I didn’t need an alarm this morning, I was woken up by two different people’s alarms, after which there was no movement so I got up for the shower before anyone else could. Good move. I was at breakfast by 8am and I chilled out in the dining room for a while why I ate. Even though the hostel charged 7EUR for breakfast daily, after paying the first day and having no one check my ticket, I walked straight in today with the same result so there was never any need to pay. I also noticed signs on the tables stating that you could take-away breakfast items for lunch for only 1EUR each! I walked out with a sandwich, a pretzel and two pieces of nutella toast for my day snacks and I sure as hell didn’t pay for them!
I found out the luggage room costs money, but I went down for a look and found a sweet spot behind a set of lockers that was out of sight so I jammed my two backpacks in there and went out on the streets. The snow continued, but only lightly. I dressed down a bit today since I knew I wasn’t going to be outside much. At the train station I bought a daily ticket and did some train hopping to get to the BMW museum. I got off at a station to change trains at a station close by and discovered the train I needed wasn’t running and the signs told me there was a replacement bus. Upstairs, the snow was thicker than it had been in the city and I found a bus with the train number on it and hopped on. I soon discovered it was headed in the opposite direction so I got back off and instead of trying to figure anything else out, I walked. I’m glad I did because I walked through a park on the way and there were dozens of parents and small children making the most of a small hill on small toboggans and sleds. The kids screamed out in joy while some parents screamed out in terror. There was even despair when a parent, after climbing strenuously all the way up the hill after a run, let go of the sled he was holding and everyone stopped to watch it slide, riderless back down the mountain.
The BMW complex was easy to find thanks to the multi-storey building that is the company’s base. Next door is the museum, across the road is BMW-World and behind all of it is the factory. Factory tours weren’t running because the production workers were on holiday until next week (that’s very different to Tesla) but the world and the museum was buzzing with a few enthusiasts.
I started at BMW-World. This is very much “Buy a BMW!” with every new model on display from BMW, Mini, Rolls Royce and the electric stuff. It was nice to have a look around at the fancy cars and remember my time at GM driving them (nothing much has changed in the design in the last five years) and I was happy to see they had a classic mini amongst their displays.
They covered their involvement in motorsport mostly with the safety cars that cover Moto-GP and they had some of the weird stuff like the three-wheeled Isetta which I hadn’t known about. What I really enjoyed was their motorbikes. They didn’t just have the shiny stuff on display, but the gritty bikes that had been used in actual endurance riding like the Dakar rally and GS trophy. I felt inspiration welling up inside me. Long distance motorbike riding is something on my bucket list for sure. I might save those journeys for when I’m too tired to pedal my mountain bike.
I spent a good two hours milling about inside BMW’s world before heading over to the museum. The bowl-shaped building looked quite small so I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fill the afternoon here, but the exterior is deceptive. After paying my 10EUR, I went first into the temporary exhibit which was in celebration of BMW reaching 100 years. The displays in here shouted “BMW is the best company to work for, you should want to work for us!” which was a bit tiring. They kept repeating the number of people they have working for the company and you know what? Their strategy didn’t work because I don’t remember the number. Ha. It was interesting to learn the history of BMW from its origins, through two wars, then surviving the fluctuations of demand due to ever-developing lifestyles through the mid- to late-90s. This was the first indication of the amount of different engines they developed as technology changed and transformed.
I was glad the ticketing man had told me to visit that exhibition first because it was a great overall story of the company. In the foyer, I sat on a not-very-comfortable but stylish couch, ate my sandwich and read about Tesla in an article Dad sent me. I took my time, remaining seated for a good half hour (museuming is hard work) before going into the main event. The first display is super cool. Someone spent a lot of building and coding time to make an array of silver balls hanging in a grid from the ceiling on fishing line, moving up and down in complete silence to make different shapes, namely silhouettes of trademark BMWs. It was astounding. If they had chairs there, I would have sat and watched for hours. Apart from a few misbehaving balls that couldn’t figure out where they were supposed to be, the entire collection of shiny spheres moved beautifully as if by magic.
I tore myself away knowing there were a multitude of other sights to see and first step was the firsts. The first engine, the first motorbike, the first car. Just that explains how many fingers BMW had in the industrial pie from the get-go. I saw numerous motorbikes mounted from the wall, perfectly placed to show the development of the bike. There were fiercely huge aircraft engines that look ridiculous outside of an airplane, all that hardware just to spin a single propeller made them seem out of proportion. There were all sorts of concept cars – the weird, the wonderful and the downright ugly. They had car line-ups of the 3-series and 7-series which were effective in showing how “good-looking”, “sexy” and “sporty” took on new meaning with each new decade. They showed off their success in all sorts of motor racing categories, even making a success story out of their two attempts at F1, even though they never won the constructor’s title either as an engine supplier or a team owner. I could go on, but I won’t. Basically, if you are a car lover, you will love with museum. I’m not particularly a BMW fan, probably more the contrary actually because they don’t give their cars names, but I can appreciate the designs that have instilled passion for excellence not just in motorsport but for the every day customer.
I ascended the spiral walkway at the end of the museum just before 4pm so I had managed to spend my whole day here. I think it had been snowing the whole time I was inside and it was coming down still, so I used my Google assistance to find a nearby train station to save myself the walk and made it back to central station. I walked back to the hostel where I picked up my bags that hadn’t been touched and hung around for a bit to kill time, then resolved to kill time at my Bla Bla pick up point instead so headed out for more trains. It took three to get to Josephsburg station where I’d be meeting my Bla Bla driver. Unlike my most recent experiences, Pamela seemed nice when we messaged each other and showed no signs of unreliability. I was outside the station at 5:30pm so had an hour to kill. Feeling minorly hungry, I walked across the road to a palm-tree decorated restaurant and liked their prices so had dinner there. A cheeseburger and fries for 10EUR was just what the doctor ordered. I sure was enjoying eating comfort food. Feeling full and warm, I went back out to meet my driver and she pulled up just as I arrived at the station, so perfect. I threw my bags in the car, five minutes later, two more passengers arrived then we were off.
It was just over two hours to Stuttgart, made a bit slower by the few snow storms we drove through. I think the two passengers in the back slept but I was awake, lost in my imagination again so the time passed quickly. I was happy that this would be my last Bla Bla and that tonight would be my last European stay in a hostel. When we got to Stuttgart, we had a bit of trouble finding central station, but eventually saw the giant U-sign so Pamela pulled over and we all alighted from our transport. I had either a half hour walk or 5 minute train ride to get to my digs and I opted for the train. Since I hadn’t been ticket-checked once while using the public transport and was only going four stations, I wasn’t bothered to figure out the ticketing machine so went freestyle and had no issues.
The hostel was around the corner from a station and looked ok from the outside. I was very soon disappointed when I had to wait about twenty minutes before I could check in because the guy behind the desk was multi-tasking and not doing a very good job of it. I can’t understand why every check-in requires multiple key strokes and mouse clicks on a computer. If I was running a business like this, it would be a one- to two-click process! When I asked for a towel, he said, “No worries, I have everything for you!” Then he charged my 3.50EUR for bed sheets. What a crock of shit! I won’t be paying for breakfast here tomorrow!
Top bunk AGAIN, but the room is pretty spacious so at least I will be far away from the snorers if there are any.
BMW Fact: After the first world war, Germany was desperate for the most common household items such as pots and pans, so what did BMW do? It had some aluminium that wasn’t confiscated for war-time manufacture so they used it to make plates, whisks, pots, pans and door handle pieces for the people.
