Cars in Germany

I was perfectly happy with my Hyundai Elantra--until I moved here.  BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Audi, and Volkswagen have now made it impossible for me to ever love a non-German car again.  I guess I can still love my old car, that is until I can afford to trade up and own my very own piece of German automotive history.

I still love you, Dean (my car back home).  I am not that much of a car snob.

While living in Stuttgart we were able to go to both the Porsche Museum and the Mercedes Museum, the latter of which was one of the best museums I have seen.  It manages to place the history of the automobile and Mercedes Benz company in context with important historical events of the past century, including how the car industry changed during and after WWI and WWII.  If you are traveling to Germany and you are into history but traveling with people who aren't, convince them to come to this museum.  They will think they are just looking at pretty cars but you will be studying history.

The building itself is worth a look (when its not sleeting and freezing outside)

Paying homage to horse power.

My heart ignited at the sight of the first internal combustion engine.

Daimler's 3-wheeled version of the first automobile was patented on the exact same day...

As Benz's 4-wheeled version.

First two cylinder engine.

First four cylinder engine.

This is when "cars" were able to drive at speeds like 17mph.

Just picture a gentlemen driver racing somewhere in France.

This one is more like something for Cruella de Vil.

I want this car.  In the background you can see one of the first Mercedes-benz buses.

Merry Christmas!  Santa's Porsche.

As if I needed another reason to want to become a Bond girl.

Porsche racing...

has apparently been very successful. 

I had to get a picture with the Harley Davidson Porsche for my Dad.

While in Munich, we also made a trip to the BMW museum.  My favorite part, other than just looking at BMWs, was an exhibit on hydrogen engines.  Unfortunately, I don't have any photos right now due to my computer crashing and me losing all of my data that wasn't saved elsewhere.  Thank goodness for online photo albums, where most of my photos were stored.