In the Footsteps of Legends

The Cutty Sark Museum
London, England

When my parents came to visit we planned a week long excursion to the UK. After we landed in London we proceeded to pick up our rental car, but Sixt wasn’t located at Heathrow; we had to take a shuttle out to the lot. Our car was a black Citroen something or other; the standard European hatchback. Whenever we get a new rental car (at least every 3 months), it’s my job to fiddle with the dials and to figure out how the navigation system works. The nav system wasn’t very intuitive or user friendly so I switched to our handheld Garmin—a decision I would later regret. Perhaps to make up for its navigational deficiencies the car came with a bonus; there was a CD already in the player! It wasn’t just any CD either; it was The Beatles #1 hits CD. Naturally we put it on and drove through London feeling very authentic.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Cutty Sark, London, England

Our first stop was the Cutty Sark, a ship that dates from the height of the British Imperialist era, though it was in use until 1954. This ship has been in dry dock since 1957 and acts as a museum of English maritime history. It was a very hands-on museum and there were many exhibits for children and Joe. A lot of the ship is original; they’ve delineated restoration work with gray paint; original ironwork is white. Most of the boat was dedicated cargo space and the living quarters were cramped; the vessel was designed for making money. Throughout its eight seafaring decades, the Cutty Sark carried a variety of cargo, but I think the best time would have been when it was ferrying tea from China; this cargo would have smelled much better than wool from Australia.

Crossing Abbey Road
London, England

We then drove all the way across London to Abbey Road. We parked in an underground lot and witnessed a large queue of cars at the exit. A man was struggling with the automatic pay system and the mechanical arm wouldn’t let him out. Among those behind the man were an irate delivery truck driver and an anxious mother late to pick up her kids. Later, when we returned, the arm was bent at a funny angle; perhaps forced just high enough to let a car through. Abbey Road was once again packed with people, and since I’d already been there, I volunteered to stand on the island of safety and take pictures. 

My mom asked me to take this picture.
She said she hadn't seen clothes like this in awhile.
Oxford, England

Despite not sounding like much, due to the size of London and the abundance of traffic, these two visits took us past 3pm. We were spending the night in Birmingham, so after visiting Abbey Road we headed north. We stopped briefly in Oxford for dinner. Originally we were going to try to take a tour of the Bodleian library, a Harry Potter set, but we arrived too late to join a tour. Even if we had arrived on time, I don’t think we would have made the tour; Oxford University was having its graduation that day and there were gowned students and their families everywhere; surely the tour would have been full.

Instead, we delighted ourselves with looking at the old buildings and eating dinner in the Kings Arms Tavern. Almost every year my parents spend a week in Colonial Williamsburg, and one of their favorite places to eat is the Kings Arms Tavern where the food is prepared using colonial methods, and the staff wear traditional garb. Since Colonial Williamsburg is set before the American Revolution, technically both taverns are British. In the modern Kings Arms we learned British pub protocol; place your order at the bar, receive a number, and wait for your food to be brought to your table. I ordered a rabbit pie with cider. Mmmmmm. Meat pies in the UK tend to refer to a stew baked in a puff pastry pie shell; very hearty and delicious. It was an excellent conclusion to our first day in England.

My parents outside the Kings Arms Tavern
Oxford, England

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Visiting the Cutty Sark
Abbey Road Live Feed Camera - Watch the Madness
My Sister and I Visit Abbey Road
Oxfordshire (region Oxford is in) Tourism Homepage
Oxford City Guide
Bodleian Library Tours
Kings Arms - The Oldest Pub in Oxford
Kings Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg

LEGOLAND!!!!!

Entrance to Legoland Germany
Gunzburg, Germany

Lego Lunch!
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! LEGOS! Everywhere! That’s pretty much how my brain was during our whole visit. I was geeking out like crazy and it was so much fun! They made some truly amazing things out of Legos and the rides were fun too! We even got to watch them making Legos, albeit souvenir Legos and not actual bricks for sale.

Flying Ninjago Ride
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

Joe and Jason riding Hero Factory
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

The coolest ride was a flying ride. Your seat came with wings you could control, Icarus style, and the 9 seats flew together in a large ellipse. If you flapped your wings in the right way you could spin upside down. The guy in front of me was spinning around like crazy, but I opted to remain level-headed.

