I'd like to have spent more time in Munich than was available to me, because like the other cities I've visited it is blessed with some beautiful buildings and scenery. One example of the latter is the Olympiapark, home to many of the facilities which were employed during the infamous 1972 Olympic Games. It's a magnificent piece of "green space", complete with lake and numerous relaxation spots. And the buildings, of course, including the main one as far as football fans are concerned, the Olympiastadion, the space-age structure which was home to the 1974 FIFA World Cup Final, and to Bayern Munich for many years before they upped sticks to the Allianz Arena. Unfortunately, access to the stadium was off-limits on the day I visited Munich, as they were preparing it for use in this weekend's round of the World Touring Car Championships. Some of the static displays were in place for the weekend, however, including some AMG Mercs - the sports car arm of the Mercedes Benz operation … Some really nice pieces of machinery, these. Their presence certainly made up for the closure of the BMW Museum, due to a "technical failure". But BMW World was open for business, and that is quite an impressive operation, chock-full of touch-screen presentations which educate you on all manner of aspects of how things are done BMW-style. And, of course, examples of the full BMW range, from the compact 1-series through the sexy Z4 roadster and the touring bikes to their very latest release, the 6-series cabriolets. It was kid in a sweet shop time again … They even had an in-store demonstration of their latest M3 4GT sports car, which the driver made the most of by giving it the big revs and a few handbrake starts - cue rubber aplenty on the showroom floor. A very powerful race car, make no mistake. So to Friday, and a visit to Ingolstadt, the home of Audi. Now this was special. I've always had a soft spot for Audi ever since discovering, many many years ago, that it was King Kenny's car of choice during his playing days at Anfield - an Audi 200, from memory. It was around the same time that the Audi Quattro rally car was winning all before it, the Rally of New Zealand amongst the many titles claimed by the brilliant Walter Rohrl and his team-mates in the early 1980s. I started off on the showroom floor, eyeing up all the latest models, and had the pleasure of sitting in the Audi A7 Sportback … aaah! A really impressive motor car, inside and out. You won't see too many of these in NZ, unfortunately, but they are really gorgeous! Then it was across to the museum. Admission was 2 Euros - an absolute bargain for what lay in store, particularly the grand finale. The big kid was in the sweet shop, and unbeknown to me, the tastiest sweet of all lay in wait! Three stories of all things Audi, which incorporates the Wanderer, Horch, DKW, Auto Union (a very famous name from 1930s motor-racing) and NSU, with the current name and logo coming about as recently as 1985. And in 1998, they took on managing another famous name … cue the grand finale! Like the Mercedes Benz museum, you start on the top floor and work your way down. Only at the bottom, there are no Audi models. Instead, it is reserved for temporary exhibitions, and it was just my luck to find myself confronted by a selection of cars on loan to Audi's Museum Mobile from the Bologna home of one of the most revered names in motoring … Lamborghini. All the famous models were lying in wait. Miura; Countach; Diablo; Gallardo; and my favourite, Murcielago. And there before me, a machine you will never see in New Zealand, because the production run was limited to just twenty cars - the Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Versace, the most prized and exclusive model of them all. This, folks, is heaven on four totally black "Hermera" designed wheels with special Versace insignia on the paintwork. It came in just two colours - Aldebaran Black or, in this case, Isis White. And it looks like it's doing its 340km/h maximum speed standing still! There was absolutely no chance of sitting in this! All I could do was stand, stare, take photos and imagine what it's like inside the cockpit of this four-wheeled flying machine. I asked the watching assistant if I could have my photo taken with the car, which wasn't a problem.

The tennis headquarters in the Olympiapark An AMG Merc - a car made for racing! On yer bike! That big kid's in the sweet shop again! The Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 Versace - heaven on four black wheels Nigel Mansell's title-winning Williams Renault My flight home ... I wish!! Sweden and France line up for their anthems

At which point, without prompting, she opened the door to Aladdin's Cave. "No sitting inside", she said, "but it looks better with the door open, as if you're about to get in, don't you think?" Who was I to argue? A couple of photos later, and my tour of the showrooms and museums of Germany's five car manufacturers was complete, ironically with the lasting memory of the finest Italian car of them all! Next stop Sinsheim, and the third place play-off. But an early start was in order, after the discovery on my second day here in Germany of one of this country's hidden treasures - the Auto-Technik Museum, complete with the ultimate static display, an Air France Concorde. This proved to be something special. MOTAT doesn't even begin to compare. It would be easier to describe what displays this fantastic museum didn't have - and I'm about to upset Graham Hughes by saying they didn't have any stockcars ... although a Jawa speedway bike as ridden by Ivan Mauger did go some way to make up for this glaring absence! They have produced an inch-thick full colour glossy hardback book describing what's on display, plus a CD to accompany it. The F1 display includes Michael Schumacher's 1995 Benetton and Nigel Mansell's championship-winning Williams, while there are Ferraris, US classics … all up, a really impressive operation, the crowning glory of which, of course, is the Concorde. I'm sure very few readers have had the pleasure of being inside this magnificent flying machine, so a few impressions will doubtless be of interest. It is remarkably narrow - there is no way you'd get your standard aircraft food trolley down the aisle. And you just about have to walk side on down said aisle to avoid touching the seats on either side. And it certainly wasn't designed for those over six feet in height … cue a mental image of John Cleese doing his Ministry of Silly Walks routine just to get on board and into his seat! Suffice to say, there isn't room to swing a cat! All in all, it's just as well the damn thing flew so fast, as it's certainly not something you'd like to find yourself confined in for anything more than four hours tops. That's looking at it from a passenger's perspective. But those minuses are more than compensated for by the prestige aspects, because this aircraft will forever retain legendary status - for mine, it's one of man's finest creations, a case of engineering and art combining for the greater good. The main purpose of my trip to Sinsheim, of course, was the third place play-off between France and Sweden, and the two UEFA Olympic qualifiers turned on a ding-dong go which had a bit of everything, including a red card for Josefine Oqvist. The Swedish star put the boot into French fullback Sonia Bompastor after they had clashed half-way through the second spell, and deserved to be dismissed - behaviour unbecoming, etc.. She let herself down, for mine - she's a better player than that, and the game doesn't need its stars, of which Josefine is undoubtedly one, lowering their standards in this way. Sweden took the lead on the half-hour through Lotta Schelin, which France matched through Elodie Thomis soon after half-time. But the ten women struck back eight minutes before the end with an absolute bullet from substitute Marie Hammarstrom to take out third place via a 2-1 scoreline - a most entertaining game, but one marred by injuries in the opening half-hour to French 'keeper Berangere Sapowicz and star midfielder Louisa Necib. She is one of the dozen players chosen by the FIFA Technical Study Group for the media to cast votes for, with the recipients of the Adidas-sponsored Gold, Silver and Bronze Balls to be determined from our selections The twelve nominees are: Sonia Bompastor (France), Lauren Cheney (USA), Kerstin Garefrekes (Germany), Marta (Brazil), Aya Miyama (Japan), Louisa Necib (France), Shinobu Ohno (Japan), Homare Sawa (Japan), Lotta Schelin (Sweden), Caroline Seger (Sweden), Hope Solo (USA), and Abby Wambach (USA). Some very worthy candidates in amongst that lot, and while I hope to see one of the Football Ferns appear on this list some day, I've settled for a player from each of the finalists to be in my trio - I think you can guess my other choice from this and previous postings. Third place play-off details: France 1 (E. Thomis (56)), Sweden 2 (L. Schelin (29), M. Hammarstrom (82))  HT 0-1