World's Largest Zoo

The Berlin Zoological Garden is the oldest zoo in Germany. It was opened in 1844 and houses almost 1500 different species and 16000 animals. The zoo spreads across 86 acres and has an aquarium, which house 9000 sea creatures and reptiles within its three stories.


It is considered to be the most visited zoo in Europe. It was reported that 3 million visitors came to the zoo in 2009.


The polar bear and giraffe.


The hippo under water.




Three of the 250 fish tanks that the aquarium has to offer.

Porsche Museum

The Porsche Museum by Delugan Meissl, is located in Stuttgart. The intended result was to focus firmly on the vehicles showcased. The elements were designed to be unobtrusive and compliment the cars. I felt as though the building did not achieve this aspect at all. Porsche is known for being a curvy, luxurious sports car, and the building was the complete opposite. It was very angular and simple, or not elegant as it should have been.
However, the cascading waterfall was a nice touch.

Some interior shots.



Even though it had a pink paint job, the 944 Turbo is still my favorite Porsche.
The very first Carrera GT ever produced.

BMW Welt

Being a mechanic and having a passion for cars, of course BMW Welt (World) was one of my favorite buildings to see.

Designed by Coop Himmelblau, it truly captured the essence of the BMW in my opinion. It was designed to present the current products of BMW, act as a distribution center, and offer an interactive experience for the buyer.



My tour of the facility would not be complete without seeing the BMW museum across the street.

The BMW Headquarters, aka the 4 cylinder.

The first BMW ever produced.


BMW started out making airplane motors and motorcycles before they made the car.

The mid 90's BMW M3, my favorite.

A sweet display of 3 series BMWs.

The future of BMW.

My Holy Grail

Bauhaus, meaning "House of Building" or "Building School", operated from 1919 to 1933 teaching crafts and fine arts.
Originally started by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus was a huge influence to the modernist movement.

The Bauhaus produced some of the most influential architects to date, such as Philip Johnson, I.M. Pei, and Paul Rudolph.


A couple interior shots.


The desk that Walter Gropius himself sat at.

Mies van der Rohe took over the school in its last few remaining years. After the school closed, Mies moved to Chicago and brought the movement with him as Walter Paepcke opened the New Bauhaus which became the Institute of Design, part of the Illinois Institute of Technology.


Shots of the Master's houses.


Of course the Pilgrimage wouldn't be complete without visiting the Bauhaus Archives. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures inside the museum.

My Own Itinerary

For my free weekends and nights, I have wondered the streets of Berlin and road the subways outside of the area that we are in to find what else Berlin has to offer. So far I have found some interesting things.
Random soccer (fussbol) fields located every couple of street corners in the smaller areas around Berlin for kids and adults to play.
We got dragged into a friendly game against some locals. It was awesome.

Water fountains do exist in Germany after all. You have to pump the lever and cold, clear water comes pouring out, and whatever falls on the ground ends up becoming a bird bath.
A sweet grocery store. They recycled the facade of an old building and made it into a local corner market.
Not sure what it is, but I like it non-the-less.

Reminiscence of the De Stijl movement. The first because of different planes cutting through each other and moving past one another. The second because of the blue and yellow colors used which were very popular with that style of architecture.



The original Hofbrauhaus! Located in Munchen (Munich), this restaurant/bier hall is one of the reasons I wanted to come on this trip. Word to the wise, the dunkle is the best, but don't drink too much.