Look! It's Venice!
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

Karl Benz seems to have crashed his 1886 Benz Patent Motor Car
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

The worst ride was this this called Hero Factory and you sit in these giant robot arms that twist you around like they do to component parts in a factory. Jason and Joe loved it and rode it 3 times. Once was enough to completely throw off my equilibrium and make me wobbly-stomached the rest of the day. It was at this point that I became official ride photographer; I stood to the side with all the other moms, waving and snapping pictures as the boys went by.

Darth Maul attacks with the force
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

Making Legos in the factory
Legoland, Gunzburg, Germany

My favorite part of the day was the Lego Factory shop. All around the store were bins of Legos sorted by shape and color; they were sold by the kilogram. I went a little crazy with the scooping, but it was great! And now, I can build a ridiculous house boat for my mini-figures.

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Visiting Legoland Germany
Check out the REAL Venice
Check out the REAL Benz Motor Car

Yes that is a clown riding a house boat. 

It's All About the Cars

Outside the BMW Museum
Munich, Germany

Hey everyone, it’s Joe here with another guest post. My brother Jason recently came out for a couple weeks and we did some tours of the BMW and Mercedes museums. Needless to say, Kelly wasn’t super excited about these events so I’m going to fill you in. We started off by visiting the BMW headquarters and museum in Munich. It was full of tons of gorgeous BMWs and Rolls-Royces (they are owned by the same company).

Airplane Engine
BMW Museum
Munich, Germany

They also have some awesome exhibits that display how their various models changed throughout the years and showed off their fancy new i8 prototype. Some have changed significantly since they originally built airplane engines… My favorite was definitely the 1956 BMW 507 but I will gladly take any car in the place and since BMW knows this they have a dealership with a test track right next door. We wandered over there and sat in some very expensive cars which was awesome. Jason even found 20 Euros but unfortunately that wasn’t enough to drive home in anything. :(

BMW 1956 507
BMW Museum
Munich, Germany

The Only Picture from the BMW Factory
Regensburg, Germany

A few days later we went on a tour of the BMW factory just outside of Regensburg and Jason got to see where his car was born. It was like being in an episode of How It’s Made! It was so cool to go behind the scenes and watch these giant machines toss around cars like they were nothing. Unfortunately no pictures were allowed so you will just have to visualize it in your head. We walked through the entire process of building a car from stamping out pieces from aluminum sheets to painting and installing the entire custom interior. Their factory produces about a car a minute and because of the cornucopia of configurations they typically only create 2 identical cars per year. That’s a lot of customization! Also while we were there our tour guide decided to fill us all in on what BMW stands for (apparently it’s not common knowledge). For those of you who don’t know it stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke in German but for some reason our guide translated it to Bavarian Engine Plant in English explaining that it was actually BEP in English. For the life of me I can’t figure out why she didn’t just translate it to Bavarian Motor Works which would keep the BMW acronym intact. It makes no sense!! Anyway, after our tour they gave us a bunch of brochures for building our very own BMW and even let us take some pictures with a few of the finished products.

1886 Benz Patent Motor Car
Mercedes Museum
Stuttgart, Germany

Our last stop on the cars of Germany tour was the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. This museum had a very different focus than the BMW museum. The BMW museum focused on showcasing their cars and filled the rooms with as many as possible. Mercedes was more centered on providing a timeline of the development of the automobile and displayed cars that represented certain parts of their history. They also provided you with information about the world during various periods so you understood what was happening as Mercedes was producing cars. BMW also had a room with that went into their detailed history but it really wasn’t their main focus. The Mercedes museum started in the obvious spot with the invention of the automobile “by” Karl Benz. The reason for the quotes is that Karl Benz is remembered as the creator of the automobile based on a technicality in my mind. Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach actually created the first internal combustion engine small enough to power a car and they retrofitted it into a carriage. Benz is more remembered because he built a vehicle around the engine (rather than adding one to an existing carriage design) and filed a patent for his creation.

1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Special Roadster
Mercedes Benz Museum
Stuttgart, Germany

It’s always amazing to find out some common knowledge isn’t so common. Throughout the rest of the museum Mercedes showed off all of the types of vehicles that they make from luxury cars to buses to the popemobile and even hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. All in all, we enjoyed exploring both museums but I would still pick a BMW over a Mercedes.

1980 Mercedes Benz 230G Popemobile for Pope John Paul II
Mercedes Muesum
Stuttgart, Germany

Useful Links!
Pictures from BMW in Munich
Pictures from Mercedes in Stuttgart
Mercedes Museum Visitor Information
BMW Welt (World) in Munich Visitor Information
BMW Plant in Regensburg Visitor Information