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Gruss Gott – Memories of our ED trip!!

3K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  skier 
#1 ·
It’s somewhat long but I hope you enjoy it. Pictures attached...


October 21, 2005
Departure date – We took advantage of the BMW Lufthansa “2 for 1” deal and while it wasn’t exactly a two for one fare, it still saved us some money. My recommendation is to shop around to see what’s out there. We arrived at the airport to check in and we were surprised to find out that our flight was 3 hours behind schedule! We made the first cardinal mistake of travel – not calling the airline ahead of time. Tip – call your airline ahead of time. At least they had small sandwiches and drinks to compensate. Another thing that surprised us was that when we finally were getting ready to board, they did not call out row numbers. Instead they allowed everyone to approach the gate. I expected better from Luftansa.

October 22, 2005
Arrival date – We finally arrived in Munich in the evening and we took the free Luftansa shuttle bus to drop us off near our hotel. We stayed at the Innside Munchen Parkstadt Schwabing. It’s across the freeway from the Marriott, right off the A9. We can’t say enough good things about the Innside. It’s a new hotel and so everything is new and the rooms are modern and comfortable. We fell in love with the shower! The best food we had during our whole trip was at this hotel. Their included buffet breakfast was excellent and their dinner was outstanding. The dinner was a bit expensive but it was as good as some of the fine restaurants in San Francisco/Bay Area. We would highly recommend this hotel. This day was basically gone since we arrived so late and so we went to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a busy sightseeing day.

October 23, 2005
It’s Sunday and we don’t pick up the car until tomorrow. One more day!! Okay, so we like to start off our first day in a new place with a short tour. We took a 1.5 hour tour of the city on a double decker bus and it really helped us determine where we wanted to go during our short visit. After the tour, we hung out at the infamous Marienplatz and took in the atmosphere and saw the glokenspiel. Another tip – Most of the shops are closed on Sunday. We got around okay on the U-Bahns and S-Bahns but we highly recommend looking for the English ticket stand if you don’t know German. It can be a bit intimidating looking at all those buttons. If you are traveling with your spouse and/or family, look for the partner fare and make sure to stamp the ticket. We chose to go to the Deutsches Museum (German version of the Smithsonian). If you go, make sure to see their mine exhibit. Afterwards we decided to go to the English Garden. It was beautiful walking around all the trees changing colors – something we don’t see much of in the SF/Bay Area. However, keep in mind that it is a park and there aren’t a lot of things to do but walk and take pictures. Later in the day, we went back to our hotel to rest and to study the map for our drive to Vienna tomorrow! Again, the dinner at Innside was outstanding!!

October 24, 2005
Finally, the day has come! It’s been a long wait and I couldn’t believe we are here! We had our hearty delicious breakfast and took a cab to the ED center. This was the only time we took a cab and to be honest, we could have taken the subway but I was too eager to see my new M3. The cab drive was short but not cheap. We walked into the ED building and checked in with the businesslike lady at the front desk. We just hung out in the lobby since we weren’t too hungry. Looking back, we should have had a small snack at least and I did not know about the bimmerfest log – sorry guys. In about 30 minutes, a friendly smiling gentleman walks over to me and we start signing papers. He was very nice and gave us the essential information I needed and answered our questions. Then it was off to see the car. We walked past the “magic sliding door” and we were in the showroom with a bunch of other bimmers. However, I only remember seeing two cars - my Alpine White M3 and a black M5 next to it. What a beautiful sight to finally see my car. I think it was the only white car there. I was told that they don’t do a lot of white cars – mostly for Californians. I just fell in love with the Alpine White and Cinnamon interior. It has everything – comp and premium package, nav, xenon, smg, hk stereo, and heated seats. I was instructed on how to use the nav and we entered our destination to Vienna.

