Munich, Nuremburg, Ingolstadt, Tegernsee

6/10/25 (Day 5) Up at 4.40am, checking out of Bettoja Hotel Massimo d’Azeglio in Via Cavour, 18 & paying my Rome City Tax €40 & hitting the pavement for some 150m to Rome Termini (Central) to Fiumicino Airport, some 35mins direct train. I made sure I had the right train & ticket this time (Blog 2). My ITA flight was on time at 7.35am to Munich & everything went smoothly .. but yes, spoke too soon. Everything to do with ITA is superb .. brilliant. Munich Airport however is a confusion pit to say the least. Finally, the baggage was claimed & customs was a breeze but signage, again was crap. I found an info booth & he directed me outside & down a level to the train platform to get to Munich Hbf (Central). The ticket booth was another dilemma from the past where several people were beyond frustrated trying to get their respective tickets. I gave up after so many attempts & others did too. I Googled other ways to transport & it said the airport has a great bus service (no shuttle mentioned), but I had to go up 2 more levels. I was then directed out to a street & that was beyond useless.

I forced myself to retry the train platform, so another 3 levels down. Not worried about the time, so I stood back & looked at the buttons on the machine & touch pad. Ha .. Huh! I found the small translation button top RH of the machine with 3 buttons. Now, I can follow the steps, but you don’t have much time to tap your card & enter the pin, but I managed it. When things turn bad, it is best to step back, catch your breath & seek out options available to you. It’s a satisfying effect when you readjust with success in the shortest possible time. With ticket in hand, I’m on the train & getting off at Munich Hbf to find my scheduled train to Nuremberg is getting closer to leave. The train schedule board is a breeze & us passengers head along the train & quite a few of us are at the first carriage but nothing is working (doors). Sometime later a guard yells out & directs us further up the platform where carriages have blue lights from the roof side. We just managed to scramble on when the train doors shut & we are on our way to Nuremburg, the first major stop (Direct service). They had 2 trains aligned on the same platform. Lesson learned.

With a full train we eventually stopped after a good 90mins travel & basically everyone gets out. With the crowding & stupid me, I thought this was Nuremberg station but when the train left, I saw that it wasn’t. Arghh!!! What happened to the direct non-stop to Nuremburg? The sign board said on the next platform a Nuremberg train was soon to come through. After 2 train delays later, a train arrives & so relieved to get to Nuremberg. Of course, AJ (my young German friend I met in NZ in 2017 & respecting her privacy by calling her AJ & no photos) is waiting for me at the station where we were both excited & relieved to hug each other. With a grin, AJ said we must catch another train to her neighbourhood. Another one!!! With a 10mins train trip we walked another 10mins to her unit & what a day!!!! AJ has annual leave for a week & she will show me as much as possible of this Nuremberg & Munich region. She even arranged for my Audi Production Tour on Wednesday at Ingolstadt due to my problems in getting the sold-out BMW tour.

After a great meal, hot shower & sorting out my packing I managed a sleep in. AJ has done so well with her unit .. very pleased for her & her achievements in this difficult year she has had. We caught up like it was yesterday & not the 8yrs since we stood together. The next day, 7/10/25 (Day 6) AJ arranged for a Free Walking Tour of Nuremburg city (historic area) where we paid our own fee to the guide. We did a quick walk around ourselves due to being early & AJ showed me one of her favourite coffee cafés & it was great coffee (Kaffee) too. Our walking tour started & saw churches (Frauenkirche – 14^th Century Gothic with its iconic chimes & cuckoo-like clock figurines (Prince Electors) coming out on midday & circling the Holy Roman Emperor), the ancient Nuremburg City wall, Nuremberg Castle & old bridges across the Pegnitz River & other great landmarks such as a private dwelling of the earliest of medieval houses left standing & undergoing renovations (Photo 11).

Nuremburg even has a Bratwurst Museum (German Sausage) where the Bratwurst must be exact in its production & wherever it is sold the ‘Bratwurst Police’ will scrutinise it due to the current patent law. When the Walking Tour was over, we did more walking around & headed back to the unit for another special meal by AJ. She has the next few days planned so she said for me to repack for a few days away, as well for the Audi Production Tour at Ingolstadt along the way.

Getting up early, 8/10/25 (Day 7) we loaded AJ’s car, but being a hybrid there was no charge to start it. There are very few apartments with garages for cars in Nuremburg & far too costly if you can get one so AJ has to pay for a neighbourhood permit & the parking is who is first, wins. She must remember where she last parked it too, for parking is getting ridiculous & AJ sometimes spends a lot of time searching for that one space. After a 30mins setback (no stress) we are on the road & my first experience on the Autobahn (but not the super-fast one) but it was certainly fast enough. AJ was cruising at 154klms/hr in between the large roadworks (road widening) but there were much faster cars in the faster lanes. I’m a terrible passenger too.

It wasn’t far to Ingolstadt (South of Nuremburg & about half way to Munich) but with time we strolled through the slightly expensive so-called DFO outlet (called something else) on the outskirts of Ingolstadt & after a bit of a splurge at Lindt chocolates we went across town to do the Audi Production Tour & that was super amazing however, we never saw every bit of production due to R&D secrecy. You had to secure your phone, smartwatch, etc into a locker before proceeding to comply with their secrecy of production. 2hrs of strolling through with their guide highlighting the robotic work & some tasks done by humans, as robots can’t do those tasks yet. A large section of a robotic production workshop was out of action, but this was due to the new model coming out where it takes the robotic engineers a full 12months to programme everything exactly before production & setting up costs is around €1Mil to do it.

