# ED #2 Full Trip Report - 22 Nov through 5 Dec



## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

For this European Delivery, we decided to on an early winter delivery to check my wife's bucket list item of the German and Austrian Christmas Markets. And...I didn't want to wait until Spring for my next car. I had given back my 335 in April so I was more than ready (my wife and I work at the same company and I travel ~40% of the time, so one car is not often difficult for us).

We picked up a 2013 (duh) BMW 550i M-Sport, with the 6-speed, Executive Package, Luxury Seating Package, and both Driver Assist Packages in Imperial Blue on Black with the Aluminum Hex trim.

We flew direct from Atlanta to Munich on a red-eye (business class via skymiles), got in on time, walked through security and took the ***8364;70 cab ride to our hotel, the Hilton Munich Park. We had originally booked Rolf, who is fortunately recovering from his health issues and his collegue was unavailable. Personally, I'm just glad that fine gentleman is alive and recovering.

I totally understand that you can take public transport, but my wife has relatives in Stuttgart for whom we had carted three suitcases full of X-mas gifts with us, ergo we had 5 checked bags and needed assistance (this became a running joke with every bellman at every hotel we stayed at). We didn't bring them 3 suitcases full of gifts (I don't like them _that_ much) but all our stateside relatives took advantage of our delivery services.

The Hilton Munich Park was fantastic. Definitely a business traveler in suit/tie destination, they were very amenable to working with tired vacationers in t-shirts and bluejeans. Having booked a late afternoon delivery and coordinated an early check-in with the Hilton, we knocked out for a nap.

About two hours before our delivery, we took a cab to the Welt and I'm happy to say it was as gorgeous as I remembered.








(full disclosure, pic is from our second visit to the Welt on this trip. I used it here because it was _much_ better than the pics I took while severely jetlagged)

We showed up extremely early with the goal of lunching at the restaurant at the Welt, which I remembered as being fantastic. Sadly it is being remodeled, but the food in the Premium Lounge was pretty decent. With our free time, we checked out the Welt itself, hit the shops, etc. New since my last ED were sections devoted to Mini (which we skipped), Rolls and M. As they didn't have an M5 in the M section, we didn't stay long, but we lingered in the Rolls section. Those cars are amazing in person.









I was also struck/amazed/blown away by the 6 Grand Coupe and the Frozen Bronze paint job. The car itself is impressive looking (beyond the navigation screen sticking up oddly from the dashboard), but the matte finish is stunning. I honestly hadn't been impressed with the 6GC in the pics that I had seen but definitely liked it in person. I am very interested to see if this car catches on.









Having spent our time in the Welt, we went upstairs to wait expectantly. Eventually, we watched them roll my new Edy out. 









Once she showed up, I knew it was only a short period of time until the delivery. Of course, with German efficiency, my delivery was scheduled for 2:40 and by golly the gentlemen came to find us at 2:39. Comparing the two experiences (E90 335 vs F10 550), I felt this delivery the BMW representative spent more time going over the car and its features and was much more patient with our desire to look, touch, fiddle and play. I'd actually be interested in the perspective on this from others who have taken delivery on multiple series. It could be the representative that we had this time was exceptional or perhaps BMW has responded to feedback during the last three years. Anywho, our gentlemen did an outstanding job and when we drove off, I had a firm grasp on all of my cars features, including several that I hadn't realized existed - like the F10's ability to connect too and receive calls on *two* phones at one time. This gets my wife and I beyond one of our big challenges as we both have iPhones that we want to have enabled on our car. So...delivery.








(fun fact - I'm a giant in person, a full foot taller than my 5'6" wife)

Having been without a 3rd pedal and a stick for seven months, THIS was a particularly special thing for me. Our delivery specialist was especially impressed with the stick as (according to him) you cannot get a 550 with a manual in Germany.









Another interesting side note - our delivery specialist and the gentlemen who checked us in both noted that the 2013 F10 has 445 ponies independently w/out prompting. Don't want to start that debate here in this thread, but wanted to mention it. Regardless of her actual pony count...she's really nice. Butt-dyno is impressed. Moving on...

Note to the observant - the car is sporting normal F10 rims. I had coordinated with John's ED Winter Tires (who are awesome) to have the tires already installed when we took delivery. My baby's actual shoes were waiting for us at John's "house". All things being equal, the extra cost was well worthwhile. Once the adrenaline of the delivery had worn off, my bad self started dragging quick. We left the Welt (with far too few pics of the new car), went back to the Hilton, had dinner, and I almost fell asleep in the restaurant.

