05/17/16: Updated with new pictures post#115 onwards
This brings an end to my journal for the most amazing trip of my life. Here's hoping many more to come
Hope you all enjoyed it
So before I begin my amazing journey on the European delivery, just a quick background on my history with BMW's. Since graduating college, like most people who are into cars I always had a thing for the M3, especially the E46 M3. After going through the usual starter Japanese (reliable) cars for the first 5 years I started showing an interest in the E46 M3. It also helped that my wife also took notice of how I lusted after the E46 M3 so she encouraged me to go for what I love even though that meant selling my 6 month old brand new MazdaSpeed 3. Took a little bit of a hit there since the car was new but as much as fun as that car was I was just not able to put the power down to the front wheels. Prior to that I was into dsm's and Nissan 300ZXT Twin Turbo's. Still love those cars but they got too old.
And so the hunt began for the perfect E46 M3
I knew it had to be a manual and it had to be Carbon Black. Didn't take long to find a pristine 2003.5 Carbon Black on Black E46 M3 with only 14k miles
. Owned it for 4 years and loved every minute of it.
And then the M bug began. I knew there are then I would not like any other car and as long as BMW offered the M3, that's all I would ever buy. Sold the E46 and moved to 2009 E90 M3 with the Glorious V8. Thoroughly enjoyed the car but then with the release of the F80 I knew had to move on.
So here starts my journey with my very first European delivery.
My Build:
16 F80 M3 Sedan
Alpine White
Extended SO Leather
Manual
Adaptive M Suspension
Executive Package
19" Black Light-Alloy Wheel 437M
Before I proceed I'd like to state that these forums have been an invaluable resource for me in the planning on my European Delivery. I cannot express how much everyone helped and especially the folks who have already posted their ED experience. Special thanks to
OneRib,
Bluex,
Artemis and
Dackelone for all the help in the planning. I am sure I am forgetting many other people but than you all.
Day 1 & 2 - Arrival in Munich and Delivery Day
The initial plan was for the trip my wife and I along with our 15 month old daughter but then a very close friend decided to join us as well. Needless to say, we had to be sure the luggage we carried fit and fit it did but barely though
When booking the flights, we decided that a non-stop would be the best bet especially because we had never flown with our daughter before this. So we took the 6:30 pm flight out of PHL scheduled to arrive at 8:40 am the following morning in Munich. Travelling with a small child has it's perks in some ways as we were able to secure the seats right in front of the bulkhead (right after the B class). The bulkhead has mounting points for bassinets that can be used for children under 20 lbs. The extra legroom really helped especially since I am 6'3". The flight itself was pretty good but we barely got to sleep an hour or so.
We arrived on time at 8:40 am local time. Didn't help that it was still 3 AM in Philly
Passport Control was a breeze and we quickly hit the restrooms for a quick wash and change. As we exited the baggage area I saw a familiar face waiting for us. I say familiar because I have seen him on so many ED threads. As others have stated he is a man of very few words and just goes about his business. The 7 series surprised me a bit because the luggage barely fit. I wasn't really expecting that from such a big car. Anyways, we proceeded to leave and airport but 5 minutes into the journey, it suddenly struck me that he never asked us where we wanted to go and we never told him the name of our hotel. Sure enough, he was headed to the Welt
He quickly corrected to head towards our hotel in downtown Munich.
We arrived at the Platzl a little after 11 AM and to our disappointment they told us that our rooms were not ready since check-in is at 3 pm. Prior to booking I had specifically requested that an early check-in be allowed. At the time they were pretty confident that they would have availability. We didn't really have a choice at this point and they said they would have it ready by 12:30 and then it continued to drag till 2:45 pm
This was not a good start to the hotel and kind of took some fun away from arriving in Munich. We were tired, sleepy and with a very irritable one year old so the wait in the lobby really tested our patience. We finally got our room and were able to settle in. Once we showered and changed up there was little time to rest and so we headed out to get something to eat. Stopped at rooftop cafe which was pretty good. The evening was spent just strolling around but the jet lag and fatigue was catching up with us. Tried to fight it and just couldn't so we got dinner at 9 and headed to our room. When I hit the bed that night I had no clue just how tired I was, so tired that I blew through the morning alarm of 5:30 AM and woke up at 7 AM. Check-in at the Welt was at 7:40 with delivery at 9:20 so I knew there was no way we were making that. Instead we decided to take it easy and get the amazing breakfast at the Platzl. The breakfast was easily the most amazing spread I have ever seen at any hotel that come with included breakfast. We took our time finishing up and then headed to the Welt. We also decided to leave our luggage at the hotel since we had to come back to the city to pick up the watch. Would have been hard lugging all that baggage along with a stroller and car seat on a train.
