11-14-2014, 08:40 AM | #1 |
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Amazing F10 M5 European Delivery
I will say that I have enjoyed reading a number of ED journals. I found all of them contained some information that I found useful and used myself (either do’s or don’ts). I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to include in mine, but I figured I would enjoy recalling it for myself and adding pictures. It was a 12 day trip in total. Logging about 1600 miles. So, it might be lengthy, but hopefully you will find some information in it useful as well…enjoy (I did!!)
Saturday – Arrival into Munich! I was greeted at the airport to the car service of Sixt limousine service (offered through BMW ED) in a beautiful, black 750d. I was amazed at the power and how quiet the car was for a diesel. When I was 16, my parents bought me a Jetta that was diesel “for the gas mileage”, but I also think they did it because you could hear the car from 2 miles away so there was no sneaking out late at night! I dropped my stuff at the hotel and while the room was being prepared, I took the U-Bahn out to Alliance Arena to purchase some Bayern Munich gear for my sons and myself. There has been a recent addition to the App Store for Apple called Munich Metro and Subway and this made the use of the U-Bahn even that much easier. Once I finished that up and the room was ready it was time to meet up with a friend that I met two years ago at Oktoberfest. I met up with Marc and we started off walking around a bit in the city and made our way to Wirtshaus Atzinger for lunch. A great little place to get a good meal and the day started. We then headed over to the Englisher Garten to the Chinesischer Turm for the biergarten and a maß or two. After spending a few hours catching up and people watching, it was off to downtown to Augustiner Klosterwirt for some dinner. Amazing energy in these places and though I was with a local speaking German, they all spoke English well enough to order and have conversations. Prost! Chinesischer Turm Augustiner! Sunday – Explore Munich. When I was here two years ago, most of the exploring of Munich that we did was on the way to Thiersenweisse and the inside of Oktoberfest tents. So we saw some things, but I just wanted to walk the day around the city. It was the Munich Marathon today, so there was a lot of action going on as the race route weaved through the city passing just about all the most notable places. The weather was perfect for walking and sightseeing. I would explore a bit, find a biergarten, explore some more, eat, explore, find a biergarten…the day went nicely that way. Marienplatz selfie Glockenspiel at Neues Rathaus Peterskirche Overlooking Marienplatz from Peterskirche St. Michael Kirche Hirmer Hotel with Frauenkirche Residenztheater Munich Residenz Munich Hofgarten Friedensengel Bayerisches Nationalmuseum Chinesischer Turm Map of where I walked Monday – DELIVERY DAY!! I had been waiting for this day for quite some time. I met up with Marc at BMW Welt around 11:00 as we had a tour of the plant at 11:45 and a delivery of 4:10 p.m. We headed to the premium lounge to check in and finalize all the paperwork. When we got there, my BMW associate asked if I wanted to take delivery around 2:00 p.m. instead….uh, YES!! If you get a chance to take the plant tour – it is just amazing. The combination of robotics and human interaction to make these beautiful automobiles is incredible. It was very informative and entertaining. After we finished, we went back up into the premium lounge. I took a look down….and there it was – MY M5!! The Frozen Cashmere Silver made the car just stand out so much more in the grouping. It just looked great and I could not wait to get down to it. As we were headed down, the BMW associate said to me that he had never seen a car in this color. After going over the specifics of the car, it was time to get it out of the Welt and drive! With the extra time, Marc suggested that we just drive down to Garmish (as it was mostly open Autobahn driving) and back as we were going to pick up two other friends for dinner and drive down to Brauhaus Tegernsee . Car details: 2015 F10 M5 Frozen Cashmere Silver Black Full Merino Leather Aluminum Trace Trim Competition Package Driver Assistance Plus Executive Package Bang & Olufsen Sound System What can I say? Just lots of pictures of delivery! I like my delivery specialist in the background Dinner with friends at Brauhaus Tegernsee Map of our route Tuesday – Nuremberg day trip. Another friend, Thomas, we met two years ago was working in Nuremberg so Marc and I drove up there for the day. We stopped to tour the Dokumentationszentrum Reichsparteigelane and it was well worth the trip and 2+ hours we spend going through it. It was very well put