Post your ED photo & Story here!

writeup: http://camel.ethereal.net/~jkb/ed
pics: http://photos.jkb.org/v/ed/

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...56#post1777756

I've been meaning to put something out on Bimmerfest for sometime, but just never got around to it. So I'm going to cheat and put our blog out instead of trying to capture 3 months of travels in a post.

Summary: from Aug - Oct 2006 we Drove the first 2 months and flew the 3rd on Easyjet. I used bimmerfest/members a lot in getting information on prices and ED info....great resource.

Favorite country: Slovenia
Favorite B&B: Mykonos

Biggest drawback to ED: Waiting the 10 weeks for redelivery to MN. I dropped off in Nice, and within 4 days it was in Belgium and on the ship to US. Unfortunately it sat forever waiting for new rims i scratched driving europe. Insurance was painless, in fact i never did anything, it was all taken care of (including some touch up of paint in the states).

Misc notes: Didn't take off plate or remove stuff from truck and it all returned home safely (including additional items i forgot to take out as well). Oopps!
Zero problems driving/parking/crossing borders you name it. A lot of planning on my part up front, as we booked 90% of our hotels up front. Made for seemless transitions and kept us moving, instead of bogging down in a city.

Countries visited driving: Germany, Austria, Czech, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy(1 month), and France (including Monoco). Drop off in Nice.

Flying from Nice to: Berlin to Athens-including Mykonos (1 week) to London(1 week) and finally to Barcelona(2 weeks) all on Easyjet. Best way to see europe in my opinion, loved easyjet! All those flights cost us less than $600 (for 2 people)

That's all i can think of at this time, let me know if you have any questions though, I'd love to help if I can!

http://eurotrek-2006.blogspot.com/

Nice blog. Enjoyed reading about your trip.

Lindau and Alsace. March 11-18, 2007

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196429

Here is a link to the album with some pictures from my ED.
http://www.fototime.com/inv/6B4B86C41023D5F

Brief summary...

We left Ohio Thursday afternoon, stopping in Chicago enroute to Munich. We arrived in Munich an hour early due to a nice tailwind. Rolf picked us up at the airport. Thankfully I'd seen pictures of him on here as he was just sitting waiting for us. I said, "Hey, I think that's Rolf." As other have said, he is one of the nicest guys you'll meet. He drove us to the delivery center and sat and ate with us while we waited for Patricia to come with my paperwork. He got out a map and started showing us places to go while we were there. I definitely recommend him. Patricia did my delivery and was also very nice. I asked her about The Foot that none of us seemed to have a clue about. She told me that it symbolizes one of the Seven Wonders of the World. After all of the stuff inside, I pulled the car out in front for some more pictures.

We left the delivery center and drove over to our hotel, which was also very nice. We were there briefly before heading out to our 1:15 factory tour. The 2h tour was very interesting. Quite amazing to see how the cars come together. The automation is amazing.

We went back to our hotel and decided to walk down the street to find somewhere to eat. We happened upon a nice little shop where the very nice woman spoke no english, but we manages to get some delicous schnitzel. Later that night we asked at the desk if there was anything to do around the hotel. They pointed us back down the street we'd been on earlier that day saying there were a bunch of coffee shops. We ended up at a gas station for some pastries and coffee. Oh well. Gas stations are a little nicer over there.

Saturday
Rolf had said that we could park in front the hotel and no one would bother the car. Admittedly I've never seen so many BMW's in one place as in Munich. We we're parked in front of the hotel and come out in the morning to discover that my front plate was bent on one side from someone backing into it. The car was still in front of us and the guy was coming out. I got a little agitated at the guy for backing into my 1 day old car. Thankfully he spoke english because it woudln't have been nearly as cathartic if he didn't understand me. In anycase, the plate was just slightly bent, but the car was perfectly fine. I guess thats one advantage of the front plate holder. A lot of people over there seem to park by feel though. After that the car always slept in the garage.

There were a few guys that we knew from some of the internet watch forums that lived up towards Heidelberg. They drove down to meet us for breakfast at CafeRoma and after that showed us around the city a little bit. We were going to eat at the Hofbrauhaus, where they told us that there were likely to be no actual Germans since its a big tourist attraction, but it was too busy, so we found another nice biergarten for lunch.

