Time flies when you’re zooming down the autobahns of Germany. Actually, I’m the one who’s flying. The speedometer on the BMW 745i reads 160 km/h (100 mph) and climbing, yet the car is so solid it barely feels like I’m going 60 miles per hour.

Audis and other BMWs pass us like we’re standing still. Since there are still no speed limits on some lesser-frequented German roads and the highway is smooth, I let the BMW do what it does best, and push the pedal down a little more.

Schloss Basthorst suffered decades of neglect under communist rule. Today it has been renovated as a boutique hotel.

Thankfully, my mom, who is in the passenger seat, has her eyes on the scene outside the window and not on my speedometer. The landscape is postcard perfect. Fertile farmland, cut bare from harvest, stretches across the horizon. Massive farm equipment dots the fields, farmers out preparing the fields for next season’s crop.

Overhead, the sun burns bright in a clear blue sky. It’s a beautiful day to be in Germany — especially with this gem of a car.

Unfortunately, this engineering marvel isn’t mine. The BMW belongs to my German friend, Torsten, who has graciously loaned it to my mother and me for our girls’ road-trip adventure. But this road trip is different; we have no maps. The car’s navigation system is our only guide.

After giving us a quick lesson on the car in the northern city of Hamburg , Torsten had wished us luck and sent us on our way. The car’s smooth female voice, speaking in High German, guided us through the busy streets. Though I had to brush up on my vocabulary (the German I learned attending school in Austria came in handy!), we were out of the city in just 45 minutes.

Our plan now is a five-day tour across Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania), a German state that once belonged to East Germany. We’ll stay at castle hotels along the way.

Though it’s the sixth largest state, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania has only 1.7 million residents. Bordering the Baltic Sea and with hundreds of inland lakes, the area is a popular destination for European tourists. Strangely though, few Americans make it to this part of the country. It’s my first visit to this region as well, and I’m beginning to wonder why I haven’t discovered it before now.

Our first stop is the town of Schwerin, population 96,500, about 70 miles (112 km) east of Hamburg. The capital of Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, Schwerin is famous for its fairy-tale-like castle on an island in the middle of Lake Schwerin.