Shopping mall in Frankfurt
Visiting the big auto show that takes place in Frankfurt every two years is a dreamland for a gear head like me; the Frankfurt Messe is packed with shiny new cars and concepts of all sizes and shapes, from tiny electric city cars to giant commercial trucks. This is the playground of German automakers, which all of them call the Bavaria region home. Actually I got too flashed by Lamborghinis and Audis that were left out of many other displays because of the show schedule, however, it is amazing the abundance of brand-new high-end cars you can see on the streets, and experience how fast they can go on the Autobahn.
Frankfurt is a financial center for the European continent – in fact, the European Central Bank is based there – and thus the money is evident in abundant luxury shops and modern skyscrapers with bank names atop. Well-heeled clientele usually demands great design and Frankfurt is not an exception – designer names are everywhere and typical German esthetics is everywhere, orderly & stylized.
Audi Ring at the Frankfurt Auto Show
Moving away from Frankfurt at high speed in the ICE train, take us to Munich, where the craziness and disorder of Oktoberfest is somewhat muted by the happiness of the people in the town 
We could not truly contemplate the glory of this big city, so we took the Autobahn to visit a German icon, the famed Neuschwanstein castle (which inspired all Disney castles). The castle is Germany’s number 1 tourist attraction and we witnessed that first hand. With its high, white, somewhat minimalist walls it is very modern yet fairy-tale looking from afar. Inside it’s another story as the king who built it, it seems, got carried away.
After visiting fairy-tale buildings, we headed to Ingolstadt, home turf of Audi AG and its amazing Audi Forum, a complex of museum, restaurants, concert halls, dealership and offices, all inside contemporary architecture of glass, steel, aluminum and other materials, excluding bricks. The museum is not cluttered and even the bar has a polished design! Not to mention all the Audi cars on display.
Neuschwanstein Schloss
Miami is one of those places where design is king —from exotic cars to designer fashion to great architecture… even to women’s bodies! (your neck could get really damaged around here!). In the most Latin of US cities, a unique blend of cultures and an endless competition to outstand, the looks of everything is EVERYTHING. Witness the amazing race to built the most attrative condo building in town; it was getting too far until the real estate crisis put a brutal stop to the craziness.