Later that night we took the u-bahn back downtown for dinner. As others have said, the u-bahn is amazingly easy to navigate. We ended up eating at a nice Italian place where they only spoke Italian to us. Apparently the language choices were Italian or German. My Italian isn't wonderful, but is at least better than my German. I felt a little more at home speaking Italian.

Sunday
We left for Salzburg Sunday morning and made it in a little over an hour. We had great weather and the drive was beautiful. We were interested to see the Austrian border, but after getting into Salzburg and asking about the border they told us that they'd taken them down a few years back. We did stop for the vignette sticker and orange vest.

We didn't really have any solid plans for Salzburg and driving in were a little nervous that there wouldn't be much to do. The desk clerk at the hotel said it was just about a 25min walk down the river to downtown. The weather was a beautiful 50 degrees, so off we went. Salzburg was beautiful! And when you get up to the fortress, Festung Hohensalzburg, the views of the city are breathtaking!

That night we had dinner at a Austrian/Indian/Italian restaurant just down from out hotel. Interesting collection of cuisines, but it was very good. We'd planned to go out to Hangar 7, but after it started raining, we end up back in the hotel the rest of the night.

Monday
We got up and headed back towards Munich. It started snowing and there were a few times where I could barely see past the car in front of us. Overall, we didn't go to fast and had no problems driving though. In Munich it was a little warmer and sunny. We stopped at HARMS to do the paper work. We had a bit of difficulty figuring out exactly where to go in the big building there. No one else on here has mentioned any difficulties, so apparently its just us. Anyway, Thomas took care of the paper work in about 15 min. He didn't tell me his name initially, so I asked him if he was Thomas. He said yes and I told him that I'd heard a bunch about him via one of the BMW forums. He said, "Bimmerfest?" Apparently we're famous there.

After that we headed out towards Dachau only to discover that they are closed on Mondays. We shot a few pics outside and then endedup stopping at the BMW dealer by the plant. They have a nice gift shop there. I noticed all of their dealer license plate holders on the car with their dealer name and figured it'd be a cool thing to have to putmy euro plate in to mount in my garage here. So we asked and they gave us one.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped for dinner at Al Pacino's restaurant. We were excited to eat at Al's place. We asked the waiter if he owned it, so which he said yes. We asked if Al ever stops by, to which the waiter told us that Al Pacino is the owner and also the chef. Apparently not the Al Pacino of international movie fame.

We drove the car over to HARMS, dropped it off and then eventually manages to get back to the hotel via the bus and u-bahn.

Tuesday
Took the Lufthansa shuttle to the airport. It picks you up about a block from the hotel. On the plane and back home we went.


Overall, it was a wonderful trip! I can't thank everyone on this forum enough. I'd never have even known about the trip if it wasn't for Bimmerfest! Can't wait to do my next one. As others have said... There is no other way to buy a car!

My trip is here: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=197424

Just some pics from my trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simon9394/sets/72157600050742898/detail/

ED 4/17/07 to 4/24/07
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=202363
pictures
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=202365
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=202368
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=202370

Link to my ED report with pics.

Enjoy!

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=205186

I have to admit, I never realized this central ED report sticky existed.

Here's the link to our trip report and pics for May 2007.

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=207411

Adding my May 2007 report and pics link. http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=206665

Still a work in progress, but my blog here:
5/10-5/26/2007
Highlights: Picking up the car, Venice, Florence, Rome, Nice, & Paris, & getting engaged (not necessarily in that order).
http://web.mac.com/jtran00/

Here is our blog and some pics from the trip. We had a blast! Thanks to everyone for support!

http://bmw-ed2007.blogspot.com/2007/...fo-to-muc.html

http://picasaweb.google.com/kroha.com/ED2007Highlights

Late Spring 2007....

May 4, 2007

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=211641

I think I broke the 30-day rule...here are some pics of our 5/22 ED (the last one at Freimann, but can't wait for the new ED center).

