TheBenzor BMW Addict Rep 22 Posts 33



Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: CA

0) iTrader: (

Drives: 2015 F82 M4

TheBenzor's M4 ED Photo Journal



Day 1 - Flight to Munich



God I hate long flights, especially in coach. I am too cheap to pay for business class though, since there's so many other toys that could be had with that money!





After the long flights we checked in at my favorite hotel in Munich, Hotel Novotel at the Munich airport. It's just a short bus/taxi ride from the terminal to get to the hotel, it's reasonably priced, there's ample on-site parking, and it's a very short walk to get on the S Bahn to go downtown.





After a short nap, we head to the Chinese beer garden in the English Garden, my favorite drinking spot in Munich. God I have been looking forward to this for months!





Day 2 - Delivery



After a night of restless sleep, we are collected by the free Sixt limousine service provided by BMW. Morning rush hour traffic sucked when I went on my friend's ED trip last year, so I had them pick us up extra early.





We arrived slightly before the Welt opened, oops. At least there was plenty of time to explore and take pictures!







While we were checking out the delivery area from the mezzanine, we happened to catch them bringing up my car on the elevator!









After we checked in and filled out our paperwork (which is an impressively short process), we headed to the premium lounge for some tasty weisswurst.





Finally it's delivery time! We meet our delivery agent at the designated spot. We tell him this is our second ED trip, so thankfully he skips almost all the mumbo jumbo and we head straight to the car!





Obligatory outside the Welt pic.





It's cool that the navigation has 3D models of the BMW buildings! Neato!







Day 2 - Salzburg Stop



From the Welt we are headed to Vienna, but make a stop in Salzburg for some quick sightseeing and lunch. Today we are just taking the freeways/autobahns since we have a lot of ground to cover.



In the garage I get a first look at the cool lit M emblem on the seats.





The Salzburg Cathedral was quite grand, both inside and out.







Creepy statue outside the cathedral





A cool fountain at Kapitelplatz





Nice sights along the Salzach







Mirabel Palace gardens







Day 2 - Vienna Arrival



We check into Hotel am Parkring. We chose this hotel since it has nice balconies with a great view of the Stadtpark, and secure on-site parking in the basement.





After getting some rest we head out for dinner and an evening walk around the city center. The Vienna State Opera building is very pretty at night!









Day 3 - Schönbrunn Palace and Zoo



My travel buddy and I have been inside enough palaces to know that they're not really our thing, so we just look at the outside. The gardens were vast and beautiful. The whole palace compound is many, many acres.







We had actually planned to see a few other things on our one day in Vienna, but we ended up spending the entire day at the zoo. It was a blast! We had lunch at their biergarten. Every zoo should have a biergarten!



















We stop at Karlskirche on the way back to the hotel. Very pretty with a nice fountain in front. There was also chill electronic music playing from a DJ outside. Pretty cool environment.





Day 4 - Drive to Hallstatt



Our next detination is Hallstatt. I had planned some fun backroads driving on Preiner Gscheid pass and Niederalpl pass, but unfortunately it's raining, so driving is not too spirited. I believe all these pics are from Preiner Gscheid pass.









Finally we make it to Hallstatt, and the car is completely filthy. I have never had this much crap stuck to the outside of my car before!





Day 4 - Hallstatt



We decided to come to Hallstatt since it was a highly rated destination on TripAdvisor. Let me just say it's not a very good destination for drivers. You have to park way outside of the city center and then take a shuttle bus into the city center. I knew this going in, but it was kinda more inconvenient than I was expecting.



We checked into Hallstatt Hideaway, a small BnB style place with only a few private suites. We chose the place because it was reasonably priced and had a phenomenal panoramic view of the Hallstatt lake.





We spend the afternoon/evening walking around and seeing the sights.









Day 5 - Back to Munich



My travel buddy needed to leave on day 7, so we planned to come back to Munich for the last 2 nights for more drinking!



I had planned to drive up Grossglockner, which looked like a lot of fun. But, of course it's snowing today, so we can't do that . We stopped by OBI Market, the German equivalent of Home Depot for some car washing supplies. I had brought a couple microfiber towels with me, but I was not prepared for how filthy the car was.