While we were going thru the car, the M5 next to us started it’s motor and an incredible growl was heard. Man, it sounded mean and it sounded like it meant business. What an awesome car! We can’t figure out why they moved the car because a short while later, while another ED 325 wagon was exiting (driven by the new owner), he miscalculated the turn and nicked the M5!! OMG! Several BMW reps ran over to see the damage. Fortunately it was only a small nick but a small white speckle on the black bumper could be seen from where I was standing. Yikes. The BMW reps were very professional about it. After that episode, our rep moved the M3 out of the showroom for us and after some more pictures, we were on our way. Tip – even though you have nav, study the map ahead of time. There’s a lot of construction in Munich and Austria and a map does come in handy. Looking back, I made the mistake of taking the backroads to Vienna. It’s mostly a one-lane road with lots of big rigs and so you can’t drive that fast. We had to do a lot of passing and we didn’t have a lot of opportunity to drive on the autobahn. I also didn’t fully understand how to use the nav so the nav kept telling us to take a U-turn. I finally figured out later that you could change the setting to avoid the freeways.

My driving impression of the car is that it is an incredibly solid car with awesome power, great handling, comfortable, and surprisingly easy to drive. The smg is going to take some time to get used to but I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of it later. I cannot say enough about the nav. It totally saved us the whole trip and it was extremely accurate. Once we got on the main autobahn, we were directed very accurately to our hotel in Vienna. Even with a couple of wrong turns, it quickly recalibrated our destination. Wow!

We stayed at the Hilton Vienna Plaza and it had an underground garage – very important. We rested for a short time in our modest but large room and just headed out to find a place to have dinner. Tip – everyone in Germany and Austria appear to smoke and so expect to inhale smoke in their restaurants. Some have non-smoking sections but they’re usually away from the main restaurant and empty. We found a café called Café Griensteidl filled with locals so we gave it a try. The food was very good and my wife and I enjoyed hanging out with the locals. After dinner, we walked back to our hotel for some rest. Jetlag has finally settled in. Both my wife and I couldn’t sleep so we looked through our Rick Steve’s book again and planned our future drive to Salzburg. Another thing to note is that the roads in Austria are not as nice as those in Germany. It’s still the autobahn but it just didn’t feel as smooth and well maintained as they are in Germany.

October 25, 2005
After our “Hilton Breakfast”, we headed out to take a short tour. We took the tram #2 in front of our hotel and got off too early. No worries as it allowed us to take a nice walk and take more pictures. Again, the tour was very informational and we got to see some sights that we normally would not see due to our short stay. After our city tour, we took a tour of the Opera House and visited the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Both highly recommended. We then decided to walk around and do some shopping. If you are into food and desserts like we are, you’ve got to visit Julius Meinl am Graben – a posh supermarket and of course Demel – the ultimate Viennese chocolate shop. Another not to miss is the Sachertorte! With all the walking and jet lag still affecting us, we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night. I spent some time looking over the map again to make a few detours on our way to Salzburg – like I didn’t learn my lesson before?

October 26, 2005
After breakfast, we were on our way to visit the Danube Valley just outside of Vienna on our way to Salzburg. Once again the nav got us safely and quickly out of Vienna. This time I entered the address of the TI to Krems and Melk and programmed the nav to not take the autobahn. It worked perfectly. The drive thru Danube Valley was one of the highlights of our trip as we were driving along the Danube river past wineries and small towns. My wife and I would have liked to have stayed in this area. Maybe next time? It was along this route that I took some nice pictures of the car. There’s not a whole lot at Krems but at Melk we visited and took a tour of the Melk Abbey. What a surprise! It was a very informative and a very beautiful abbey. At the top, you get a great view of Melk and the outlining area. Again, the trees were beautiful with their changing colors. Note that you can also visit this area by boat from Vienna but if you’ve got a new bimmer, drive! After Melk, we logged the address of our hotel in Salzburg on the nav and we were back on the autobahn. At this point, I’m getting more comfortable with the car and enjoying every minute of it. I still cannot believe that we are here driving our M3 through Austria!! Several hours later and before dark, we made it to our hotel in Salzburg. We stayed outside of the pedestrian only area, out of the middle of town but that was fine as I would have hated trying to drive around pedestrians and narrow roads. We stayed at the Golden Tulip Auersperg. They had a private gated parking area right next to the hotel so I was very happy. The room was pleasant but not as nice as the prior two hotels. Still it was a very nice hotel with very nice staff. They gave us a couple of recommendations of places to eat and they turned out to be very good. After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to plan our next day.

