Finally we arrive in  the Rhine Valley which is a home to many small towns. The Rhine is a river in Western Europe that begins in the Swiss Alps and flows for 820 miles (1,320km) to the North Sea forming the German-Swiss border before flowing through Germany and the Netherlands.  Since Ancient Roman times, the Rhine  has been one of the world’s busiest and most expensive rivers.

There are many  castles along the river, and they all took pleasure in taxing everyone who wanted to pass the castle.  One of the castle owner was so obsessed with collecting taxes, that he placed his castle in the river to make sure he could tax everyone who passed.  Did I teach you something? 🙂

After a nice drive along the Rhine River we stopped in a small towns along the river called Rheinböllen.

We headed to the local bakery and got some fresh strudels and croissants.

With food in hand, we strolled the town walking by the local butcher shop, and an art shop where an old man stood painting his day away.  After viewing some paintings, we headed back to our car.

We decided to drive to the BMW museum and headquarters in Munich. We couldn’t  wait to see all of the awesome BMW’s so we hit the autobahn.  We tried our best to keep up with the BMWs, Mercedes Benzs, and the Porsches.  Before we knew it we are flying, but sadly we can’t keep up with the German cars…..darn.

After hours of driving really fast (just kidding mom), we arrive  at the BMW museum and headquarters.

BMW originally started its business with airplanes, then bikes, and finally cars.  We went to purchase tickets for the BMW museum.  We wanted tickets for the BMW werk,  but you must purchase those tickets in advance.  So we start the tour by exploring BMW welt (BMW welt is free).

We saw all of the latest models.  The museum is full of amazing,  super fancy, mega cool cars.

The cars are way too cool,  it’s like a BMW heaven … No it is  BMW heaven.

There is also a section of the museum where all of the  top-notch cars are kept.  Guess what? They let you get into the cars and tell you about all of the new features in the car .

Then we headed over to the part of the museum where they kept all of the models of BMW, from the first BMW to the latest BMWs.  We saw an old classic 1955 BMW with one seat,  models that have not even been put up for sale, BMW race cars, BMW planes, and BMW motorcycles.

After our tour of BMW we decided to head over to Salzburg, Austria.   The trip took longer than expected because of the traffic.  After arriving, we hiked over to the same restaurant we went to about a month ago,  Saint Paul’s Stub ‘n Beer Garden.  We ordered wiener schnitzel and cheese spaetzels (Käsespätzle).

It’s the best food I’ve had in all of EUROPE, yes it is that good.

After diner we start the walk back to the car, but we find ourselves standing on a giant chess board, under the golden orb with a man on top of it trying to decide if he should walk up the castle or take the 10 € funicular . Well any way, we’re on top of a gigantic chess board we can’t just walk away without a battle.   Hence we played a game of Konrad VS. Lancelot.  We bang it out I kill a bunch of dad’s men.   Dad is loosing then out of nowhere he kills  a bunch of my men.  Dad pulls out a cigar and says “what’d you think of that ha ha ha.”  I think “no I can’t let him win,” then boom… we’re tied.   It’s a tough battle but I take out all of dad’s men.  I have a king and queen left, and Dad sell has his king.   Then I drive dad’s king into a corner with my queen, and boom, Dad’s king is dead…checkmate.  I win booooooyaaaaaaaa.  oh ya that will teach you to play chess with me ha ha ha. We shake hands and hike back to the car.