(I have no notes from the next 2 days, so going from memory here)
This turned out to be a very tough day, as I had gotten zero sleep the night before. Combine that with jet lag, and another sleepless night just 2 days ago, and I was lurching around like a zombie extra from "Shawn of the Dead" for portions of the day. There were lots of reasonably priced food vendors at the main train station, so I shuffled over there to get a croissant and a soda (Mezzo Mix, a Coca-Cola/Fanta concoction that my son and I love from EPCOT's "sodas of the world" pavilion). To get to the BMW Museum I would have to take a combination of trains, the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn. Fortunately the S-Bahn construction that derailed me on Sunday was all completed, so it was a painless 15 minutes or so of travel.
Various trains waiting at the Hauptbahnhof. Need to take the ICE one day...
The BMW Welt, with the Olympia Tower in the background
BMW Welt and Olympia Tower
The BMW Welt combines a showroom, exhibition center, customer delivery center, restaurants and meeting facilities into one giant "BMW Experience" facility. I wasn't really too interested in the Welt, but it opened an hour before the museum so I had to kill some time there. I also walked over to get a view of the nearby Olympic stadium area, but there wasn't much to see from my side of the bridge.
The interior of the Welt
The black wagon (like me, Europeans love wagons) is in the elevator that brings cars up to customers awaiting delivery
The Welt had a few motorcycles on display, including this tasty classic
as well as the latest K1600 GTL
Across the street from the Welt was the BMW Museum and BMW's headquarters
I always get a laugh out of these BMW C1 scooters
Photo shoot with BMW R1200RT and Moto Guzzi Norge GT
I think the Norge looks pretty good in white
There wasn't a factory tour available in English until later in the afternoon, so I had to make do with just touring the museum. Cost was 12 Euro and it was self-guided, go at your own pace. I spent about an hour going through it and felt it was pretty impressive. Focus was 80% autos, 20% motorcycles I'd guess.
First motorcycle engine, from 1923
One of the coolest features of the museum was the "wall of bikes". Several stories tall, it made for an impressive display of the history of BMW bikes. Unfortunately it was difficult to get a close look at some of the bikes. This photo was taken at the top level of the wall.
Looking down another section of the wall
IIRC, this was the only room devoted to bikes
Lots of engines on display
Artistic display of trunklid badges. The ///M5 would do nicely, thank you.
The bike room
Oh my. The BMW "Batmobile", the 3.0 litre CSL. Oh my.
You could listen to recordings of the different M motors
The first M car, the 1978 M1
A car I lusted after as a teenager, the 1983 M635CSi.
The Isetta
The Roadster room
Heading up to the BMW Art Cars exhibit
I don't know a lot about art, but I know what I like. ;-)
To get back to the train station I crossed the bridge and went through the Welt again. A lot more people in it now, and I noticed there were a bunch of folks gathered together in the middle, and several employees standing by the stairs. Not sure what was going on, I decided to hang around for a little while. I was glad I did, as it turned out to be one of the highlights of the day. After just a few minutes a rider on a BMW G450x rode out into the middle of the floor and started riding around. Then he headed for the stairs.
He did several circuits, up and down the stairs and roaring around the ground floor. What a hoot.
By this time my lack of sleep was really putting a hurting on me. My brain was "foggy", I was feeling really cranky, I'm pretty sure I was muttering to myself, basically I was beginning to lose it. Things would get worse before they got better.
Took the U-Bahn/S-Bahn back to the Hauptbahnhof, and noticed that I was starving when I got off the train. I was in no mood to try some unknown food as my insides were quite "delicate" from the jet-lag and no sleep, so I broke down and got some chicken strips at Burger King. Unfortunately, they were completely nasty, didn't taste at all like I expected, and I could only get down 2 of them. This didn't help my mood any.
I had enjoyed The Residenz so much I decided to take a tram out to the Schloss Nymphenburg, the summer palace of the Bavarian ruling family. My all-day 9 euro train ticket was good on all trains, busses and trams in the central area of the city, so that was handy. The short (15 minute?) tram ride lets you off right on the edge of the grounds of the palace - unfortunately the palace is a good mile or so walk from that edge. Schloss Nymphenburg is very impressive from the outside as you approach, so my hopes were high for an equally impressive tour. I paid my 11.50 Euro for a combination ticket and headed into the palace. 10 minutes later I was back outside, having fully experienced all 8 rooms that were open for viewing. What a rip-off. I wandered the admittedly impressive grounds for a while, and toured the Museum of Carriages (the Marstallmuseum) which was surprisingly interesting.