In a nutshell, our itin was:

5/20 Arrive MUC
5/22 Pickup car, daytrip to Linderhof castle, then Munich factory tour at 6pm
5/23 Drive to Moltrasio, IT (Lk Como)
5/25 Drive to Cannes, FR
5/26 Daytrip (via train) to Monaco to watch qualifying races
5/27 Daytrip to St. Tropez
5/28 Drive to Vienne, FR (south of Lyon)
5/29 Drive to Marne la Vallee, FR
6/1 Drive to CDG, dropoff car, spent afternoon in Paris
6/2 Depart for SFO

I need to figure out how/where to host more pictures, and will add a link later.

Wow, that cherry red is a sweet color. Wish they had it on the 5-series.

Here is my April ED trip pic's and trip report:

http://az-bmw.smugmug.com/gallery/2798022#149304210

April 29, 2007: Just returned from my ED trip with some good and bad news; Good News: weather was almost perfect (all but 1 day was blue sky, sunny and high 60’s or low 70’s, only 1 day of rain); Bad News: most of the jpg’s are in my son’s camera which is now in San Diego, so only a few are displayed here now, more later (I promise).
[Note: All are now displaced in link above]

Day 1: Arrived ~6am in Munich and collected the 2 large duffle bags at baggage claim with the 2 carry-on back-packs (yeah, no room in the 335i E93’s trunk for much more). Pulled funds out of the Deutsche Bank ATM machine in baggage claim (got the inter-bank rate with no transaction fee using a BofA ATM card). Proceeded to the S-Bahn S8 train for the very easy transit to the Hilton Munich City hotel (Rosenheimer Platz station) where I was supposed to have early arrival reservations. Got to the Hilton and no rooms ready yet, so left the bags with the front desk and took the U-Bahn to Marien Platz to checkout the world’s largest(?) Cuckoo Clock. Got there and the front of the building was covered with scaffolding (oh well). Did the Tourist stuff in that general area until ~1pm when the hotel rooms were available; crashed for a couple of hours sleep before taking the S/U-Bahn to the Olympiazentrum station for this trip’s first German meal (Schnitzel with Spatzle) before the factory tour. Lined-up at the BMW Munich Plant entrance for the ~6pm English tour (got to see the whole operation including the paint and engine shops). Wow, a long 1st day in Deutschland.

Day 2: Up early for the easy S/U-Bahn transit to Freimann to the Delivery Center. Although I had printed the detailed walking directions (with photo’s), I unfortunately noticed a BMW sign on a large building, said that must be the place, and started walking in that direction. Yeah, wrong way (it was just an ad sign on a high-rise apartment building). Went back towards the U-Bahn station and this time followed the directions, and as advertised it was an easy ~10 minute walk to the center.
Got to the Center and at both the check-in counter and upstairs in the Bistro they asked for the meal voucher (luckily I had received one from BMWNA). Gave them my lug nut locks and asked for them to be installed. Asked about not having the front bumper U.S. bracket installed, but just mount the Zoll plate directly to the front bumper; was told, not possible, the bracket is already installed at the Factory (maybe there should be a zpd-like option for eliminating the front bracket for us folks who don’t need it in the states). Waited ~45 minutes, signed the forms and got introduced to my new car; Zoll plate M7851Z. Plugged-in BeeWang’s Euro Navi DVD, Center’s rep entered a few key addresses, then off to Harms (MADA) to meet Thomas and fill out the appropriate forms.
Spent the afternoon at Schloss Nymphenburg walking the grounds and touring a few buildings. Then drove back to the Hilton, parked in their nice underground garage, grabbed another German meal, then crashed for the night. BTW, the Holiday Inn is just down the street, but I used Hilton Honors Points for my stay.