We checked in at the Hotel NH München Deutscher Kaiser. I figured it would be cool to stay near the city center, but driving there was a pain. I kinda wish we had just stayed at the Novotel by the airport and taken the train in. Ah well. It's right next to the central station, which is handy.





We spend the afternoon shopping in the city center and then take a beer tour in the evening. The "Size Matters" beer tour was a lot of fun. We went to three of the oldest beer halls in Munich and sampled beers there. By sample, I mean we had 500-1000ml at each stop haha.



Day 6 - A quick car wash



We stopped by the Agip at MUC for a quick car wash. We ran into a nice guy from New England area who was also doing an ED. He was nice, but I didn't get to talk to him much since we had already loaded the soap machine with euros and the clock was ticking for the wash.





The washing settings are all labeled in German. Thankfully iPhone translating apps exist!







Day 6 - Day trip to Walchensee



During delivery, the delivery agent suggested a nice lake to drive to, Walchensee. He said he had just gone there for the first time the prior weekend, and that it was the most beautiful place he had been to in Germany.



On our way out of Munich we stop at a rest stop on the autobahn. My friend and I each ordered a Texas Burger and we were completely unprepared for how huge they would be. We had also ordered a currywurst to split since we figured the burgers would be german size. Woops.





On the way to Walchensee you pass Kochelsee, a smaller lake. Kesselbergstrasse that connects the two is fun and has nice views. There was a lot of traffic though because it was a holiday weekend.







I would probably have to agree with the delivery agent that Walchensee is the prettiest place I've been to in Germany.







Day 7 - Drive to Lake Como



My travel buddy and I part ways as he heads to the airport and I head to Lake Como in Italy, on what would be the most beautiful drive of my life. My route takes me through Fern Pass in Austria, and the Fuorn and Maloja Passes in Switzerland.



At the top of Fuorn Pass





Silsersee lake, before Maloja Pass





I was looking forward to taking more pictures on the mountain passes, but Europe really does not believe in shoulders on roads! Lame. So I snapped a bunch of pics along the way using my iPhone. These pics are from Germany/Austria/Switzerland along the whole route. Gawd it was so pretty. The pictures here really don't come close to representing how beautiful it was in person.

























Finally I get to Lake Como, after about 8 hours of back roads driving. I check in at Hotel La Perla in Tremezzo, Italy. It's a beautiful hotel with a great view, nice staff, reasonable prices, and secure garage parking.





Day 8 - Day trip to Switzerland



I stop for gas just inside Switzerland on Lago di Lugano. Where else but Switzerland would you have a gas station with a view like this?





I decided to go through Lugano, which wasn't too bad. Thanks to Gruss Gott's amazing ED post, I knew that the car's navigation would not do me right, so I used Google Maps to navigate through town. It turns out you can go around the outter edge of town and then jump into a several kilometer long tunnel that dumps you out right onto the freeway! This tunnel is not on the car's navigation.





I head to Sustenpass, which unfortunately is closed, but I did 3/4 of the eastern side of the pass. A very fun drive and beautiful views. I really wish it was open for my visit...









Next I headed to San Bernardino pass, starting from Mesocco and heading north. Unfortunately I was so tired, I accidentally ended up turning around before I got to the actual pass, but the part I drove was really fun.













Finally back at Lake Como. The city of Bellagio is on the other side of the lake there.





Day 9 - Back to Munich for drop off



From Lake Como, I take the shortest route back to Munich through Switzerland. Unfortunately the Swiss border agents notice my tourist plates and stop me for further questioning. They take all my documents and return after about 10 minutes. The border agent doesn't speak english, but he keeps asking if I have "anything to declare?". I have no idea what he means so I just shrug. He gets frustrated so he motions for me to open the trunk. Oh great. So he searches through my bags and finds a ziploc bag full of pills. Ugh. Now he brings me to this small white customs holding room where he goes through my bags in more detail. His coworker swabs my pills and takes the swab for testing. At this point I'm terrified, wondering if I'm going to Swiss jail and if I'll be able to make my drop-off appointment and flight home. Thankfully the test results come back after just a couple minutes (though it seemed much longer), and I was sent on my way. WHEW.



I get back to MUC, give my car another quick wash, and then drop off the car at Log In Out.





