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550i ED itinerary - Early May

1K views 7 replies 6 participants last post by  Shiltsy 
#1 ·
Hi Everyone,
My wife and I will be doing our first Euro Delivery and celebrating our three year wedding anniversary in early May. This will be our first vacation together in Germany. I've visited Germany many times when I was much younger but don't remember too much of it. We go to Europe every year and have already seen most must see destinations, so going to big cities like Rome or Paris really isn't in our plans on this trip. We are looking for a relaxing trip before our busy season as work. I'm in my early 30's and she's in her late 20's, so any suggestion for someone our age would be great.

One thing I've haven't seen on any ED itinerary's are visits to watch manufactures or museums considering Munich is only a few hours away from the heart of the watch world. My wife and I both used to work in the watch industry before moving to marketing and look forward to visiting some of our favorite brands. Oh, and if you think 'festers are OCD, you need to visit a few watch forums. They'll put just about everyone on this forum to shame with their rants and level of OCD.

I'm looking for some input on what to do and see in the stop over cities I've listed or if there is another stop over we should make instead. I'd also like some help in route planning. I've searched this forum and haven't been able to find specific maps on how to connect to popular city pairs. I'll do my best with Google maps, but please let me know if you have an exact set of roads we should take.

Here is a rough outline of our trip. Just about everything is flexible including our arrival and departure dates.

Google map of trip

Wednesday, April 30, 2014 Get to Poznan from DC

Thursday, May 01, 2014 Poznan

Friday, May 02, 2014 Poznan

Saturday, May 03, 2014 Poznan

Sunday, May 04, 2014 Fly to Munich, BMW Museum, Marienplatz

Monday, May 05, 2014 Welt Pickup, Factory Tour, Drive to Fussen, Spend the night in Fussen

Tuesday, May 06, 2014 Fussen to Stelvio Pass to Lake Como (Is Stelvio really worth it? Heard lots of thing also about the Road to Hona, but with all of the trees, you couldn't see any of the landscape. The North Shore road was much better.)

Thursday, May 08, 2014 Lake Como, Rent a boat, Run into George

Friday, May 09, 2014 Lake Como, Drive to Bienne(Omega and Swatch Group), Schaffhausen (IWC), Spend the night in Zurich

Saturday, May 10, 2014 Drive to Baden-baden, Spa Day, Spend the night

Sunday, May 11, 2014 Drive to Hamburg, Pit stop in Kassel. Lived there for a few years when we emigrated from Afghanistan

Monday, May 12, 2014 Hamburg, Minatur Wunderland http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ , Spend some time with family that lives there.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014 Drop off in Hamburg or Bremerhaven (is one drop off place quicker to get the car to the US than another?)

Wednesday, May 14, 2014 Amsterdam

Thursday, May 15, 2014 Amsterdam

Friday, May 16, 2014 Fly back to DC?
 
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#2 ·
I forgot to mention my config. I guess it gets posted here, didn't see any configs on the main F10/F11 forum.

550i
Alpine White, Mocha Nappa, Anthracite Wood
M-Sport with staggered wheels
Cold Weather
Lighting Package
Driver Assistance Plus
Acc Stop & Go
Executive Package
Luxury Seating
Park Assist

Leasing 36 month @ 15k miles
Around $950/month, first month payment down. No MSD.

PCD pick up.
 
#3 ·
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 Drop off in Hamburg or Bremerhaven (is one drop off place quicker to get the car to the US than another?)

Wednesday, May 14, 2014 Amsterdam

Thursday, May 15, 2014 Amsterdam
Since all ED BMWs ship out of Bremerhaven it would be logical to think that Bremerhaven would be the best place to drop your car. In fact Bremerhaven is one of the best (averaging 13.5 days from drop off to boarding a ship), but Amsterdam, your last stop, is almost as good (14 days). In the last year or so no one has reported dropping off in Hamburg so we do not have any idea how long it would take - perhaps Hamburg is a new drop off location?

Obviously the time from drop off to being on a ship does not completely answer your question but if you live in Northern Virginia (or Nova Scotia) you have helped shorten the time spent on a ship by quite a bit over living on the left coast. But there are still slight variations even for east coasters - some ships seem to do a Baltic cruise first before heading out to the Atlantic. Also there seems to be large variations in the time taken from the North American port to the dealership, and even more so if you decide to pick up your car at the PCD.

You can find more info on the time taken from drop off to pick up by looking up my pdf files which are in this thread (posted on 12/19/2013):
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=697009&page=33
 
#4 ·
Hi Everyone,

Tuesday, May 06, 2014 Fussen to Stelvio Pass to Lake Como (Is Stelvio really worth it? Heard lots of thing also about the Road to Hona, but with all of the trees, you couldn't see any of the landscape. The North Shore road was much better.)
The Stelvio will likely be still impassable and closed by May 6th. Is it worth it... Absolutely :bigpimp: But I think that usually the opening dates are nearing the end of May. In fact, just checked the webiste that is showing a tentative opening of May 31st. Here is a LINK with webcams, so that you can see the painfully slow process of melting snow and road clearing.

Otherwise, your itinerary is fabulous. Looking forward to pictures on your trip :D
 
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