Day 3: Headed to Garmisch-Partenkirchen on the Autobahn and kept the speed at or below 100mph (very difficult to constrain oneself with this car that just screams TORQUE). BTW, I noticed at 100 mph, the tach was reading only 3,000 rpm; seemed low, but I’ve got the Steptronic trans, not a MT; is that Tach reading correct or did my car somehow end up with a low ratio Euro rear end?
Arrived in Garmisch and drove to the Zugspitze cable car parking lot; took the cable car up and the cog-wheel train down. Wow, what a great view from the top of the Zugspitze (Germany’s highest peak, I’m told) on a blue-sky, sunny day! Still snow on the mountain, so several people were skiing; ie, that’s what I forgot to bring, my ski gear (Ah, no way they would fit in the 335i with 4 people, oh well).
After traversing the Zugspitze drove over to the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch to check-in (an outstanding U.S. military R&R facility in Garmisch that active duty, reservist and retiree’s can use). Noticed in the Stars & Stripes newspaper in the lobby a headline that made me nervous: “Bases in Germany plan terror response.” Apparently all the U.S. bases in Germany had just been put on alert due to detected planned Terrorist activities, especially the facilities in Southern Germany; just my luck, huh?

Day 4: Now the real Tourist stuff begins. Headed over to Fussen to tour both Schloss’ Nueschweinstein and Hohenschwangau. That consumed most of the day. Visited a local Fussen restaurant for another fine German meal. On the way back to Garmisch picked up the 10-day Austria Vignette, safety vest and the oval D at an ADAC store.

Day 5: Drove over to Lake Chimsee to ride the boat out to the island and visit Schloss Herrenchiemsee. Another great sunny day for the trip and drive on the Autobahn. Bee’s Navi disk has been invaluable for these trips and much easier than wading through maps.

Day 6: Drove to Salzburg to tour the city and attend a Mozart lunch concert at Stiftskeller St. Peter. Finally the weather broke and it started raining, but only for this 1 day. Also hiked up to the Salzburg Fortress (high on a hill, overlooking the city) and took the tour of Festung Hohensalzburg; and yes, I bought some Mozart chocolates. Then drove to Berchtesgaden to spent the night in a nice, small, family run bed & breakfast; Hotel Larchenhof Schonau am Konigssee.

Day 7: Went to the Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden salt mine to take the tour, then over to Lake Konigssee for the hop-on/hop-off boat tour of the lake and lunch at a restaurant on the lake. BTW, I had purchased a cheap GSM cell phone from Mobal for this trip that was very useful for quick calls back home and to synchronize activities while in Germany; also had it in case of any emergency while driving.

Day 8: Starting to wind-down. Took the car to a self-service car wash in Garmish to get all the bugs off of it, while my son rented a car and went to Innsbruck for some touring. Tried to get into the AAFES Exchange on the local U.S. Military Kaserne, but was told due to a Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with Germany, my ID would not allow me access to the Exchange. Oh well, had lunch at a Subway fast food outlet on the Kaserne.

Day 9: Up early in the morning for the drive to Harms (MADA) in Munich to drop-off the car. Met Rolf for a quick ride to the airport. BTW, if you want to avoid the long checkin lines at the Munich Airport, use the self-checkin machines; we were in/out in 20 minutes on a Friday morning and on our way thru security. Now the long wait for re-delivery!

Now I want to plan another ED trip in maybe 2 years when the excitement and pricing on the new M3 (V8) reduces hopefully into my price range.

June 9th through 19th trip report here:
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=214333

June 1st pick up. Report here: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=214808

--Paul

Another June 1st pick-up. Story and link to pictures posted here:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=215439

Here is a link to our initial reporting. (July 4 and 5 2007)

Scroll through thread for multiple photos.

http://bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215993

Hi Everyone,
We arrived home late last week and I just wanted to post a few pictures of our trip. We spent about 3 weeks there with most of time in France. We learned to travel with a 5 and 7 year old and we know of a playground in almost every city that we visited.

We picked up the car on June 13th and Rolf picked us up in a 135i. Wow what a pocket rocket. I was a bit concerned that it wouldn't fit all our luggages, but amazingly, it did.

We arrived at the Delivery Center and it was packed. I gave the receptionist my paperwork and also asked that the anti-theft bolts be placed on the car. She said that it would take a bit longer and it did, about an hour and a half. But with Rolf as company and my 5 year old son playing with the other kids, it was not that bad.

Ernest was my Delivery Specialist and given all the people that were there that day, I didn't want to take up too much time. Just the basics and since we only had Premium and Sport with heated seats, iPod, and HD radio, things were not too complicated.

We drove to the ADAC to pick up our vignettes and vest. On the way, my son fell asleep and after trying a few places to park, I ended up at the Chinese Turm. I used the extra time to wax the car.