The next day, we awoke bright and early and headed for Vienna. We had some good fun with the bellman, though. The same guy who helped us with our stuff out of the Taxi brought our stuff down to the curb early that morning. As the Hilton Munich Park offers a garage but no valet, I left my wife with the bellman to check out and went for Edy. Due to some equipment challenges (parking fee payment machine broken and having to go to the front desk to pay it), the bellman was waiting patiently when I drove up and practically fell off the curb as he saw me pull up. He then spent the entire time loading our luggage talking about how nice my car was. Thanks Bellman!

As we were meeting a close family friend in Vienna, we took the autobahn directly to the city. At this point, I really hadn't slept in two days (one a red-eye + excited about delivery, and the second excited about driving the new toy), so the five hours to Vienna was _painful_. I think next time, we will stay in Munich for a few days while I adjust.

This was my first trip to Vienna and we were lucky to have our family friend who had lived in Wein for five years. In addition to showing us the excellent historic sites like the Vienna Opera








He showed us a few excellent bars. In this instance, the Roo Bar in 1st District. 








Cool people, great staff, cheap bier. We closed the place down on our first night in town (4AM) and my bar tab for three people was only ***8364;100. Can't complain or remember the last time I had a $100 bar tab for a full night of drinking.

Couple other thoughts on Vienna - the drive into the city sucks. We stayed at the Hilton Vienna am Stadtpark. Pretty decent hotel, Hilton Honor Exec lounge was fantastic. Staff was good. Location was excellent and within walking distance of most of the 1st District Sites. Would recommend, but next time we are staying at Hotel Sacher (see later).

In addition to the Opera, we also visited the Spanish Riding School, several of the palaces and the Rathaus Christmas Market. The Market was the least interesting of our trip, but Vienna at night is awesome.









After three days in Vienna, my wife and I headed to Salzburg via an indirect route. There were several stops in southern Austria that I wanted to hit, so we set long day for driving to pick up Worther Am See and a few gorgeous sites. Besides, I needed to burn miles to get through the 1200 mile break-in period.

Below is the route we chose:








Drive from Vienna to Graz was boring, but afterwards the A2 got interesting. Then we drove around the Worther...








As we should have expected, everything around this (and several other) tourist destinations was shutdown for the season, but the lake was still there and it was worth the drive. Also stopped at Faker See (very nice). Originally, I had planned on heading south and visiting Lake Bled, but I was concerned about our progress, so we passed on it and took the A10 towards Salzburg.

While on A10, there was a short traffic jam caused by the polizei with a vignette checkpoint. That was eight euro well spent as I understand the fine for _not_ having it is 400 euro. Another useful bit of information that i would pass on is that the A10 has an additional toll (as in above and beyond the Vignette) in the mountains south of Werfenweng.

It was late afternoon when we got in to Salzburg and easily found our hotel - Hotel Sacher Salzburg. This hotel really met our expectation of what European elegance meant. The staff was fantastic, our room prestine, the hotel ancient but well kept with modern equipment. Also has a very good restaurant. Breakfast was very good (but not included if you didn't book directly through the hotel). After staying at the Sacher Salzburg, I'm dying to know what the original is like. Seriously can't recommend this hotel enough, will return.

That evening we explored the historic downtown of Salzburg. Our timing was excellent as th Christmas market had just opened and the town was putting up its decorations. The Salzburg X-mas Market was the most "original" that we visited, with many items that were not available at any other. 









The next day was our "driving day". The intention was to hit three unique locations while completely taking the car off the autobahn. Below is our route.










Couple thoughts - Alpenstrasse south of Salzburg is awesome. We then turned south to Vel Am See and its prestin aquamarine waters. 









Next we took in Werfenweng Castle. Finally we headed to Hellstat via the 166. The 166 was easily the best road of our trip for "alpine driving" and possibly the most fun drive I've had in my life. Max speed on the road is 100 kph, but that is much faster than I was willing to drive at many points. The road is literally "over the river, through the woods and around the mountains". Highly recommend, will go back. BMW has really outdone itself with this masterpiece they call a 550 - she has perfect control, endless acceleration, and the fact that peak torque is available at 1300 RPM means that I never lacked for umph even though I still was under the 100 MPH/4k RPM limitations. Tail slips out in a completely controllable fashion and she is easy to bring back into alignment after a tight turn (though my wife would disagree). I only have exstatic expletives to describe that experience.

And it ended in Hellstatt, which is awesome in it's own light.