We see how the car floor base is stamped out & sides tack welded & glued precisely by very fast robotic machines. We are talking 0.05mm tolerance on everything until it is tested further later. This Audi Plant uses 3million m2 of factory plant space with a rail yard interchange, museum, restaurants & arthouse cinema. It employs around 20,000 people on various shifts. The first things we are shown are the bulk steel rolls, each weighing 3 tonnes & 3klms of wide sheet steel per roll. Most Audi’s models have up to 400 sheet metal pieces that need to be cut, punched & formed. Their hydraulic presses cause heavy vibrations through the over structured metal structural covering to the concrete floor due to having a compression strength equal to the dead weight of the Eifel Tower in Paris. These presses are fed by robots & the pace is quite fast. The presses are actually made by Audi & created for each model costing around €1Mil each. All presses are stored for a further 15yrs to backup their spare parts warranty, hence why spare parts costs more as they can affect the main production run. The guide showed us a pressed sheet metal part where they found a human hair left on the plate. Despite buffing, etc they still could not rectify the line, nor the dent it caused. Can’t imagine that until you see the plate. A costly accident by an apprentice losing a hair. Gulp! Wished I could have sneaked a camera in, to what was on show.

This plant produces 200 Audi cars (3 models) with various fittings, colours, etc chosen by the customer every day. The humans are so focused on their duty to install whatever is needed. The doors are put on & when the wiring harness is to be installed, etc the doors are removed (for better access) by human & a robotic arm holds the door & takes it away to another run for rubber seals, glass, etc & when all that is done the door meets up with the exact car sometime later. Incredible. The complete wiring harness installation was truly amazing & fast!!!! It comes in a large bag. With several smaller bag sleeves inside which is thrown inside the car & a couple of humans place the sleeves through the correct panel openings & attached where required & that just takes around 3mins. The car is pre-wired, awaiting the connections of instruments, etc later. This installation run also accommodates left & right-hand drives without any hassles. When fitting parts (hatch & bonnet struts, etc) the bin will light up telling the human which bin has the part to fit that specific car. No mistakes. I was really looking forward to seeing the engine works, but that is all secret stuff. Bummer!!! Sorry no photos apart from the Audi Mountain Bike on the back of a showroom Audi @ €5,000.

From Audi we head to Tegernsee (South of Munich) to a resort AJ loves called Blyb Resort – Seeglas, near Tegernsee.  Take Tegernsee St #41 off the Autobahn just after KurstraBe St, some 50klms south of Munich. A quiet recluse resort with sauna, restaurant & bar. Amazing place, a bit on the high market due to its high reputation where AJ & I enjoyed all the facilities here & some time relaxing along the Tegernsee lakeside. Blyb is 197klms from Nuremburg. It was the first time in about 15yrs since I sat in a hot sauna. I had 1 session, but AJ had 2. It was fantastic & helped my skeleton from staying cold (Germany colder than Rome).

In reception there is a wall plaque stating the history of this retreat & area which was a favourite place for Hitler. The original dwelling was called Lindenfycht. In 1934 Heinrich Himmler acquired this building after many elites started visiting the region. There is even a war bunker but not for public viewing. In 1945 3^rd US Army used this building for their headquarters. After the sauna, we both put on our good clothes & had a wonderful meal & drinks before retiring to our separate rooms. Next day, 9/10/25 (Day 8) we both disclosed we hit our heads a few times in the quite low attic type ceilings. So funny. Breakfast was amazing & quite the buffet. After checking out of Blyb Resort AJ showed me a great café (Schlosscafe) where I could view the lake from inside (warmer) & she can sit outside for her recluse love of nature (She is in a healing process) to which I gladly obliged.

After all this viewing we head back to Munich for the remainder of the day. Parking in the city is very hard & lots of roadworks, etc so AJ kindly lets me out at the famous markets until she parks. I saw quite a few landmarks until AJ caught up with me some 30mins later. A busker with his mini grand piano was a real highlight out the front of the medieval looking Parliament House & the extra-large courtyard. We saw the Opera House & the Dining Rm setup for an event that night & the Arts Museum & of course AJ’s favourite coffee café with extreme cake sweets. Walking back to the car, we ventured into Frauenkirche, a Gothic Church of significance with iconic domed towers. Driving out of the carpark we sight the iconic Angel of Peace (Friedensengel) before heading back to Nuremburg & another fun run on the Autobahn.

For different reasons I wasn’t able to catchup with my other young German friends living in Munich I met in Cairns earlier this year (Helen & Dana), but WhatsApp helps fill the gap. They are safe, happy & well. Again, we had a hard time in finding a car space back at AJ’s neighbourhood. We are only staying overnight before heading to AJ’s hometown NW of Nuremburg. We timed it perfectly to have dinner & a drink out for the night viewing of Nuremberg.

I’ll end my 6^th Blog here & many thanks for reading them. My next blog will be my trip stay with AJ & her hometown in the winery area & back to Nuremberg. Please stay safe, happy & healthy.