X550 European Delivery Writeup

I apologize for the lateness of the writeup, I realized how user unfriendly the iPhone4S and iPad 2 are for uploading images to Picasa or bimmerfest.
I will definitely be bringing my Ultrabook and Canon 60D on my next ED Trip. All images below were shot with my iPhone4S

Monday
No keys, push to start... the ED Trip


Tuesday
The awesome view of the BMW Welt coming out of the Olympiazentrum U3 station at 7am


Once inside at the Welt at the check in counter... WoW!


Checked in at the Premium Lounge, had some coffee and down to the Vehicle briefing and back up where I spotted my Alpine White 5er behind "The Stairs"


Pics from halfway down "The Stairs" where my delivery rep Alexander used his remote to turn on the turn table and light up the 5er.






Alex showing me the cool front cameras and explaining how anything beyond the yellow lines means it will clear my 5er's nose.


1 Mile on the odo this time




We were starving from no breakfast due to so early of a delivery and Jet lagged so grabbed something to eat at the Premium Lounge before our 11am Plant Tour



More pics before we left the Welt






iPhone 4S image quality really deteriorates at low light, parked the car at the Welt Garage and took to bahn to the hotel


Wednesday
Picked up the 5er, rushed a couple of shots in front of the Welt before I was asked by the security guard to move the car so left to Ismaning to swap for winter tires


We headed to Salzburg, got the Vignette from a gas station half an hour before crossing into Austria, didn't purchase the 5 Euro reflective safety vest from the gas station because I had already purchased the 8 Euro BMW safety vest from the BMW Welt. We stopped at the Europark Shopping Center before arriving at our hotel. Notice the 5 Spoke Rims from EDwintertires


Thursday
With the 5er safely parked in our hotel's parking garage, we headed out to explore Salzburg for the rest of the day



Friday
I had the chance to push the 5er a bit on the way to Swarovski Kristallwelten as there were couple of BMWs passing me at around 130-140mph. We had a late lunch at the Swarovski Restaurant then my kids wanted to hang out at the park and maze which they had a blast getting lost in.




We then headed to Innsbruck and walked around the altstadt where we saw Das Goldene Dachl



We left Innsbruck at around 8pm to our next destination Hotel Sonne Füssen. The drive was fun, lots of twists and turns on narrow roads in the dark with occasional oncoming traffic. My wife was kinda scared but lucky for me she fell asleep
Here is the 5er safely parked in Hotel Sonne


We had 2 lovely rooms, one with balcony both with great views.



The view from our 2nd room

Very nice ride and nice pics. Enjoy!

Damn..... great photos. Some of the best I have seen. Nice job.

Very nice photos Keep them coming!

Originally Posted by X550-ED

We were starving from no breakfast due to so early of a delivery and Jet lagged so grabbed something to eat at the Premium Lounge before our 11am Plant Tour

Do they have Asian food at the Premium Lounge?

Saturday
We walked around the stadt before heading to schloss Neuschwanstein. I made the mistake of following the NAV and not exploring the map more because I couldn't find a good shot of the 5er and schloss Neuschwanstein on Neuschwansteinstraße which is covered with trees, 2nd mistake was to assume we would make it down in time to find the road where we could take pics but by the time we finished with the schloss, lunch and shopping at the various souvenir shops, it was already dark.
We parked at a parking lot right beneath schloss hohenschwangau and chose to walk up to Neuschwanstein to take it slow and enjoy the view while keeping warm from the uphill hike.



We then left for Rothenburg ob der Tauber and arrived around 8:30pm to a lovely hotel Meistertrunk where again I parked the 5er in the hotel's parking lot


Walked around a bit and found this


Saw the Nightwatchman's tour


Sunday
The next morning we walked around along the town walls, climbed the tallest tower and had a lot of fun.





We then headed back to Munich for our last night in town Checked in at the Eurostars Grand Central Hotel and took the bahn to Marienplatz.


Could not complete our ED trip without having pork knuckle and while most restaurants were closing for the night, Hofbräuhaus was packed. Live Bavarian music, nice cold beer, it was really a fun experience.


Monday
We checked out of the hotel and headed to EDwintertires but got there at 12:10pm so they were out to lunch. So we went to the car wash across from them and got the 2nd most expensive wash they offered. They pressure sprayed my 5er before it went into the wash and they still managed to miss the dirt on the front bumper where the fog lights sits. I also noticed some very light scratch swirls marks after going through the wash.
We hung around Autohaus Spaett which is the BMW dealership across the street and bought more BMW stuff (mousepads, lanyards, etc). Once EDwintertires opened, they swapped back my OEM rims and tires and had me in and out in about 10 mins.
We then headed straight to the airport and had some tough time finding LOGINOUT. Since I missed the right turn into the street where LOGINOUT was, I ended up dropping off my wife, kids and luggage at the front door of the Lufthansa Terminal and made a lap around the airport and this time I drove extremely slow and saw the LOGINOUT sign to turn in. After I got back to the US and finally looked over the Auto registration and insurance booklet they gave me at the BMW Welt, I discovered that they had a page with pictures and arrows indicating where to turn in at the MUC airport to find LOGINOUT







LOGINOUT is in the building right next to the Lufthansa terminal (about 3-5 min walk) so it's extremely convenient


Arrived at Oxnard, California on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen Otello 12/29/2011
Unloaded, Cleared Customs and Discharged to BMW VDC 1/3/2012


REDELIVERED ON FRIDAY 1/6/2012


Getting ready to take her home


Finally, she's home! Look who's also home...



