My 540i is equipped with this 4.4-liter, 282-HP, 324-lb-ft V-8 engine. This engine will accelerate the car from 0 to 60 in about 5.6 seconds with the manual transmission, or about 5.8 seconds with the Steptronic semi-automatic transmission I chose.

Pamela and I spent a day at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, perhaps the world's biggest museum of technology. Its aerospace section is just a small part of the overall collection, but it compares well to the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. Here's Pamela looking up from one of the exhibits.

Here's an engine that probably weighs more than my whole car, and certainly produced more power, at least before it was cut open to create an exhibit for the Deutsches Museum. There are dozens of engines on display there, ranging from tiny little piston engines for model airplanes up to current high-bypass jet turbines for passenger aircraft.

The Deutsches Museum has a lot of interesting old experimental aircraft, including this German vertical-takeoff rocket plane.

A nice shot of Hohenschwangau Castle, the home of Bavaria's King Ludwig I.

This is certainly the best-known castle in Germany, and among the best known in the world. It was used as a model for Disney's version of Cinderella Castle, so they say. There aren't many good places from which to photograph it, and we weren't allowed to take any pictures of the interior of this castle or Hohenschwangau during the brief tours. Neither is especially impressive overall, though King Ludwig II's throne room in Neuschwanstein is pretty much world-class.

The two of us together, at the edge of a lake just to the left of the picture of Hohenschwangau above.

Bernkastel-Kues is a pair of small towns on opposite sides of the Mosel river. We spent two nice days in and around here, as much because the weather was nicer here than any other place we visited on the trip. You can see vineyards on the Bernkastel side, on the right side of the picture. This shot was taken from a small castle ruin above the town.

Here's the ruin itself, which is surrounded by vineyards. The ruin has actually been converted into a cafe/restaurant, though it was closed for the winter. Note there's no snow on the ground here-- a rarity during our trip.

This shot was taken from the bridge about an hour after sunset. The four-second time exposure makes everything look brighter than it really was. The sky was quite black to the naked eye, causing the ruin to appear to be floating above the town. Even so, this picture came out very well, I think.