BMW Welt

It's a quiet Tuesday night. After a couple of invites to go to dinner, I think it is time for a night off, of socializing that is. Last night simple plans to go to dinner turned into a nightmare on the U-Bahn. After a wonderful Mexican meal (yes, Mexican, I know I'm in Germany, I miss Chipotle, okay?) we all decided to look for more drinks. So, doing what any logical tourist would do, we pulled out the map :). After walking up and down the same street for 20 minutes, we found a potato bar. No worries, they didn't serve only potatoes... of course, there was beer!

The U-Bahn shuts down around midnight, and I make sure I leave around 11:30. I get to the platform and train is going the wrong way! Someone assured me that it is coming back, the right way, so I wait. I get on going the right way, the train goes two stops than then starts going in reverse! I get off at the stop where I got on, and the train keep going. It then comes back on the same track going the right way, so I get on again. By communicating the best I can with a couple of folks, we all have to get off and transfer to another train to get home. What was a 10 minute trip took an hour with all of the confusion. There were announcements about all of this, but of course they were in German. When I frantically asked in German if anyone spoke English on the train, they all answered in perfect English, "No, I don't understand." It's very strange that just after I posted the video on language barriers the same situation happens to me!! So, given that not so pleasant adventure, I think I'll just cook my frozen microwave lasagna dinner in a saucepan on the stove top and stay in tonight.

Continuing with the BMW trip, above is Riccardo in one of the luxury cars. They were everywhere. It was a showroom and business all in one.



This is the corner stone of the building. As you can see it is fairly new. Many sponsors and businesses wrote little notes of prosperity and placed them in the corner stone before it was placed in the ground, kind of like a time capsule of sorts.



This is the "handing-off area". When you purchase or lease a BMW here, you get to go through a type of ceremony. They actually call it the "handing-off ceremony." You are brought to a room where they tell you all about your car. While you are going through all of the features and benefits your car is brought up from the basement in a glass elevator and placed on a spinning disc. You are then "ceremoniously" brought down to your car, which is shiny and new and spinning slowly for you to admire. You then drive it down the ramp within the building, out the door and on your happy way. Trent actually leased a BMW in this way and picked it up the first weekend to drive to Salzburg. It will be waiting for him upon his return to D.C.. Nice. I'm jealous.



This is where you can customize your BMW. You sit here with your salesperson and go through a computer simulation of exactly what features you want your car to have and can see exactly what it looks like on the screen. Cool.



The building we toured was the new building which purpose is the mostly sales and new cars. This is the older BMW building, which purpose is the manufacturing business. This older building also houses the museum. I haven't been to the museum. It wasn't part of our trip. Maybe I'll go next week. However, the BMW Welt trip was pretty comprehensive and I really don't feel the need to return... outside of my visit to pick up my new car that is :).

After the tour we went to their corporate office and sat for a presentation from the head of their trademark legal counsel. Unlike the presentation at the German Patent & Trademark Office, this one was all about trademarks. I loved it! And I want our presenters job :).