Here is my Picasa Gallery with more Pictures
https://picasaweb.google.com/1160661...anDeliveryTrip

Originally Posted by roots

Do they have Asian food at the Premium Lounge?

I believe it was a Thai style dish, unless I'm wrong and Germans like to peanut in their broth. This dish would be the only thing that could be categorized as Asian in the Premium Lounge.

Just checked out your Picasa gallery, very nice. You did a great job keeping your car clean. Did you run into much bad weather on your trip?

Great report and photos! !!!
One more time- congratulations on your ED and new BMW!

Very nice photos!!! Arghh... 3 more months until I go there

Originally Posted by rmorin49

Just checked out your Picasa gallery, very nice. You did a great job keeping your car clean. Did you run into much bad weather on your trip?

Thanks, we were fortunate to have great weather the whole week. It was cold (low 30's daytime and high 20's at night) and it sucks that on the day we were leaving it was 48 degress warm and clear sunny skies.

The 535i did get dirty on the Autobahn from the Morning dew, Alpine White is definitely not as easy to maintain as my Titanium Silver 530i but still loving the new color.

Awesome ED write up and fabulous pics!! Thanks for sharing.

Very nice write-up. Very nice car too!

Originally Posted by adrian's bmw

awesome ed write up and fabulous pics!! Thanks for sharing.

+1


The new iPhone does quite a remarkable job...

Nice write up and pics. I still need to do mine.

I really like the dash/ instrument gauge layout on the F10.

Originally Posted by X550-ED

We left Innsbruck at around 8pm to our next destination Hotel Sonne Füssen. The drive was fun, lots of twists and turns on narrow roads in the dark with occasional oncoming traffic. My wife was kinda scared but lucky for me she fell asleep
Here is the 5er safely parked in Hotel Sonne


We had 2 lovely rooms, one with balcony both with great views.



The view from our 2nd room

Glad to hear that you like Hotel Sonne! Did they put your name on the signpost in "your" parking space or did you take it down for the picture? We had the parking space just two spots to the left of the elevator and our name was on the back wall of the space. We had the room with a balcony which overlooked the little plaza and the parking entrance at the side of the hotel, probably on the other side based on your pictures.

Great pics and write-up! Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip!

Originally Posted by Jon Shafer

+1


The new iPhone does quite a remarkable job...

Thanks for the complement Jon... I think

Great report and photos. Thanks. You're really making me jones for my trip and to go back. And it's only been two months LOL

Nice write-up and great pics. One of your rooms at hotel sonne with the forrest wallpaper looks exactly like the one we had, I would recognize that wall paper anywhere. That place had one of the best breakfasts, enjoy.

Originally Posted by SD 335is

Glad to hear that you like Hotel Sonne! Did they put your name on the signpost in "your" parking space or did you take it down for the picture? We had the parking space just two spots to the left of the elevator and our name was on the back wall of the space. We had the room with a balcony which overlooked the little plaza and the parking entrance at the side of the hotel, probably on the other side based on your pictures.

Great pics and write-up! Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip!

Thanks Tom, You had the best spot to park next to the funky painted walls. No name on sign post for us, we didnt reserve parking in advance though I would recommend others do this. I got lucky and got the last spot for the night. I saw cars parked in the secured area of the hotel but it was outdoors.
We had the two rooms at the end of the hallway that can become 1 big family room if u just close the main entrance door. I think it was room 205 with the view of the Stadt and 206 which had the Balcony overlooking the circle.

Originally Posted by jsublime

Nice write-up and great pics. One of your rooms at hotel sonne with the forrest wallpaper looks exactly like the one we had, I would recognize that wall paper anywhere. That place had one of the best breakfasts, enjoy.

Agreed, one of the best breakfast. I really liked their orange juice machine.

Redelivered 1/6/2012! 39 Days!
European Delivery Journey now complete!!!

Originally Posted by X550-ED

Redelivered 1/6/2012! 39 Days!
European Delivery Journey now complete!!!

Gotta be one of the fastest West Coast Deliveries I've seen. Enjoy

Originally Posted by X550-ED

Redelivered 1/6/2012! 39 Days!
European Delivery Journey now complete!!!

I'm praying for that kind of delivery speed to the east coast.

Congrats!

Awesome pictures! I'm picking up on February 20 and this is making me want to go NOW!