day we hit the road to a Rosa-recommended site.

We stopped by the side of the road after a while of driving for some fresh air.

Mila and Hanz with their new cold friend.

The Kaiser, Otto and Franz in front of a small castle.

The small castle was at the mountain base of what we had come to see…

The Crazy King Castle (Neuschwanstein Schloss)!

The crazy king tore down an existing castle and attempted to build this new one with a medieval theme in the late 1800s.

Fake crazy monster above the fake crazy castle.

There’s a smaller castle as seen from the crazy castle.

Nice view.

Breathtaking.

Bridge in the distance.

Looking through a window.

The village below.

I took this picture (of this picture on a placemat in the gift store).

Afterwards, we hit up a beerhaus for dinner. They gave us a pretzel tree instead of a basket of bread.

The next day was the BMW factory tour, which was cool to see, especially the ballet of movement from the robotic arms that pick up pieces of the car and gracefully attach them together within inches of another huge robotic arm working on another part of the car.

Because Otto was actually buying a car as opposed to just visiting, we got VIP treatment and all-you-can-eat/drink stuff in the special lounge. Kaiser and I feel slightly uncomfortable and snicker at how we should try to eat/drink as much free stuff as possible to equal the worth of Otto’s car.

One drink down, give me another!

Otto stands in front of a view of the stunning architectural design of a huge tornado in front of the factory.

I cheer for the Hydrogen car.

There’s Otto’s new baby! We named it “Slippy” because the salesmen kept asking us if we had snow tires and we said no and they gave us a disapproving look since we were about to embark on the Winter road trip.

We’re off to Prague, following GoogleEarth directions.

See you in Prague!