...(Won't you buy me a) Mercedes Benz Museum

I have been waiting since March to go to the Mercedes Museum, and finally I had a chance to go.
It was supposed to be a free trip- once again sponsored by the awesome Baden-Wuerttemberg Foundation who awards me a Stipedium for studying here.
But due to a majorly annoying disruptance in the S-bahn schedule (the first train was 2 minutes early and I missed it by like 15 seconds, and the next train was not scheduled to come for another 28 minutes) I ended up taking a different train to the Bad Canstatt Hauptbahnhof and walking about a mile to the museum from there. It wouldn't have been a bad walk were it not for the 80 degree weather.
 And I arrived 23 minutes later than we were supposed to meet up to get our pre-paid tickets. I also didn't know anyone who was also going on this trip, and the lobby was void of any tour groups or college-aged students. Therefore I went to the ticket counter and said I was meeting up with a group, giving the organization name and also the name of the Professor in charge of our group. But of course it should happen that apparently the museum did not have the group down for reserved tickets, didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about (though I pulled up the confirmation email on my phone from the foundation). BUT I made it that far, so I dished out the 4 Euro and saw the Mercedes Benz Museum.

 Right after you buy your ticket, you are led to a desk where you pick up an audio guide (it looks like a GPS on a lanyard with headphones attached to it ) and they shuffle you into a very futuristic looking elevator. The building is somewhat circular, maybe more triangular(?) and the center of every on of the 7 upper floors is open to the lobby, so it's like there's a vertical glass tunnel through the middle of the building, and these 3 pod-like elevators are on tracks attached to the walls. It's a design I've never seen in real life before.
Apparently they have even produced the world's tallest mini tornado in the center of the building. SCIENCE.

Egal, the 8th floors starts with a look at the very early years of Daimlar's work. A few motors and a 3 wheeled motor vehicle. That developed into a 4 wheel vehicle a bit later. There was also the first motorized boat, a flying machine (pre-dating the wright brothers), a strassenbahn, and what I like to pretend is a steampunk bicycle (it's a motorized bike from the late 1800s)

 

 

And then there are a lot of models of very early cars.

My favorite is the one that looks exactly like a horse-drawn carriage from this era, but instead of horses, the driver sits behind a steering wheel.

 

The next level leads to a room of old cars (30s?- I didn't pay much attention to the audio guides. I prefer just to look at everything)

A failed Panorama. The spot lights were too bright and the cars were to shiny for my camera to handle

There she is, the first official Mercedes. Named after Daimlar's daughter.

 

There were also large amounts of people walking through, making it very difficult to read all of the signs and history of the cars, and I don't have patience in museums to wait for people to get out of the way. So most of the time I went around them and skipped reading.

(I also don't want to come off as too mean, but there was a tour of non-Germans, non-English speakers, with children who were incredibly rude and not only photobombed a half dozen of my pictures, but  also stepped right infront of me more than a couple times when I was trying to read a sign or watch a short film clip, obstructing my view. SERIOUSLY PEOPLE!?)

 

Anyhow, onward!

 

Tussie Mussies! They weren't labeled as such, but these are conic vases for flowers that women would walk around with in the late 1800s. (inspiration for my bridesmaids' bouquets)

 

A double decker bus! I really wanted to walk up the tiny stair case

 From the 1960s:

 

1950s bus:

 ugly car

 1940s bus! I think it was the first Mercedes Bus

 Post truck!

 Old cars

 Engine!

 Here was my favorite room of the entire place: the 1950s cars

 looking out into the center of the building. You can see an elevator

 1951. I can't remember what kind of car it actually is. But I remembered the year. There were 3 that were the same except for the color. One green, One red, one black.

 This guys! Is awesome. I don't know what it is, but it's sleek and silver.

 The front reminded me of a stingray.

Wing doors!

 Rad!

 

And then it was time to meet the ugly 70s cars.

 

 Once more looking out into the middle of the building

 This car, if I remember correctly, was a 1972 something and was over 5 meters long!

 Next is the room of famous people's cars.
 First, the pope mobile caught my attention.

 This black car belonged to Ringo Starr and the Bus in the background was a German Fussball Manschaft Bus.

Some fancy limousines from early years. Mostly for politicians/rich people I think

 

And then there was a special display for the S-class Mercedes. This was a cool little demonstration of "luxury" basically trying to get you to spend too much money on a car so you can have a tv screen in the back of the front seats and you will be so comfortable you will want to fall asleep driving. ...I want one.

S-class, clay model

(if you can't read German, I know this is a really hard sign to decipher. It says:

 "Comfort, syle, design. S-class" ) ^

 

And then there was the modern car room.

My 2nd favorite The Fuel cell car!!!

Fuel cell engine!

 And a hybrid!

 

To Tyler: Anytime I see the word "Rally" I think of you. Stop that.

 

Really old race car!

 Race cars!

Super old race cars!

 

Futuristic space car?

 

Panorama of car evolution.

I would like to mention that at this time (which was just about at the end of the museum tour/exhibit), I heard the song "Sail!" playing from somewhere.

The last car on display- right infront of the gift shop.

Outside the museum

The Mercedes Benz Stuttgart Branch (there's a dealer right next to the museum)

I was trying to take a picture of myself infront of the museum, but I was afraid someone walking by was going to see me and ask if I wanted them to take a picture for me, and since I don't trust anyone with my camera/phone, I wanted to avoid that. So I quickly snapped this picture, which doesn't have the museum in it at all. At least a third of the fountain is visible.

And what do ya know, across the street is the Mercedes Benz arena (fussball and such)

 

And for some reason, the Porsche Arena is next to that. It's trying so hard.