M4 getting towed. Had a flat front tire.
Got in at 9:10 AM and didn't have much time to check anything out at the main level and just took the elevator up to the ED Lounge. The folks there were very easy going and the whole check-in process was super smooth. They moved the delivery to 10:30 AM and we just hung out at the lounge. They have a little playroom for kids and my daughter enjoyed playing with the toys in there.
Then came time for the delivery. My delivery specialist was Rudolf. Pretty cool guy and everything went rather smoothly. I'd like to mention that having watched so many ED videos I kinda knew what to expect so I guess I didn't look as elated and surprised as I should have
That said, when I first laid eyes on the car spinning on the turntable I just knew right there and then that I had made the right choice with the AW. Call it an overplayed color but it does so much justice to the car especially with the CF roof.
Added some music of my own
Valet Parking under the Welt
Thanks to the checklist provided by @onerib, I amde sure I went over each and every free item with the delivery specialist. And yes they had the HK in stock and I got everything
Unfortunately I got so wrapped up in the delivery and then taking the victory lap I had little to no time to make the Plant tour. In the back of head I kinda knew I would be hard pressed to make the tour as we started the day really late. I quickly put that behind me and we proceeded to tour the Welt.
Before I forget, when I pulled outside the Welt and proceeded to park the car for the Valet, I got mobbed by this crowd asking me about the car. The gentlemen in the pink shirt seemed so excited to see the car, he went on to open the door and attempted to sit in the car before I intervened and let him know it wasn't a show car. Hahaha.
The gift shop is pretty nice and we got our key engraved, used the vouchers for the vests and bought some other interesting merchandise
. We then proceeded to leave the Welt and the the valet who brought my car back was a pleasant sight to say the least
We made our way back to the city and lost a lot of time doing that. Picked up the luggage, packed the car and then proceeded deeper into Munich to find the stopwatch shop to pick up our watch. Once we got the watch, we didn't waste any time to try and get out of Munich asap. The drive to the castles was pretty smooth and I got to take the car at 105 mph on multiple occasions on the autobahn.
On way to Fussen from Munich
The little driver
I was so overly paranoid about missing the gas station for the Vignette that I made an early stop at a gas station which unfortunately didn't carry Vignettes. We used the opportunity to get our 15 month old changed up
Finally found a gas station before the border and got the Vignette.
Stopover at a gas station to buy the Vignette for Austria
Vignette
Made it to the castles in fading light but made the most of it and got some pretty good pictures. The moment we entered Fussen I knew I had made a mistake by not choosing to stay overnight in Fussen. What a beautiful and quaint town. Looked like a very laid back town.
Getting into Fussen and the Castle shots
Diaper change in the middle of nowehere. LOL!
The trunk couldn't be any more packed.
It was already 6:30 pm and we still needed to get to Innsbruck. The first half drive from Fussen to Innsbruck at night was extremely stressful with blinding turns through narrow roads in the mountains. With no daylight it made it all the more challenging but finally made it in one piece. The parking at the airbnb location in Innsbruck was very interesting. First I had to use a code to unlock a box tied to a bicycle that yielded a key that I used to open the door to the building. Then had to use the same key twice to open the door to the parking garage and a mini gate further into the parking garage. The space was small but few cars were there so I tucked her away safely for the next 2 nights
The crazy small garage door! Yikes.
The key hole to open the garage door and then the gate
This was only the first 2 days. Plenty more to come. Stay tuned.
to be continued......................
So continuing.............
Day 3 and 4 - Innsbruck and journey from Innsbruck to Corvara Region
So the exhaustion from the previous 2 days caught up with us and the baby and we really had to sleep in a bit to finally get some rest. The day started kinda late it was 2 pm by the time we stepped out. This left us barely half a day to explore Innsbruck. The weather was as hot as the previous 2 days at 85 F but manageable. We quickly got lunch and checked out the famous Golden Dachl (Golden Roof).
The famous Golden Dachl (Roof)
After lunch we decided to take a cable car up to the mountain. This is certainly worth doing if you are ever in Innsbruck. The ride itself is very enjoyable except for no AC and the panoramic views from high above are amazing. I took a quick timselapse video but the clouds were really not moving so it didn't turn out as interesting as it could have.