together with a very good history of the rise of the Nazi party and the grand plans that were set for Nürnberg. We headed into the city after that and walked through the city. We were able to see Kaiserburg Nurnberg, St. Lorenz Church, Der Schoene Brunnen, Frauenkirche and St. Sebaldus Church among other things. On Der Schonen Brunnen one is to spin the brass ring three times and make a wish. A secret I learned however is that there is another ring to spin on the opposite side – spin that one and not the ‘touristy’ brass ring. This is at the city center and hosts apparently what is a wonderful Christmas shopping market during that season. After a stop for a beverage and meeting up with Thomas at Café Bar Wanderer we walked a bit more through the city and made our way to dinner at Nürnberger Alm. Very traditional German pub and food. The atmosphere in here is just great and the food was amazing. One of the best views is from the top of a parking garage A view from Kaiserburg Nurnberg out to the Dokumentationszentrum Hauptmarkt with Schöner Brunnen and Frauenkirche Closer look of Frauenkirche Kaiserburg Nurnberg St. Lorenzkirche Ehekarussell (the fountain) Prost! Wednesday – Driving day trip. Marc asked me if I had a preference of what to do or where to go today. I didn’t, so he said, well I have a trip that is about 500 km and goes through some passes and the mountains….SOUNDS GOOD! The drive consisted of starting in Munich then driving through Garmisch-Partenkirchen, then Sölden, Austria continuing to the Timmelsjoch- Pizza-Break at Hollenbrau Brauhaus Brückenwirt in St. Leonhard, Italy - driving over the Jaufenpass and Brenner Pass and back to Munich. Amazing weather, awesome pizza and even more amazing views. At the top of Timmelsjoch Go Pro going through the tunnel and coming down the back side of Timelsjoch heading to Italy Various pictures of the car down the pass Me…getting various pictures of the car down the pass Hollenbrau Brauhaus The view for lunch Quick video on part of the trip (love the sound of the engine) Video driving back…can’t see the speed…but you can see the speed Map of our route Thursday – my wife arrives!! Our trip planning took a few left turns and one of them was the fact that my wife was going to take our boys to the beach over the prior weekend. When my trip dates changed and she was able to join me, she couldn’t get the refund on the beach trip, so she opted to take them and join me today. Her flight got in at 7:50 a.m. so we had a full day to explore Munich and then meet up with our friends for a dinner in the evening. Nell has never been to Munich so it was a full day of tourist sites. We of course got breakfast in Marienplatz at Woerner’s Café am Dom in time for the 11:00 display of the Glockenspiel. After that it was a ride on the U-Bahn over to BMW Welt so she could see it and we went to the museum (it is closed on Monday, so I didn’t go then). I really wanted to see Elvis’ 507, but it wasn’t on display…but I didn’t mind seeing all the other cars there . After that it was over to Englisher Garten so she could see the surfers on the Eisbach and then onto the Chinesischer Turm and the biergarten for pretzels and beer. After relaxing for a bit there, we walked back to our hotel through the city. We met up with our friends for dinner at Café Cord – highly recommend this. Trendy restaurant with great food. It was a great last night for us in Munich. M3 succession My favorite BMW – 1956 507 1934 BMW 315 Nell trying out the M4 Eine große Brezel und kleines Bier Surfing the Eisbach Friday – Salzburg – Our goal for the next five days was to drive to a new city and see as much of it as we could, find a great restaurant and enjoy the drive. My wife gets car sick easily, so I was just reserved to the fact that she would do most of the driving. What she wasn’t used to was a) the autobahn and b) the M5. So I had to convince her to open it up while she could legally. She is not that comfortable driving that fast, but since I was giving her dirty looks for not driving fast she did her best. I begged her to at least get to three digits. Once she realized how easily and smooth the car drove, it was up to 120 (we are here, we have to use the car like it should be used!). Beautiful drive to Salzburg just admiring the scenery the entire way. We stayed at Hotel Goldener Hirsch which was a lovely place right in the middle of the action. We spent the rest of the day walking through the city. There is just so much beautiful architecture to see with all the churches and the history of the city. We saw (but opted not to go in) Mozart’s Geburstaghaus and then spent our time wondering through and going in St. Peter’s Abbey, Franziskanerkirche, Salzburg Catherdral and Salzburg Fortress (Festung Hohensalzburg), Fontana della