October 27, 2005
This was the only hotel where we opted not to have breakfast included so we headed out to a local bakery for some very good coffee and snacks. We bought a couple of sandwiches for the day as well. Another tip – take a chance and venture out of the hotel to take in the culture and atmosphere. When we got back to the hotel, we waited for the tour operator to come but I made the mistake of not making a reservation. The hotel staff quickly called the tour operators and they got us in. Awesome service. It turned out that my wife and I were the only ones in the group so it felt like it was a personal tour. Another tip – travel during the off-season and you can get last minute reservations. Again the tour turned out to be very good with lots of information and sights. Another benefit of the tour is that you get to see where the sights are so you’re not totally lost when you’re on your own. We walked around the Getreidegasse (old shopping district) and marveled at the wrought iron signs and the whole area had a very old town feel. We visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress with a stunning view of Salzburg, the Museum of Modern Art on Monchsberg with another great view, and of course Mozart’s Wohnhaus. If you’re into Mozart, this is a must stop. Salzburg is going to very busy next year as they will celebrate Mozart’s 250th birthday. We had a very nice dinner that evening and we headed back to our hotel to do some packing and take another look at the map. We had to leave early tomorrow morning to beat or deal with the traffic into Munich, check into our hotel, drop off the car at E.H. Harms and make it to the BMW factory tour.

October 28, 2005
Well, this is it - the last day with the M3. It was a bit sad but I was also glad that the car will be on its way home. We punched in our hotel address in Munich and we were off. It was nice to be back on the German autobahn. The drive was incredible with the rising sun hitting the rolling hills with the changing colors of the trees. There was some fog along the way but it didn’t last long. Once again, the nav was right on and it got us to the King’s Hotel on time and without any problems. The King’s Hotel (4 star property) is nice but it’s not in the nicest neighborhood. Unfortunately, the breakfast was the worst we’ve had our whole trip. The BMW special rate was okay and that is why we stayed there. If we could do it again, we’d go back to the Innside! After dropping off our luggage, we got back into the car to head over to E.H. Harms. Once again, the nav was perfect. When I got to the E.H. Harms’ parking lot, I took lots of pictures and while I was trying to figure out how I was going to take off the front plates, a smiling gentleman walks over with a power drill. Carefully he used the drill to take the front plates off and handed it to me. Make sure to take the nav dvd, first aid kit, and the triangle out of the car and take it with you. While I was signing some paperwork, my darling wife went to the bathroom to clean the front plates. How awesome is that! I took one last picture from the window of the office and then we were on our way to the BMW factory.

We got to the factory a bit early so my wife and I hung out at the lobby and met other ED’rs who picked up their cars that morning. I was extremely excited for them as I know how that feels. I think I met some of you that day. If you remember, it was my wife who was allowed to sit in the 330 as it was on the dyno going thru a test run. One of the ED’r that we met said he saw one of them take it to redline and I saw one that went up to 150 km/h. It was funny when the tour guide said that for a US bound car, it’s the only time the car sees 100 mph! LOL!! The factory tour was outstanding. It’s amazing how simple the whole process looks. I know we didn’t see everything and we definitely didn’t see their engine factory. I highly recommend this tour! Tip – make reservations in advance to make sure you get a spot. Another tip – get there early to find a safe and decent parking space if you have your new bimmer. There’s a lot of construction to make way for their new BMW museum and I heard that one of the EDr’s new bimmer was towed. He parked on the street. After the tour we headed back to the hotel for some rest and after dinner, we contemplated what we were going to do the last couple of days in Germany.

