In late April of 2025, I decided to take a trip to Europe as a 55th birthday present to myself.  I called it my #2025europeantour.  I’ve been to several parts of Europe in the past, but it has been about 12 years since I had been back.  #2025europeantour would be discovering new parts of Europe I had not previously visited, but it would also about revisiting fond memories.  My first stop on the tour was Munich for a return visit the BMW Welt and the BMW Museum in Munich Germany.  You can read about my first visit to the BMW Museum twelve years ago by clicking here.

In times past, the BMW Welt was the focal point of the BMW European Delivery Program – a program that started in the 1970’s that allowed people outside of Germany (like the folks in BMW’s biggest market – the US) to order a new BMW and take delivery of the car in Munich.  The Welt was completed in 2007 (fun fact:  I participated in a European Delivery in the pre-Welt  BMW European Delivery Center…because I’m old) with the primary goal envisioned as delivering an unparalleled European Delivery.  But by 2020, BMW completely discontinued the ED program citing waning consumer interest in the program.  The reality is that EU VAT compliance & export scrutiny tightened, as well as BMW experienced significant increases in shipping a logistics costs.  Yes, consumer patterns did shift.  Particularly with the explosion in popularity of SUVs, which were manufactured in Spartanburg, SC and not Germany.  COVID was of course the final nail in the ED coffin.  Of all the German car manufacturers, only Porsche still maintains an ED program.  So the purpose of the BMW Welt has shifted to:

• Brand experience and event center
• Delivery hub for EU/local customers
• A venue for art, design, and tech exhibitions

When last I visited the Welt, it was for a European Delivery.  Admittedly this time visiting the Welt it felt less special somehow.

The BMW Lifestyle Store inside the Welt has expanded is easily the best such store for BMW I’ve seen.  The Lifestyle Store inside the BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg SC pales by comparison.

There’s also a nice little cafe on the first floor that wasn’t there during my last visit:

The new car displays in the Welt were nice, but the problem is that for many fans (myself included), BMW has been on a steady aesthetic decline.  They seem to be going out of their way to make their vehicles uglier with every generation.  From the beaver teeth M3/M4:

To the bulbous and ungainly looking last crop of SUVs.

Sadly, there’s barely a BMW model in the current line up that interests me right now for daily use.  This beautiful, classic BMW roadster really was a stark reminder of just how far off track BMW design has gone…even if Easter was weeks ago when the photo was taken:

The Rolls Royce (owned by BMW) display in the Welt was almost more interesting to me than the brand’s own currently line up:

From the second floor of the Welt, you can access a walkway that takes over the busy city streets that seperate the Welt from the BMW Headquarters Building and the BMW Welt:

I’m not going to lie – the trip to the BMW Museum wasn’t as enjoyable as when I first remembered.  Primarily because during my first visit, the Museum had an exhibit entirely dedicated to the BMW 3 series.  To me, the 3 series is BMW the way the 911 is Porsche.  That display had been replaced by an exhibit dedicated to the 5 Series:

Not that there’s anything wrong with the 5 series…I just don’t connect with it the way I do the 3 series.  The other thing that detracted from my enjoyment of my visit to the BMW Museum is that I had forgotten just how hard it is to photograph inside of the Museum.  The lighting isn’t bad per se, but in most rooms it’s just not conducive to photography.  And given that this was a Saturday afternoon, there were tons of people visiting the Museum and it made getting clear shots of the cars an exercise in frustration.   In this outing I primarily used my Fujifilm X100VI but found that my Canon G7 X with its f1.8 lens at 20mm was extremely useful in this environment.  I shot both at about ISO 800 but probably should have pushed to 1000 or higher, particularly with the X100VI.  Despite The less than favorable conditions, there were still plenty of beautiful BMW’s to see and photograph…including a few 3 series cars:

I have to say overall, it was a very good visit, even if it was overshadowed by the current state of BMW from an enthusiast’s perspective.  Besides, the 3 series exhibit being changed out, the other exhibit missing from my last visit was the fantastic Rolls-Royce display.  I asked one of the employees at the museum and he indicated that that exhibit was removed about 10 years ago.

After my trip to the BMW Welt and BMW Museum, I headed back to my hotel to switch out some camera gear, then headed down to the Marienplatz area in Munich for sightseeing, shopping, more photo taking, and a proper German dinner.  Part I of my #2025europeantour.  The following day, I would travel to Stuttgart and a return visit to the Porsche Museum.