Residenza (for all you “Sound of Music” fans). There was a lot going on in this beautiful city. I had emailed ahead of time trying to get a dinner reservation at Monchsberg 32 in the Museum of Modern Art, but they were booked so the concierge at Hotel Golderner Hirsch informed me that he got us a table at Mönchsberg at the Restaurant of the Schloss Mönchstein. We rode the Mönchsberg lift up the side of the mountain and past the Museum of Modern Art and it was a nice 10 minute walk up the drive to Hotel Schloss Mönchstein. What an amazing place! Quite the fine dining experience above Salzburg. We then got to walk back down to the Museum of Modern Art and see the city of Salzburg at night – magnificent! A view from the front of our hotel down Getreidegasse to the Mönchberg lift up to the Muesuem of Modern Art and Hotel Schloss Mönchstein A view during the day across the river up to Hotel Schloss Mönchstein The gate and Hotel Schloss Mönchstein at night Overlooking Salzburg at night Mozarts birthhouse A view up to Festung Hohensalzburg from Kapitelplatz Festung Hohensalzburg from Residenzplatz Overlooking Salzburg from Festung Hohensalzburg Fontana della Residenza fountain from “Sound of Music“ in Residenzplatz and the Salzburg Glockenspiel Dom zu Salzburg (Salzburg Cathederal) Inside Dom zu Salzburg Festungkirche behind St. Peters Saturday – Innsbruck – Our desination city today is Innsbruck, via Berchtesgaden to visit Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest”. The sky was clear this morning, so we walked around Salzburg a bit more to get more pictures of the churches and abbey’s with the blue sky backdrop. I also wanted to wonder down the river a bit more and get different views of the city. Mirabell Palace and Gardens were along the walk and I am certainly glad we took the time to walk the city again. It is a beautiful city and I wish we had more time there. But it was time to head to Berchtesgaden to visit the Eagle’s Nest. We set the tour up ahead of time with this link Eagle’s Nest Historical Tour. It was well put together with a great tour guide providing the back story to not only Hitler and his rise and demise, but the history of the Obersalzburg area. It was well worth the stop. After we finished that and headed to Innsbruck. We stayed at Grand Hotel Europa and asked for a dinner recommendation we could walk to. The front desk recommended Masi which was a few block walk and it was well worth it. The food was amazing and we finished dinner with homemade Nutella ice cream on homemade waffles! If nothing else – go for that. Looking back towards Salzburg from down river Mirabell Palace Mirabell Gardens One of the “Love Lock Bridges” Dom zu Salsburg Fontana della Residenza fountain from “Sound of Music“ in Residenzplatz and the Salzburg Glockenspiel Dom zu Salzburg (Salzburg Cathederal) St. Peter’s cemetary Salzburg sundial M5 in Berchtesgaden Documentcenter in Obersalzburg Enterance tunnel and Kehlsteinhaus (Eagle’s Nest) Overlooking Eagle’s Nest Nice view from the picture window Views from Eagle’s Nest area I don’t take many pictures of food...but this homemade Nutella ice cream at Masi was amazing! Sunday – Vaduz, Liechtenstein – When we started planning this, I asked my wife to tell me what places she wanted to go. After she looked a bit, she said she wanted to "visit Vaduz because it had a pretty castle". So Vaduz was our destination today, but after we spent some time in Innsbruck. The city is much more modern than Salzburg, but interesting as well. We really wanted to go to the Hungerburg Funicular. We went in the middle of the morning and drove the car up to bottom station…big mistake – there is minimal parking. We drove around for about 45 minutes trying to wait for a spot or hope a new one would magically appear…it didn’t. After we talked to a local in an Audi about parking and saw him first wait like us and then about 10 minutes later exchanging insurance information from the accident he got in trying to get into a parking lot, we decided to bag it. I would either recommend getting there very early to find a parking spot or taking a bus from the bottom to the station if you want to view Innsbruck from above. After we came back down from that attempt, we decided to visit the Bergisel Ski Jump used in the 1976 Olympics. Parking was a breeze here, so that was a positive. It was a neat little area and you get to the top and see Innsbruck from above. After we finished there, we had lunch in town at Vapiano right near Triumphpforte and then it was off to Vaduz. We got to Parkhotel Sonnenhof a few hours before dusk. What a hotel! Just lovely with a beautiful view of the castle. With a few hours before our dinner reservation at the hotel, we hiked up to the castle. It was a nice trail with placards every 100 