Austria!

Going to Austria for the weekend! Post when I get back! Life has been insane with classes this last week!

So, the first weekend we spent touring the city center with TUMi. The second weekend, Nicole, Nick and I decided to explore a couple of the other highlights of the city, those not connected with old buildings. On Saturday, Nicole and I went to the Munich Zoo. It’s huge. One of the first things we noted was the lack of fences… Instead there was a knee-high fence and then you watched the animals either through a grove of trees or beyond a pond/stream. It was kinda cool. We were pleased to see that the lions and tigers were caged in though. The other thing we noticed was that the animals are really, really friendly and interactive. Some of them (monkeys in the inside part of the exhibit) were literally trying to play with people through the glass. The polar bear put on a show diving into the water and splashing. It was cool. It wasn’t till we were leaving that the sun came out and it turned into a beautiful day. We walked around the city for a bit and went to the famous market. It was a little expensive (tourism) but fun to look through.

The next day, Nicole, Nick and I met to tour BMW. BMW is located across the street from where I live. There are four buildings, the office building (tall and constructed like “four cylinders”), the factory (which offers tours Mon-Fri), the museum (bowl shaped), and the BMW Welt (BMW world) which is the largest BMW showroom of all their latest technology. And also a very, very interestingly designed building. I know this because Nick and Nicole are both architectural majors. It apparently defies the rules. BMW Welt is free to walk around. We did, and then went over to the museum and walked through that as well. It was pretty interesting (coming from someone who doesn’t care about cars). They do have a sample of their first hydrogen-fueled car there. I could get a job here! They also have a pretty awesome synthetic car that literally molds itself as necessary (the fabric retracts into itself to open up the headlights when they are on, and the car splits down the middle to get in and out).After we were BMW-ed out, we walked over to Olympia Park. It’s really pretty. Also home to Munich’s hill. Munich is about as flat as Illinois. This hill is man-made. After the city was bombed, they collected the rubble, piled it up, and made a hill out of it. Looking south you call also see the outline of the South Bavaria Alps.

Photos:

awesome picture of a giraffe
tiger at feeding time
BMW office building and Museum
BMW World
Awesome synthetic car
More fun animal photos