August 2, 2014

Dan and I took a motorcycle trip to Munich (München) for our long holiday weekend and spent a good portion of Saturday with some of the sexiest vehicles ever made – BMW. The museum building itself was a work of art, with clean white walls, creative displays and subtle lighting. But best of all, there were BMW cars and motorcycles that spanned the life of the company. The following pictures trace our route through the museum.

The BMW Museum

South Africa to München

Five levels of history

My Grandfather rode something like this

Too bad about the reflective glass – but they still look good

Thankfully, not everything was behind glass

The opposite end of the design scale

Cockpit view

Pre-car days, from when BMW made airplane engines

Line-up of my favorite BMW cars

From the other end of the row

Back to the bikes

Real bikes from real adventures

From the design room

Back to the wall of glassed bikes

Classic beyond words

I told Dan that for my birthday I wanted to drive one of these

Simple elegance

One of many employees who wipe off naughty fingerprints

Concept car

Back to the classics

The lovable bubble car

Fast cars, trapped in a room

I wouldn’t mind taking this out for my birthday, either…

Hell, I’d be willing to take about half of these cars out for a little spin!

Back to the wall of bikes

Concept bike

We had worked our way through the entire museum and enjoyed every minute of it. The building was a very well laid-out and, of course, the displays were beautiful to look at. Each model had an informational plaque, usually in German, but sometimes there would be an English translation. More often than not, the vehicles spoke for themselves.

As we exited the museum we were left with a parting vision: someone celebrating their wedding in front of the BMW Welt sign.

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