If you happen to be a regular reader of motorfinanceonline.com – and why not? – you may have noticed a decline in the number of stories in my name. There are two reasons for this: I’ve been on holiday and have fashioned a well-drilled squad of journos hungry for news. Particularly, Jonny Minter has made a big step up in the news team in the past month with Jamie Wood following close behind him as cub reporter.

And, if you happen to be a subscriber to our weekly newswire – free from our news-saturated website – you may have noticed one recent issue had 28 stories in it. There are two good reasons for this, too: I returned from holiday with a renewed vigour and a full inbox and, by then, Jonny, Jamie, and Pete Johnstone were in the sort of groove only funk bands and carpenters brag about.

So, yes, how was my holiday? Lovely, thanks, I went to Munich. And what was the first thing I did, I hear you say? I visited BMW Welt, the "multi-functional customer experience and exhibition facility of BMW AG", natch. (I also visited the Mercedes centre in town to jot notes on lease rates. I couldn’t find Volkswagen’s HQ.)

If you’re unfamiliar with the Bavarian capital, BMW Welt, sitting next to BMW’s Group HQ, is a cauldron-shaped museum (plus huge, working showroom) for BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce. It’s listed as one of the top 10 attractions of the city. Given Munich is 850 years old and had a significant impact on the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Napoleonic Wars, the 1848 Revolutions, and both World Wars, and is also the mooted beer capital of the entire planet, justifying a place in the top 10 things to see is not bad going.

Think of your workplace. Would it make a list of local attractions? Looking through this issue – you really have no excuse not to – you’ll see we’ve made trips to both the BMW Financial Services offices in Hook and Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) offices (to be) in Milton Keynes. The Hook trip was to interview Andy Gruber of Alphera. While the offices are comfortable, efficient and house a staff doing very well right now, they are not a monument intended to attract the public. (If you have access to the security tapes around the time at the neighbouring BMW garage, you’ll see me wandering mistakenly about the forecourt for 10 minutes, thinking there was a way into the Alphera offices.)

I doubt the VWFS HQ is designed to be a renowned landmark, but just breaking the ground and mixing the first mortar was enough to bring out both Jonny and the town’s mayor.

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My office wouldn’t scrape a top 10 list for the street I work on, which is a change for me. As some of you will know – if you don’t, I should suggest you visit the Motor Finance group on LinkedIn and find my CV – I’ve worked in two iconic news centres, both of which run public tours. Having spent years toiling in a building anybody else might otherwise fancy taking their kids to, sharing a lift at work with holidaying families and tidying my language when dignitaries showed up, I can see the appeal. There was a gain in the value I put on my own work when stepping through a recognisable set of doors to enter an esteemed centre of excellence.

On the way back from Hook I passed Mercedes-Benz World at the Brooklands racing circuit in Surrey. I was reminded of coming in to land at Heathrow 24 hours earlier, seeing Canary Wharf and The Shard beneath the plane’s wing. Both times I wondered whether I missed working somewhere people would willingly want to visit. Yes, a little, but I’m glad I don’t have an engine roaring right past my office window.

richard.brown@timetric.com