We picked up my wife and daughter the next day and we were off to Neuschwanstein. The first place we stopped for lunch after picking them up was of all places a Burger King. Go figure.

We only had one night there, but we had a great time. Since my wife and I are runners, we did runs in the area. I did a run up to Marienbrucke and it was great!

After the castle visit we had to drive to Lake Maggiore for one night. Of course there was pouring rain as we drove through the Graubrunden region. The car handled flawlessly. We only had one night at the Ascona. Had a half-board arrangement and had a nice meal at the Hotel Arancio. The weather was much better the next day and had a nice drive along the lake to Verbania for lunch. Then we had to dash to Nice for our first house rental.

Hit traffic along the Liguria area and tried to go through the towns. Big mistake. We did have a GPS system on my laptop and that helped with getting us around the traffic. We made it to the house around 730pm and it was located in the hills behind Nice. It had a nice view of the sea and of the mountains behind it. Okay, we stop in the France's version of a Walmart for groceries and it had everything. Meaning. it had pate, awesome bread and cheese, pre-made dinners, awesome wines (and cheap), and cheap Evian. We had awesome Rose wine.

What can I say about the South of France. It is hedonistic. We spent Father's Day at a beach on Cap d'Antibes and when it started to pour we went into Antibes for lunch. It was a great day.

Spent the week exploring the coast including the island, St. Marguerite off of Cannes. If you are a runner, one can do amazing runs in this area. I did a 6 mile loop on the island and you would see the most amazing views. The Man in the Iron Mask was suppose to have been held there.

I am a novice Marathoner and Triathlete and the Ironman France was being held in Nice that weekend. Man, there were some buffed people there.

The highlight of our week in Nice was the Foundation Maeght. We had arrived early and there were very few people there. The first part is a big garden with sculptures by Juan Miro and others. We saw a child touching the works and thought that it was okay. Our kids started going up and touching and climbing on the works. Others did too. Only later we found out that the child was blind and they were allowing her special privilege to touch these priceless works of art.

Driving in the South of France is hairy, but I think that by having a BMW we were given some courtesy. We were driving back from VilleFranche and were detoured from the main road. It was the Mother of all Traffic Jams. The cars were very courteous to us. I did have to drive aggressive though.

We were sad to leave the South of France, mostly because we didn't know how crappy the weather was in the rest of France. We made it to Lyon to visit friends and after a night with them we made it to Meursault in Burgundy for our second week in a rental house. Burgundy was a nice change from the hectic pace of Nice. There wasn't as much to do and we spent quite a bit of time wine tasting and lounging. The scenery was beautiful and every other morning, I would get up and go for an hour run along some of the most expensive grape vineyards in the world. The only other people up at that hour were wine growers.

It was a much more relaxing week and after that we spent 5 days in Paris. Our digital camera went out on us and we had to revert to our film cameras. What can I say about Paris. This was my 5th time there and it still amazes me. We did amazing runs along the Seine and up to Montmartre. It's crowded, crazy and too expensive, but it is what it is. We had a great time at Street Markets, seeing the sights, and we stayed near the Eiffel Tower which was great for kids.

Sorry for the long story. The pictures are a little out of sequence.

The attached photos are:
1. Obligatory picture of the car at the Delivery Center
2. Obligatory picture of the Castle from Marienbrucke
3. Our hotel in Ascona on Lake Maggiore
4. Picture of the terrace of our house in Nice
5. Old Nice
6. Ladder rope in playground in Nice. It was great, but what happens if a kid falls?
7. Car in Burgundy
8. Car in front of Wine tasting Caveau
9. Car in front of Chateau Sully
10.Can you say whose is bigger? Monaco.
11.View from the back porch in our house in Burgundy.

OK, here is our 2nd Report from Europe. 1st one left off with the delivery center and this one picks up with visit to Nymphenburg Palace in Munich and continues on to Fussen and its nearby castles and then on to Innsbruck. Eventually will post additional reports for further travel on to Salzburg, Venice, Melk (Stift Melk) and Bernstein. the later two sites highly recommended by Jspira.

http://bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=219037