Something to note is that the entire town is under parking and driving restrictions. We hadn't realized this before, so if you want to explore the town/area, I recommend research before showing up. May have been something seasonal/we couldn't tell.

We left Hellstatt via the 145 to 158 and it was "ok" driving. Big letdown after the 166. For the evening, we went back to the Christmas Market an ate at a fantastic restaurant whose name I failed to get. On the way back we noticed that Sacher had completed its holiday decorations while we were out driving.









The next day, we took off towards Fussen via the Alpenstrasse. Below is our route. Purists may note that we deviated in a couple places.








The Austrian piece of our drive (which came as a recommendation from a soon-to-be-no-longer friend) was a mistake. Road was slow (30-45 kph mostly) with uncomfortably tight roads between farms.

Drive was complicated by a bank of fog so thick that you could drink it. At many points on the trip, we couldn't see but 30 yards in front of the car. Drive was still fun, and at points we felt lost in time and space. 









Our hotel in Füssen was Hotel Sonne, a wicked cool modern hotel. Very art deco with a great deal of original art based on classic inspirations. For example - the garage is decorated with Andy Worhol style images of King Ludwig. 








Highly recommend it with two notes. Note 1 - the parking garage is tiny. Don't bring a 5 or a 7. Entire garage smelled of clutch by the time I'd parked in our spot. The tunnel into the garage, which is under the hotel, was not a fun experience either with a new car. Note 2 - food was only mediocre but the wine was good and cheap.

When we arrived, Füssen was cold, rainy, overcast and ugly. It was all due to the same cause of our fog bank on the Alpenstrasse. A huge snowstorm coming through. When we woke up the next morning, there was several inches of snow and white christmas was here.

















It's also important for me to note that Füssen completely shuts down at the end of November. One of the excellent restaurants that we intended to return to from our first ED actually had a sign up stating they were closed from 26 Nov through 15 Feb. Their Christmas Market doesn't actually open until the 7th of December, and then only for that weekend and the next.

After a midmorning picture marathon, we headed north to one of our favorite destinations from our first ED - Dinkelsbühl. Dinkelsbühl is a castle town on the Romantische Straße that is well preserved with friendly people, lots of little family businesses and is easily within reach of a number of local sites.

The drive there was pretty crazy. Snow was raining down constantly and the German crews fought to keep the roads open. 








Our original intention was to go back up the Romantische Straße, but the weather convinced us to go directly on the autobahn. The drive was white knuckle with plenty of accidents. Luckily the snow tires and BMW engineering made the 5 very easy to drive in the snow. This was also the point that I passed the break-in period but I was obviously not going to push things during a snowstorm.

As Dinkelsbühl is off the highway a bit, we did have a very nice early afternoon drive through the woods. By this point the snowstorm had subsided and the roads were clear, enabling us to enjoy it. 









Our hotel in Dinkelsbühl was Hotel Haus Appleburg. It's run by a husband/wife team that truly treats their guests as family. Literally - they invited us to the opening of their town's Christmas Market (much more of a local event than for tourists and completely unadvertised). Highly recommend the hotel and the town, especially if you are visiting Rottenburg, which is very close by and much more commercial.










They also serve the best food ever invented - Pan "muntasian" (I can't spell it). The dish is sausage stuffed ravioli, ham, bacon, cheese, and a cream sauce. Epic, just epic. Even though they were serving a special meal to celebrate the opening of the market, my wife and I both ate it, then licked our plates.









We will definitely return here for our next ED (most likely on our way to Belgium).

Our next destination was family in Stuttgart. We stayed at Hotel Wörtz Zur Weinsteige, which we have mixed feelings about. The staff and restaurant were top notch, but our hotel room left something to be desired. Would return for a meal, but probably not to stay. One thing that really bothered me was that their garage was tiny and didn't have enough spots to cover their guests, so my new car spent one night outside in the snow.








Using Wörtz Zur Weinsteige as a base of operations, we spent several days exploring the city, spending time with family and generally relaxing.

Our next destination was Munich, where we stayed at Hotel München Palace. After our hotel in Stuttgart, it was a breath of fresh air. Very boutique, very excellent. Great staff. My wife and I very nearly liked it as much as Sacher. Will return, may start here on our next ED.

After two days exploring parts of Munich we missed last time (including the factory tour), it was sadly time to go. On a bright sunny morning with all the snow melted, we traveled to John's business to get my car's shoes swapped out.

Boy is she stunning now finally complete.