After the drop off, I head to Airbrau, a restaurant/brewery in the central part of the airport. I'd been to this place on our last trip and it was very cheap and quite tasty, especially for airport food! I have a liter of beer to console myself over the loss of the car. There's also a nice patio area but it was cold, so I ate inside.







Then it's back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the grueling flight home the next day.



Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed the post! Hi everyone! I have greatly enjoyed everyone's photos posted here while I was anxiously awaiting my ED trip, so I thought I would post my pictures. Hopefully this post will give you a minute or two of entertainment on your long wait for your ED or car shipping lol.God I hate long flights, especially in coach. I am too cheap to pay for business class though, since there's so many other toys that could be had with that money!After the long flights we checked in at my favorite hotel in Munich, Hotel Novotel at the Munich airport. It's just a short bus/taxi ride from the terminal to get to the hotel, it's reasonably priced, there's ample on-site parking, and it's a very short walk to get on the S Bahn to go downtown.After a short nap, we head to the Chinese beer garden in the English Garden, my favorite drinking spot in Munich. God I have been looking forward to this for months!After a night of restless sleep, we are collected by the free Sixt limousine service provided by BMW. Morning rush hour traffic sucked when I went on my friend's ED trip last year, so I had them pick us up extra early.We arrived slightly before the Welt opened, oops. At least there was plenty of time to explore and take pictures!While we were checking out the delivery area from the mezzanine, we happened to catch them bringing up my car on the elevator!After we checked in and filled out our paperwork (which is an impressively short process), we headed to the premium lounge for some tasty weisswurst.Finally it's delivery time! We meet our delivery agent at the designated spot. We tell him this is our second ED trip, so thankfully he skips almost all the mumbo jumbo and we head straight to the car!Obligatory outside the Welt pic.It's cool that the navigation has 3D models of the BMW buildings! Neato!From the Welt we are headed to Vienna, but make a stop in Salzburg for some quick sightseeing and lunch. Today we are just taking the freeways/autobahns since we have a lot of ground to cover.In the garage I get a first look at the cool lit M emblem on the seats.The Salzburg Cathedral was quite grand, both inside and out.Creepy statue outside the cathedralA cool fountain at KapitelplatzNice sights along the SalzachMirabel Palace gardensDay 2 - Vienna ArrivalWe check into Hotel am Parkring. We chose this hotel since it has nice balconies with a great view of the Stadtpark, and secure on-site parking in the basement.After getting some rest we head out for dinner and an evening walk around the city center. The Vienna State Opera building is very pretty at night!My travel buddy and I have been inside enough palaces to know that they're not really our thing, so we just look at the outside. The gardens were vast and beautiful. The whole palace compound is many, many acres.We had actually planned to see a few other things on our one day in Vienna, but we ended up spending the entire day at the zoo. It was a blast! We had lunch at their biergarten. Every zoo should have a biergarten!We stop at Karlskirche on the way back to the hotel. Very pretty with a nice fountain in front. There was also chill electronic music playing from a DJ outside. Pretty cool environment.Our next detination is Hallstatt. I had planned some fun backroads driving on Preiner Gscheid pass and Niederalpl pass, but unfortunately it's raining, so driving is not too spirited. I believe all these pics are from Preiner Gscheid pass.Finally we make it to Hallstatt, and the car is completely filthy. I have never had this much crap stuck to the outside of my car before!We decided to come to Hallstatt since it was a highly rated destination on TripAdvisor. Let me just say it's not a very good destination for drivers. You have to park way outside of the city center and then take a shuttle bus into the city center. I knew this going in, but it was kinda more inconvenient than I was expecting.We checked into Hallstatt Hideaway, a small BnB style place with only a few private suites. We chose the place because it was reasonably priced and had a phenomenal panoramic view of the Hallstatt lake.We spend the afternoon/evening walking around and seeing the sights.My travel buddy needed to leave on day 7, so we planned to come back to Munich for the last 2 nights for more drinking!I had planned to drive up Grossglockner, which looked like a lot of fun. But, of course it's snowing today, so we can't do that. We stopped by OBI Market, the German equivalent of Home Depot for some car washing supplies. I had brought a couple microfiber towels with me, but I was not prepared for how filthy the car was.We checked in at the Hotel