yards or so giving the history of Liechtenstein, the area and the government. The Vaduz castle itself is alright and since it is still an active residence, you can’t go in it. So we got our pictures of it and then walked back to the hotel to rest and have dinner. The Real family owns Parkhotel Sonnenhof and the son is the executive chef. The choices were vast (including their wine selection) and the food was just great. The local wine selection was outstanding and really paired well with the meal. Bergisel Ski Jump Triumphpforte Shadows from gate on an archway that I thought were neat Vaduz castle One of my favorites The view of Vaduz castle from Parkhotel Sonnenhof patio Monday – Stelvio Pass and Lake Como – A lot of driving today, but worth both destinations. Reading a lot of ED journals and seeing Passo dello Stelvio pics and stories – I had to go. Getting there was a bit out of the way, but the drive was just amazing. The Alps are just incredible and driving through them, it is hard not to be in awe. We came in from the north and encountered a number of turns/passes getting there. Once we got there, we stopped at Hotel Passo Stelvio for a quick bite to eat. After we finished and then went to the southside of the pass – just, WOW! I had two Go Pro cameras with me, so I wanted to film coming up the pass from the front of my car and then have my wife with a camera at the top, getting me coming up…long story short, my car mounted camera did not work for whatever reason on any of the three drives we took – UGH! Oh well. Driving the pass in the car was awesome. My wife said she could hear the car when I was at the bottom and she was at the top After I had a bit of fun there (it truly is a site to see and drive if you have a chance), it was off to Lake Como. One thing that you notice is that everyone has small cars. After driving through some of the roads in the cities…you know why. We got to Casta Diva Resort & Spa in Blevio an hour or so before dusk. The Lake Como area is just beautiful. It seems like everywhere you go, you are just pointing and say “look at that”. We did not want to take the car in town, so we just ate at the casual part of the hotel. The experience was amazing. We sat out on the patio, overlooking the lake without another single person around for two hours. This resort is beautiful and it was like my wife and I had the whole place to ourselves. The evening was mild so it was great to sit outside, sip some wine and enjoy the view. The funniest thing was, here we are in Italy, eating at this beautiful place, the doors to the bar area were open and the music was like we were at home – Pearl Jam, Led Zepplin, Prince, Pink Floyd, Sting, U2…it was a truly amazing evening. Pictures getting ready to meet Passo dello Stelvio A partial view from the top (it is hard to capture all 48 of the hairpin turns on this side of the pass A few from the bottom More views from the top Pictures heading towards Lake Como Tuesday – Lucerne. We left Blevio and circled around Lake Como to go up and visit Villa del Balbianello in Lenno. Just a beautiful, amazing place. Well worth the short walk and entrance fee for the tour of the villa and gardens. We left there and headed to Lucerne. We arrived a few hours before dusk. We had suggestions to visit Mount Pilatus and though we had initial intentions, when we got there, we just opted to head to the hotel and explore the city. We stayed at Palace Luzern which was quite lovely. Right on the lake with a view of it and the mountains – amazing. We ended walking the city for a few hours, exploring and of course visiting the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrucke) which is a famous landmark in Lucerne. We had a recommendation to eat at Old Swiss House. Well that recommendation did not disappoint! The restaurant has a great history and the food was amazing. Their “house specialties” are wienerschnitzel and chocolate mousse. Order them – 1. You will see why it is their specialty and 2. You will not be disappointed! Our weather up to this point had been absolutely gorgeous. Probably 10° F warmer that average each day – but tonight, it poured! The front desk at Palace Luzern warned us, but they were downpours accompanied by a 15° drop in temperature. We woke up the next morning to snow on the top of the mountains. Casta Diva Resort in light Someone’s car peaking through The statue couldn't take her eyes off the car! Trying to work on the #selfies On the property looking across the lake Villa del Balbianello …and of course…the Star Wars wedding scene shot View from our Palace Luzern room A view of Mount Pilatus Palace Luzern from around the lake Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) Paintings inside Kapellbrücke featuring scenes promoting the Catholic Church Town Hall