BMW Factory & Krone Circus

 More Images

A trip to the BMW factory and museum were a must do while in Munich.  We had an early morning start at the BMW factory joining the first tour of the day.  The tour began with a short movie about BMW before heading into the factory. 

The factory was amazing; it produces 950 BMW’s per day to order!  Each stage of the production is fascinating; we saw the tools/moulds used to create the body of the cars, assembling the 3 layers of the body, painting, seats being made, electronics being fitted, motors and the final assembly. 

There were thousands of robots and the accuracy of the robots was astounding for example they place parts with a 0.04mm accuracy/tolerance.  Alongside the robots there are 7500 staff working in the factory.  The precision, detail and order of the factory is outstanding.   

We were not allowed to take photo’s or video, in fact you are not even allowed your mobile phone and there is video surveillance everywhere to make sure you are doing the right thing.

After some lunch we headed across the road to the BMW museum.  The museum holds 400 BMW’s from it’s just over 90 year old collection.

Another place we visited while in Munich was the Krone Circus.  The Krone Circus is 4 generations old and is probably the best circus we have been to.  Once again no photos allowed, we took a couple before the actual circus started. 

The circus had lots of amazing acts like trapeze artists, balancing acts, clowns, Asian dancers/strongmen/gymnastic type routines, horses and dogs.  They are also famous for their lion show.  The lion tamer had 24 lions and tigers, we felt a bit sorry for them although most of them had been born at the circus and hand reared by the tamer.

The weather has warmed up as the week has gone by, once again we have enjoyed another holiday and home exchange.  Off to Switzerland in 5 weeks!         

Neuschwanstein Castle

More Images

A day trip to Neuschwanstein was a must do on our visit to Munich.  The drive through the countryside and mountains was absolutely stunning.  The castle itself is nestled in the mountains over looking a small village, Hohenschwangau castle and lake Alpsee.  Before heading to the castle we walked on the frozen lake and around the village.    

Neuschwanstein Castle is a relatively new castle in Europe built in the 19^th century, King Lugwig II of Bavaria built the castle with his own fortune and personal borrowing.  Only 1/3 of the castle was completed due to the death of the king and was opened for public viewing only 6 weeks after his death.

The castle was the inspiration for Walt Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty Castle’ and has been in many movies.  Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos on the inside; it was beautifully decorated. Corban liked the throne room and Leo liked the Kings bedroom.  One of the rooms had over 100 swans carved or painted; it even had swan door handles because swans were the kings favourite animal.  In English Neuschwanstein means New Swanstone Castle.      

We finished our day with a play in the snow and a walk up the road to take a photo of a white chapel in the snow.

Munich Home Exchange and Munich City

More Images

Munich City and Home Exchange

Another holiday and another home exchange!  This time we have exchanged with a family from Munich.  Our apartment is funky, modern and in the center of Pasing, a 1-minute walk to the train station. 

We have arrived during the festival ‘Fashing’.  This festival involves dressing up from the young to the old, enjoying music and dancing.  ‘Fashing’ is a celebration before Ash Wednesday and Lent when people start fasting before Easter, so there is also lots of food. 

To learn about the city of Munich we began with a walking tour of the city, our tour guide was from Dunedin so we understood his accent without any problems. 

Our tour began at New Town Hall where we watched the 11am Rathaus-Glockenspiel which was finished in 1908.  The Glockenspiel re-enacts two stories from the 16^th century with 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures. The top half of the Glockenspiel tells the story of the marriage of the local Duke Wilhelm V (who also founded the world famousHofbräuhaus) to Renata of Lorraine. In honour of the happy couple there is a joust with life-sized knights on horseback representing Bavaria (in white and blue) and Lothringen (in red and white). The Bavarian knightwins every time, of course.

This is then followed by the bottom half and second story: Schäfflertanz (the coopers' dance). According to myth, 1517 was a year of plague in Munich. The coopers are said to have danced through the streets to "bring fresh vitality to fearful dispositions." The coopers remained loyal to the duke, and their dance came to symbolize perseverance and loyalty to authority through difficult times. By tradition, the dance is performed in Munich every seven years. This was described in 1700 as "an age-old custom", but the current dance was defined only in 1871. The dance can be seen during Fasching (German Carnival): the next one is in 2019.

Our tour also took us to Our Church of Our Lady Munich ‘Frauenkirche’, which has a legend about the devil helping to build the church.  The legend says he even left a footprint when he stamped his foot because the builder of the cathedral had outwitted him. 

We also stopped by the National Theater, learned about the King Lugwig II and the origins of Oktoberfest, Hitlers beer hall, visited the royal residence, Church of St Peter and the Hofbrauhaus beer house. 

Not so many photo’s today because it was so cold, but still a full and fun day out in Munich.   

Dresden

More Images

After having a few days at home over Christmas we were off on our next adventure, this time to Krakow Poland via Dresden.  It was the long way, but we figured getting in another country was worth the drive. 

Unfortunately we arrived in Dresden one day late for the Christmas markets.  We were hoping to see the German markets because they sell different food, wooden toys and other interesting bits and pieces however they were packing up the morning we arrived. 

Instead we walked through old market square, saw the Procession of Princes, the Frauenkirche Cathedral and walked along the river.  We planned to go to the Green Vault but we were all absolutely freezing and the day was getting on so decided to skip the Green Vault and make our way to Krakow before it got to late. 

Home Exchange: Berlin

Our final home exchange for the holidays was in central Berlin; we were only 3kms from the main city.  The apartment was located on the 5^th floor without an elevator; so we all took turns carrying the shopping and Leo, it made us all feel very unfit!

This time our home exchange family was a little bit alternative.  There was loads of wooden homemade furniture and most of the kid’s toys were made from wood.  The dolls and teddy bears were handmade with a variety of materials or knitted.  Leo and Corban loved playing with everything; they had four children so there was plenty to do.

At this home exchange we celebrated our second anniversary of moving to Prague.   Allan found a Kiwi Pie shop so we brought pies for dinner; we were actually served by another New Zealander.  It sounds like a silly thing, but you can’t buy pies in the Czech Republic … along with a whole lot of other food, so it was a fun thing to get. 

Looking back it has been a full year.  It began in the French Alps and from here we've been to Freiburg, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, London (Sarah), Warsaw, Milan, Rome via a flying trip to Pisa & Florence, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania & finally our last stop Berlin before heading back to Prague to start our third year! Allan went back to NZ for his mum and dads 50th wedding anniversary, Taylor turned 16, Leo started school and Corban danced her heart out to street buskers wherever she could find them. We miss our family and friends but will begin our third year with a visit from Nana and Granddad Stock followed by the Cheer family at Christmas.  Can’t wait for the next 12 months!

Biking In Berlin

More Photos

Ending our summer holiday has been an adventure.  Leo had a number of hospital visits, 3 different countries in total for his foot!  Even with the language barrier we were very grateful for the treatment he had.    

We were thankful that our trip to Berlin was actually our second visit; we loved it so much the first time that we always planned to come back.  Our home exchange had bikes for everyone so we spent time riding around the different landmarks and enjoying the city. 

Taylor was really pleased to get her passport stamped at Check Point Charlie and could relate so much of her school History lessons to different places that we visited.

On the last day of our visit in Berlin we were all ready to come home.  Leo has been asking to play with his fire engine that he got just before we left, Taylor is desperate to see her friends, and Corban wants to start her new school.