NH München Deutscher Kaiser. I figured it would be cool to stay near the city center, but driving there was a pain. I kinda wish we had just stayed at the Novotel by the airport and taken the train in. Ah well. It's right next to the central station, which is handy.We spend the afternoon shopping in the city center and then take a beer tour in the evening. The "Size Matters" beer tour was a lot of fun. We went to three of the oldest beer halls in Munich and sampled beers there. By sample, I mean we had 500-1000ml at each stop haha.We stopped by the Agip at MUC for a quick car wash. We ran into a nice guy from New England area who was also doing an ED. He was nice, but I didn't get to talk to him much since we had already loaded the soap machine with euros and the clock was ticking for the wash.The washing settings are all labeled in German. Thankfully iPhone translating apps exist!During delivery, the delivery agent suggested a nice lake to drive to, Walchensee. He said he had just gone there for the first time the prior weekend, and that it was the most beautiful place he had been to in Germany.On our way out of Munich we stop at a rest stop on the autobahn. My friend and I each ordered a Texas Burger and we were completely unprepared for how huge they would be. We had also ordered a currywurst to split since we figured the burgers would be german size. Woops.On the way to Walchensee you pass Kochelsee, a smaller lake. Kesselbergstrasse that connects the two is fun and has nice views. There was a lot of traffic though because it was a holiday weekend.I would probably have to agree with the delivery agent that Walchensee is the prettiest place I've been to in Germany.My travel buddy and I part ways as he heads to the airport and I head to Lake Como in Italy, on what would be the most beautiful drive of my life. My route takes me through Fern Pass in Austria, and the Fuorn and Maloja Passes in Switzerland.At the top of Fuorn PassSilsersee lake, before Maloja PassI was looking forward to taking more pictures on the mountain passes, but Europe really does not believe in shoulders on roads! Lame. So I snapped a bunch of pics along the way using my iPhone. These pics are from Germany/Austria/Switzerland along the whole route. Gawd it was so pretty. The pictures here really don't come close to representing how beautiful it was in person.Finally I get to Lake Como, after about 8 hours of back roads driving. I check in at Hotel La Perla in Tremezzo, Italy. It's a beautiful hotel with a great view, nice staff, reasonable prices, and secure garage parking.I stop for gas just inside Switzerland on Lago di Lugano. Where else but Switzerland would you have a gas station with a view like this?I decided to go through Lugano, which wasn't too bad. Thanks to Gruss Gott's amazing ED post, I knew that the car's navigation would not do me right, so I used Google Maps to navigate through town. It turns out you can go around the outter edge of town and then jump into a several kilometer long tunnel that dumps you out right onto the freeway! This tunnel is not on the car's navigation.I head to Sustenpass, which unfortunately is closed, but I did 3/4 of the eastern side of the pass. A very fun drive and beautiful views. I really wish it was open for my visit...Next I headed to San Bernardino pass, starting from Mesocco and heading north. Unfortunately I was so tired, I accidentally ended up turning around before I got to the actual pass, but the part I drove was really fun.Finally back at Lake Como. The city of Bellagio is on the other side of the lake there.From Lake Como, I take the shortest route back to Munich through Switzerland. Unfortunately the Swiss border agents notice my tourist plates and stop me for further questioning. They take all my documents and return after about 10 minutes. The border agent doesn't speak english, but he keeps asking if I have "anything to declare?". I have no idea what he means so I just shrug. He gets frustrated so he motions for me to open the trunk. Oh great. So he searches through my bags and finds a ziploc bag full of pills. Ugh. Now he brings me to this small white customs holding room where he goes through my bags in more detail. His coworker swabs my pills and takes the swab for testing. At this point I'm terrified, wondering if I'm going to Swiss jail and if I'll be able to make my drop-off appointment and flight home. Thankfully the test results come back after just a couple minutes (though it seemed much longer), and I was sent on my way. WHEW.I get back to MUC, give my car another quick wash, and then drop off the car at Log In Out.After the drop off, I head to Airbrau, a restaurant/brewery in the central part of the airport. I'd been to this place on our last trip and it was very cheap and quite tasty, especially for airport food! I have a liter of beer to console myself over the loss of the car. There's also a nice patio area but it was cold, so I ate inside.Then it's back to the hotel to rest and prepare for the grueling flight home the next day.Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed the post!