A view down Rathausquai Wednesday – Zurich – Drop off day. We didn’t have much planned today other than getting to Zurich and getting the paperwork square (which BMW nicely packages for you), dropping the car off and catching our flight. I had contacted the drop off location in Zurich before the trip, so they were expecting me. The process was relatively quick and easy with nice people helping and taking care of starting the process of getting my car back to the States. You might think it was raining…but these were my tears shed on this car until I see it again! All in all – this trip was amazing! The experience of taking delivery is just a fun way to do it and be catered to. Having an M5 on the Autobahn is just an experience as well, but to have the freedom to go where you want, when you want and have a trip like you want it and see what you want and the flexibility that goes with it – an experience you can’t exchange for anything. As St. Augustine said “The world is a book and those who don’t travel read only one page.” Last edited by BobaBrett; 11-14-2014 at 12:23 PM.. |
11-14-2014, 02:53 PM | #5 |
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Solid write up. Looks like you all had a good time. How many miles did you put on the ///M?
My trip is in just over 2 weeks. I might have to take a few suggestions off yours.
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11-14-2014, 03:41 PM | #6 |
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11-14-2014, 07:40 PM | #7 |
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Sorry missed that in your opening remarks
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2021 M5 Competition Marina Bay Blue/ Individual Tartufo/ Individual Piano Black Trim. Took delivery 11/27/2020 2017 X5 ///M Silverstone/Mugello Red/ Carbon Fiber Trim Turned in 11/27/2020 |
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11-14-2014, 11:48 PM | #9 |
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Congrats! We had very similar trips. Favorite hotel...? Place Lucern was awesome. We got a deluxe suite... And it was sweet!!
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11-14-2014, 11:50 PM | #10 |
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Thanks! I appreciate that you took the time to post your experience. I enjoyed the pics and vids too. Your car looks great, but wished you showed some interior pics. ED is something I want to do and will figure it out with my next BMW. Congrats.
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11-15-2014, 10:01 AM | #11 |
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Great write up. My ED is in spring and may have to connect with you for suggestions.
Quick question - did you do the 1,200 mile break in service? Or just planning on doing it when car reaches US. The trip I have charted - Munich -> Lake Como -> Florence -> Rome -> Amalfi -> Zurich is about your distance as well.
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11-15-2014, 11:18 AM | #12 |
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11-15-2014, 02:18 PM | #13 |
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wow what a stunning color combo! awesome post, enjoyed all the pics and info
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11-15-2014, 04:04 PM | #15 |
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Nice write up and beautiful M5. My brother and I took delivery of my Silverstone M3 the same day as you did. We did the same factory tour as well. Definitely an amazing experience all around.
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11-15-2014, 05:20 PM | #16 | |
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11-15-2014, 05:22 PM | #17 |
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Palace Lucern was great, but the setting for Parkhotel Sonnenhof was awesome and the experience (no one around) at Casta Diva Resort made for a memorable evening!
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11-15-2014, 05:58 PM | #18 | |
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11-15-2014, 06:22 PM | #19 | ||
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No, the real reason is that I'm using United miles to book a return flight. Current flight availability is only from Zurich. Also believe Naples drop off is over 800 euros - not a killer but this plus no reward flight availability and lure of on long drive back before parting with my car for 2+ months is enough to fly from Zurich at least for now.
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11-15-2014, 08:03 PM | #20 | |
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11-15-2014, 08:36 PM | #21 | |
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11-15-2014, 10:47 PM | #22 |
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