Once we got back down we again headed to the center of town. As the sun started to go down, the Golden Dachl started to look even more amazing but I really wasn't able to capture a good picture. We strolled around a bit, got dinner early, had some Gelato and called it a night because we had a long day of driving ahead of us the next day.
Next morning, got all packed up and come down to load the luggage in the car to find an Audi parked next to me
Maneuvered my way out of the that three stage garage (phew) and luckily no scrapes.
As we were leaving Innsbruck I decided to do this next thing on a whim. Why not get the M3 in front of the famous Golden Roof? Turns out that cars can drive through that area before 10:30 AM
. It was 10:14 and I went for it
Mission Accomplished!
Getting out of Innsbruck we hit plenty of traffic because of road construction and lost almost 2 hours in the process
Decided to stop by in Vipitino, Italy but it turned out that there was a cycle race going on and most of the access to the center of the city was closed
Stopped at a random place where I found parking because we needed to change our 1 year old. It turns out that it's a rail station
Vipitino - Traffic Jam
Random Parking Spot
Rail Station
Since the roads were closed we decided it was no point trying to get into town and should continue on our way. That's hen I had the brilliant idea to take a back-road detour. NEVER AGAIN in ITALY WILL I DO THAT. The road showed in the GPS and I figured why not try this because I avoid all the traffic. It turned out to be the narrowest road on the trip and thank god no one was coming from the opposite direction because one of us would need to reverse. It didn't help that it was at a steep incline.
You would think this is narrow but I wasn't prepared for what was ahead.
GPS said to take the road on the left
It's that road!
Nice views so I stopped to take a picture but I really had to look ahead and get out of there before a car came from the opposite direction!
Yes this is a 2 way road
Once I put that road behind us, my one year old randomly threw up and I mean really threw up
Had to make a emergency stop right there and then. Parked in front of someone's house blocking their driveway but luckily no one came in or out. Changed her up and we were on our way.
Emergency Stop!
We finally reached the point where
Dackelone had suggested I take a detour to go via Passo Pennes. This was an amazing drive and totally worth it. Thank you Dackel. We stopped by at a Pizza place on the way and this was officially our first Pizza in Italy
I rate it as decent because I guess my expectations were very high.
Passo Pennes
Great View!
Pizza Stop
We continued on and then suddenly as I am exiting this tunnel I see this guy wearing a vest flagging me down. Thank god for that good Samaritan taking the time to park his car and warn people that cars were stopped ahead. There was apparently a motorcycle accident and traffic was stopped. the stoppage was on a completely 100% blind turn and I am not sure I would have been able to stop had it not been for that guy. So big thanks to him. The road was finally opened and as I passed the cops in the tunnel I could not resist but open up the exhaust flaps a bit. Hahahaha!
This was the first sighting of the Dolomites we had and what an amazing sight it is. This was easily the highlight of the trip. Per the original plan we were to do Sella Pass before heading to our hotel in the Dolomites but we decided to postpone that to the next day because we had already been on the road for 6 hrs
thanks to the traffic stops.
Here we arrive at our hotel recommended by @Dackleone. I'll save the hotel picstures for the next post. It was easily one of the best hotel experiences I have ever had. Totally loved it.
M3's home for the night
Nice Parking Space
More later.........Please check back.
to be continued.....................
continuing........
Before I continue for anyone wondering what my complete Itinerary was like I have it detailed in this thread
http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1140147
Here is the map.
Day 5: Colfosco-Corvara region with the Amazing Dolomites
This was easily the highlight of the trip. We basically ended up doing this amazing loop that goes through a bunch of passes and Sella Pass being the primary one.
The hotel we stayed at for the night (Hotel Kolfuschgerhof) was easily the best hotel experience I have ever had. Thanks to the recommendation by
Dackelone This hotel was truly one of a kind. The hotel includes a 5 course dinner and an amazing breakfast. The location of the hotel is just breathtaking and the background is like something out of a storybook. I was able to park the M in their huge garage and took the oppurtunity to post a lot of pictures and take an interesting video as well
I won't type much further here but just let the pictures and videos do the talking.
What a way to start the day Wish this were my garage
Onto the pictures of the Amazing Hotel
View from our Balcony
View from the Bedroom Window
Dolomites and the Passes
to be continued............