Schloss Nymphenburg
One of the very few rooms you could tour
Pretty impressive backyard
The back of the main part of the palace
Man are these carriages ornate
Made the longs walk back to the tram station, got some ice cream and rode back to the main train station. The ice cream gave me a much-needed energy infusion, so I decided to keep on touring the city. I was very concerned with being able to sleep that night, so my plan was to basically exhaust myself to give my body no choice. I was also avoiding any caffeine or alcohol to make it even easier. I have to say it was hard to spend a day in Munich and not have any beer :-(
Next up was a trip out to the Theresienwiese, the fairgrounds used for Oktoberfest. Besides just wanting to see the area, I wanted to check out the Bavaria Statue, an 18.5 meter high and made of bronze. I took a longer-than-needed journey on the trains to get there after misreading the map, but eventually found my way there. Not sure what I was expecting, but the fairgrounds were basically just a huge empty swath of concrete. I could see the Bavaria statue in the distance, so I made my way across the deserted fairgrounds. The statue and surrounding hall of fame were pretty interesting, but I passed on the climb up the inside of the statue. I think the price was 5 euro, but I was feeling burned by the Nymphenburg experience and also wasn't sure I really had the energy to make the climb. Next time...
You have to imagine it packed with thousands of drunken revelers (and roller coasters!)
The Bavaria Statue
The "Hall of Fame"
A long walk back to the Hauptbahnhof led me past the Hacker-Pschorr biergarten. I really wanted to sample their beer, but instead just sampled their men's room. When I got to the train station I was really starving and wanted to eat something substantial. I discovered, not surprisingly I suppose, that a little food would clear the fog and set me straight for an hour or two. I didn't want to attempt any more German versions of American fast food, and just the thought of my usual standby of pizza made my stomach flip, so I took a chance and ordered some grilled sausages from a take-away in the train station. Those of you who know me, or have at least read my trip reports, know that I'm unfortunately a picky eater. I wish I wasn't, but after 45 years it's a very hard habit to break. I'm fine with hot dogs, but I've never really had many sausages so I was pretty wary. Lucky for me the sausages were absolutely delicious! It was just a few euro for 4 links of Nuremberg Sausage on a nice crispy roll. Feeling refreshed, and having plenty of time before attempting to sleep, I took the train back to Marienplatz.
"Spare Rips" made me laugh
My afternoon salvation, and the first new food of the trip, Nuremberg sausages
Folks watching the 5:00 glockenspiel show
<<insert youtube>>
The namesake of Marienplatz, the Marien statue
My favorite dessert as a kid was seven-layer cake. Living on Long Island, there were lots of bakeries that made them, but having moved away I haven't been able to find it anywhere. I was utterly delighted to see slices at the Riechart bakery, and with the first bite I was instantly 8 years old again.
New Town Hall looked fantastic after a quick rain shower passed by
The backside of The Residenz
This pavilion behind the Residenz dates back to 1615
I wanted to increase my chances of a good night's sleep, so I visited a drugstore and asked about a sleep aid. The woman came back with 2 choices, one herbal, and one she said "this one, how do you say, make habit?". I chose the herbal, not wanting to come back from a European vacation an accidental junkie. I couldn't put it off any longer, so I went back to my tiny hotel room around 9pm.
Tomorrow 2 of the other guys on this trip would be arriving, and the next day we were due to pick up the bikes and start riding. I was very concerned that my lack of sleep was going to screw up tomorrow's group day, and even more concerned that if this continued there would be no way I'd be riding a motorcycle over mountain passes. All this weighed on my mind as I lay in the even-hotter-tonight room and tried to sleep. And tried. And tried.
By midnight, after 3 hours of tossing and turning, I was pretty close to a full-blown panic attack. Sleep was nowhere to be found, the room was closing in on me, and I felt like I was really beginning to lose control. Lack of sleep can do some strange things to you. I called my wife who basically "talked me down", and she encouraged me to get out of there and go get a different hotel room. Happy to have a plan, I quickly went on the web and found a room at the Holiday Inn I stayed at earlier, packed up and dropped my key off at the front desk. I think I told him I was leaving for good, I can't really be sure. Spent about $30 on a taxi from the train station to the Holiday Inn, and mentioned repeatedly at the check-in counter that I needed a room with a working air conditioner. I'm pretty sure they thought I was a bit crazy, and truth be told I probably was.
By 1am I had the new room down to a pretty cold temperature, and was delighted to be able to pull a blanket over me. I set my alarm and requested a wake-up call, as well as texting one of the guys arriving tomorrow advising him of my whereabouts in case slept through all the alarms.