Travel from John's to the airport was only 8 miles, but without inclement weather I was able to push my 550 a bit. Too much traffic to max her out, but I made it up over 130 MPH a couple times. She accelerates so quickly that I'm in for a few tickets when she is back in the states.

With an early morning flight, we stayed at the Kempinski @ the airport. That hotel far exceeded my expectations of a hotel in an airport. Will return here.








Only downer note - having had enough bier to float a ship during the two weeks of vacation, my wife and both ordered mixed drinks while waiting for our appointment to return the car. The bill for a Bombay Sapphire and tonic + a Goose and Tonic - ***8364;48. Ouch...Important reminder to only drink bier and wine in Germany.

After checking in and dropping off our stuff, we took the long 50 yard drive to HARMS to turn her in. Process was as quick and painless as I expected. By the way, any of these belong to y'all?









All things being equal, 1610.4 miles in 14 days of driving (car came with 2.0 miles on it). Not a bad vacation.









Next morning, the bellhop at the Kempinski not only took our luggage downstairs for us, but drove us in the hotel's A8 to the Delta terminal and helped carry our bags to the Delta counter. That's what I call service (and a big tip).

That's the "short" version of the trip; hope y'all enjoyed it.

Now it is time to start planning my next ED, 
AggieKnight


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

Special thanks to Adrian (the board sponsor) for fantastic service and support during this endeavor. Not only did he provide the best test drive experience I've ever had (literally giving me two sets of car keys, telling me that both cars had full tanks of gas, and to let him know if I was going to cross state lines then leaving us alone to figure things out for ourselves), but he drove to the airport so that I could sign papers because we hadn't been able to work things out in time to use Fedex.

Thanks man, you do good work.


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## 97X (Sep 19, 2007)

Congratulations. Great report.


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## Kief (Dec 6, 2007)

Thanks for sharing AK. Great pics and report!

BTW, I've also been meaning to ask you about your avatar. Do you have a shepherd? I have a 9yo male and unfortunately had to put my female down last Sept.


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## innovativeit (Sep 30, 2007)

Thank you for the great writeup and pictures. It gave me a lot of enjoyment!


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

Kief said:


> BTW, I've also been meaning to ask you about your avatar. Do you have a shepherd? I have a 9yo male and unfortunately had to put my female down last Sept.


I do. My family has had a long history with the breed.

Our current GSD is an eight year old female.

My retired parents (who live in Texas) have a 5 year old girl and a 10 year old boy.

Edit - you inspired me to update my avatar. Cheers, man.


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## KingpenM3 (Dec 27, 2011)

Looks like it was an awesome trip! The picture of Dinkelsbühl with all of the snow is great.


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## Kief (Dec 6, 2007)

AggieKnight said:


> I do. My family has had them since before we immigrated to the states from southern Germany.
> 
> Our current GSD is an eight year old female.
> 
> ...


She's a cutie--like the new avatar!
Not to turn your Thread into a GSD post :thumbup:, but here's my boy with his ball and my late female.


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## Vanos4:12PM (Apr 20, 2007)

Very nice, I bet that 550 is a beast on ze Autobahn! Old school power! thanks for sharing your trip/pictures.


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## Gluhwein (Aug 21, 2011)

Well worth waiting for this report!

I've been reading and appreciating your posts for quite awhile. It's really nice to see you getting the chance to finally post your experiences. You certainly travel in style! You spend more for one hotel night than we do for a week. Very envious.

Was the castle you visited Werfen in Austria? Were you aware that was where they filmed "Where Eagles Dare" with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood? We love that little section of Austria, but instead of heading East from Werfen, we usually continue North to Gollinger Wasserfall. It's an amazing isolated waterfall near the Bavarian border. It's gorgeous in the Winter with snow all around and absolutely no one else nearby.

I hope you weren't referring to my recommendation when you complained about the route from Berchtesgaden through Austria then up to the Alpenstrasse. I raved about it on this forum a few months back. Probably because the day we drove it the sun was shining brightly and the entire landscape was covered in fresh snow. We were lucky. It's far more common to encounter foggy and wet weather in the European winter.

And you don't look anything like what I pictured you to look like. I expected another old geezer like myself.


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

Kief said:


> She's a cutie--like the new avatar!
> Not to turn your Thread into a GSD post :thumbup:, but here's my boy with his ball and my late female.


It's sad that our friends have such a short lifespan, but we enjoy them while we can. I strongly empathize with your loss.

I'm down with us turning this into a GSD thread. :thumbup: By the way, is your boy a Heidelberg? The back and ears strongly look like that line (from the one picture I've seen at least). Both are great looking dogs.



