Mom and Dad's Adventure! Day 2

March 9- Day 2

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Thank you to everyone who has prayed for me to feel well. No headache, no sore throat, feeling great! We managed (barely) to stay awake until 8pm before passing out. We both woke up again around 2 am. I really thought it was much later. After I got up and realized what time it was, we both took some tylenol pm and slept until 7:30!!! No problem staying awake tonight.
We awoke to yet colder weather -- 18 degrees and light snow. We found out we would have to hike 30 minutes to get to the castle, so decide not to try that today. We headed out to BWM Wert (BMW world). Sort of a Disney world for grownups. Really. I found out as we were pulling in that my husband has dreamed of visiting since he was a boy! So glad we made it there. It is right next to the Olympic park -- quite amazing archetecture -- not quite the bird's nest, but really very impressive for having been built in 1972. On warm days, you can get harnessed up and climb on the roof! BMW seems to have wanted to outdo the architectural wonders. Their various buildings are truly wonders and amazing. We tried to get some pictures for the boys to enjoy. There is a huge "BMW wert" building filled with BMW cars you can explore and displays. People come there (even from US) to pick up their cars and drive them right out from the middle of the building (we saw one leave). Mid-morning they had someone on a trial bike (like the ones down the street) riding up and down the stairs. Next to that is a huge BMW museum -- Dad spent hours reading every display. The museum is amazing even if you aren't into cars. It truly rivals anything I've ever seen at Disney with its futuristic, enormous displays. The highlight was signing up for a two hour factory tour. The homeschool mom in me was so sad that my boys couldn't see it. It is hard to describe and they didn't allow pictures. We saw all stages of building a BMW. The robotics are simply amazing, incredible and creepy all at the same time. In one little room, there were 600 huge robots zipping parts around and welding them in sequence. In addition to sevarl rooms like that with robots, there are 9000 employees, many on the assembly lines we got to see. I truly have a new appreciation for our old BMW.
While there, we picked up a brochure on visiting Bavarian towns. Okay, I finally figured out that Munich is part of Bavaria (we are staying on the edge of Bavaria park...) Around 4:00, (after 6 hours at BMW Wert), we drove up into the ALPS and into a Bavarian village called Oberammergau. Oh Wow! The drive was beautiful, late in the afternoon the sun was gleaming over the snow covered fields with little farms here and there. The Alps, of course, are beautiful. We went up winding roads up to the village, dad wished he had a BMW and my stomach was thankful we rented the much cheaper Ford! Oberammergau is the town that puts on the Passion play once every 10 years -- they are preparing for this Spring/Summer. Apparently, during the plague they prayed that God would spare their villaged and promised to do this every 10 years in return -- its been going on a LONG time. The village is unbelievably cute, we wished we could have stayed the night up there. We asked a store owner where to eat and she sent us to a Bavarian retaurant. Dad ordered spaghetti, but I wanted Bavarian. I ended up ordering Rahgoulosh with spatzle and salat. The salad was like a piece of art. The restaurant was simple, cute and a bit rustic. There was a man with a big beard, overalls and big stein of beer at the next table. I asked Pete to take my picture (with the cute bottles of water that we get everywhere) and the German looking man in the back ground. When we left, it was dark. Walking through the snow, in the dark little town was like walking through one of those christmas villages that people collect. As we were walking along, the church bells started ringing. I tried to video a little bit. It was really a bit surreal. Worth every bit of the hour's drive up there. We got lost again coming back into town, but eventually found our way back. I stayed warmer today with two layers under my pants, four layers under my coat and two pairs of gloves. I think we might brave the castle tomorrow! We sure wished we could have brought all of you kids with us. There were things today that each one of you would have loved. We thought of you lots. Thank you for letting us come. Love you all -- and love all of you friends too. Thank you for your prayers.