October 29, 2005
Well, we decided to head back into town to take in the atmosphere one last time. We walked by the BMW M showroom where they had an M6 and an M3 in the showroom. Unfortunately they were closed. One of the most memorable things we did that day was to hang out at the farmers market, the Viktualien Markt. This is what Germany is all about! I really felt like a local hanging out there. They had all types of vegetables, meats, seafood, tons of food and of course beer everywhere. What better way to take in the atmosphere and culture than to sit in the sun, having good food and awesome local beer. Make it a point to do this if you can. The weather that day was incredibly nice, as it was during the whole trip. We had enough German food during our trip so we decided on Italian that night and while it wasn’t the best we’ve had, it was good. By this point we really missed our dog so we were ready to head back home.

October 30, 2005
We couldn’t finish the awful breakfast at King’s Hotel so we headed out to get something else to eat before we headed out to the airport. This time we made numerous calls to Luftansa to make sure the flight was on time – which it was. We had enough time before our flight so we took the U-Bahn and S-Bahn to the airport. It took some time but it was very convenient. Another tip – if you have an e-ticket and a credit card, don’t wait in line to check in baggage. Instead go to one of the Luftansa’s self check-in booths and check yourself in and your luggage. Absolutely no waiting!! I’m still bothered by the way they board the plane. Again, it was everyone at once. Moooooo.

That’s the end of our memorable trip. I am so glad we did this. I have dreamed of doing this and now, I can dream about what we actually did. Memories from this trip and the experience of picking up a new M3 will be with us for a long time and as I write this, I still cannot believe we did this! Simply awesome. Thanks to my wife for everything. Without her, this trip would not have been possible.
 

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#4 ·
What a great looking car... :thumbup:

I love those wheels.

Thanks for the write up and pics.
 
#6 ·
Good to hear!

I remember you and your wife from the factory tour on the 28th of October! Thank you for nice write-up. I enjoyed very much. I also remember your car parked in HARMS' parking lot, when I dropped mine. Is your car on board of Sirius Leader too? She left on the November 9th from Bremerhaven, and she on her way. She is out side of AISLIVE tracking range, but we will be able to track again when she reaches Panama canal by my birthday which is November 27th or a day or two earlier. There are also webcams in the canal and you can watch her. I wish I knew the exact time of the pasage. It's funny that I also live in Eastbay. Have a nice day. :)
 
#7 ·
Wow, I really enjoyed reading your post and photos. What an awesome car and I think white + cinnamon looks awesome too!

When I read your post I thought we were on the same Munich factory tour, but on a second look you went on the 28th and I went on the 27th.
 
#8 ·
M3andM3 said:
I remember you and your wife from the factory tour on the 28th of October! Thank you for nice write-up. I enjoyed very much. I also remember your car parked in HARMS' parking lot, when I dropped mine. Is your car on board of Sirius Leader too? She left on the November 9th from Bremerhaven, and she on her way. She is out side of AISLIVE tracking range, but we will be able to track again when she reaches Panama canal by my birthday which is November 27th or a day or two earlier. There are also webcams in the canal and you can watch her. I wish I knew the exact time of the pasage. It's funny that I also live in Eastbay. Have a nice day. :)
Hey Neighbor, I wish I had spent more time on bimmerfest to get to know some of you before we went. Oh well, better late than never. When did you drop off your car? How did you find out which boat the car went on? I know I could have done a search but I seem to be so short on time these days. Thanks.
 
#11 ·
Hello Neighbor!

stevodevo said:
Hey Neighbor, I wish I had spent more time on bimmerfest to get to know some of you before we went. Oh well, better late than never. When did you drop off your car? How did you find out which boat the car went on? I know I could have done a search but I seem to be so short on time these days. Thanks.
Herr Behrends, at HARMS informed me in his response to my email lask week. We will get a letter from BMWNA/ED with ship's name and ETA for re-delivery. The letter will be our ultimate confirmation. Do you want to see your car one more time? Here it is... Silver Grey X3 in the back is mine that I dropped off around 12:45PM, October 28th.
 

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#12 ·
stevodevo said:
Finally, more pictures...
very appropriate interior color right after halloween, and with thankgiving coming up) nice ride
 
#13 ·
Nice post.
 
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