Gluhwein said:


> Well worth waiting for this report!
> 
> I've been reading and appreciating your posts for quite awhile. It's really nice to see you getting the chance to finally post your experiences. You certainly travel in style! You spend more for one hotel night than we do for a week. Very envious.


I am ever so lucky as to be part of a mildly successful pair of DINKs. My wife has very high expectations and picks out our hotels. We either stay at something that meets her standards, or we don't travel. I also travel enough that I have Delta Sky Miles and Hilton Points in spades to burn on nice hotels and business class tickets. IMHO Sky Miles are not worth spending on anything other than the 100k mile for 1 business class ticket to Europe.

If it was just me, I'd live in a shack in the woods and drive a $200k car. 


Gluhwein said:


> Was the castle you visited Werfen in Austria? Were you aware that was where they filmed "Where Eagles Dare" with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood?
> ...
> I hope you weren't referring to my recommendation when you complained about the route from Berchtesgaden through Austria then up to the Alpenstrasse. I raved about it on this forum a few months back.


Hohenwerfen, so yes. No, was not. That's cool! Nope, wasn't you. Appreciate you jumping on that nade, though. 



Gluhwein said:


> And you don't look anything like what I pictured you to look like. I expected another old geezer like myself.


That must be because I'm old at heart. Wait...that's not a compliment. :yikes:
Btw, how old is the puppy? So cute! I remember when my girl was that small.

Thank you all for your compliments. If there is any more information that you would like (or more pics) about any of of the locations we visited, feel free to PM me. Or if you want to share more GSD pics. I'm totally down with that too.


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## SD ///M4 (Jan 24, 2011)

Fantastic trip report and great pictures! It really brought back memories because you saw some of the same places, drove the same roads, and stayed at one of the same hotels!

Glad that you liked Hotel Sonne! The parking garage is indeed tight to get in and out of and depending on which spot they have reserved for you, I can see how a 5er would be tough to park. We were lucky, we had one of the 2-3 spots near the elevator so it was almost straight into the spot and almost as easy to get out.

I don't think that I would ever consider a winter ED but you have proved that it is doable, and fun, even with several inches of snow.


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## Mbbrewer (Jun 20, 2010)

Great writeup, your car looks awesome. Is that Imperial Blue or Carbon Black?


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

Mbbrewer said:


> Great writeup, your car looks awesome. Is that Imperial Blue or Carbon Black?


Good point. I guess I should add THAT to my report. :dunno:

Imperial Blue. Absolutely stunning in person.


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## pawarrant (Jun 15, 2006)

Great report and photos! I would love to visit there with snow on the ground.


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## SANguru (Jun 14, 2009)

great report and pics!


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## bap (Jun 25, 2008)

Thanks for the report and pics. The 6 series with the Frozen Bronze paint job was there when I was there. It really jumped out among all the other cars on display that day.


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## Popoemt (Aug 9, 2012)

Beautiful car, trip (other than the soon to be non-friend!), and write up... V/r, Tim


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## shakes (Mar 15, 2007)

Thanks for posting a great trip report with lots of useful information. It looks like you had a truly memorable trip. And, whatever that meal was that you ate, it looks delicious- like a last meal to me! 

Also, I love the 640GC but I hated that frozen bronze paint job when I saw it last week- I guess I'm in the minority on that one!

Enjoy the ride when it gets home. Is she on a ship yet?


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## conceyted (Sep 29, 2012)

That's my white X1 (closest to camera) in that picture of the ED cars lined up. Very interesting that they look dirty. I washed mine before we left it, but I didn't do the best job as it was 20 degrees out and I was rushing, but it looks dirtier than how we left it. I guess that is okay?


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## Ryanoceros (Nov 30, 2012)

Great report and pics. Gig 'Em!


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

*Redelivery!*

Nine weeks and five days after giving her back, my car has been returned to me.

Pulling up to the dealership, we were able to park my wife's car right next to my car. I strongly considered taking my key and moving it just to startle my patient CA.


















In good fashion, we took her into Midtown for a beer and some food at a local watering hole (Vortex).
















Then tucked her safely at home after a drive into the suburbs and a few burnouts.


























Now I have three years to plan the next trip.

Thanks again to Adrian for all the help, the support, and the car deal.


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## AggieKnight (Dec 26, 2008)

Now with the appropriate tail gear.


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## dunderhi (Dec 10, 2006)

Beautiful car! Congrats.


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