# Dale's Mystic Blue 330i ED Trip Report



## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

I had a blast on my ED. Put a little over 1200 miles on the car during my trip. I generally followed the break-in procedure but was a little lax with the speed restriction (100mph) a few times. Oh well. I was up in the 120's once or twice (not until the car had about 700 miles on it). As I'm sure most of you know, taking a highway curve at 110 in one of these cars is so easy its almost scary! With the 6-speed manual, the 4500 rpm break-in limitation really isn't an issue. You can get plenty of juice at 4000 rpm in 5th to pass just about anything on the road. 

The autobahn system is great. Too bad American drivers don't respect the road enough to ever pull this off here. However, the copious amount of construction on the autobahn is a serious buzzkill. An hour long backup due to construction sort of negates the time savings of being able to cruise at 100mph. 

We flew into Munich, picked up the car, spent the evening in Munich (read: drank lots of beer) and drove to Fussen the next morning to check out the castles. That afternoon we drove down to Lauterbrunnen Switzerland and spent the next day in the Alps. Unfortunately it was overcast at the top so we didn't go all the way up. We went to the Trummelbach falls and they were amazing. If you don't know, this waterfall is responsible for draining the glacial waters of the Jungfrau, Eiger and Monch peaks. This is a seriously huge amount of water and the waterfall is located mostly inside a cavern in the mountain. Its a really cool quick stop if you are in the area.

Then we took the cable car thingy up to Murren and checked out the outstanding views from there. The Jungfrau region is so amazing that one day did not do it justice. We are already talking about spending a week there sometime soon.

Up next was a brief stop in Strasbourg, France for dinner on the way to Baden Baden. Went to some pretty cool bars in Baden Baden that night and toured around the next morning. The highlight of course was the Roman Irish baths. If you are not embarrassed to be naked in front of complete strangers, this is a once in a lifetime experience. The GF chickened out so I had to go in by myself. Shower, warm sauna, hot sauna, warm steam bath, hot steam bath, quick shower, massage, quick shower, warm pool, jet spray pool, cool pool, rinsing shower, really really cold pool. I have never been so clean.

That night we drove to Rothenburg and got stuck in a 2-hour backup on the highway. Not good times, bad times. Missed the night watchmans tour as a result. This wasn't a problem in the long run though as we ended up staying here two nights - partly because we thought it was an awesome place, partly because the frantic pace was catching up to us and we wanted to slow down for a day. So we saw the night watchman's tour the 2nd night and it really is a hoot. Rothenburg in general was awesome. Yes, there are *lots* of tourists there but we really didn't care since we were enjoying ourselves.

Next morning we went to Salzburg, Austria. This was our first day of 100% clear weather. Every other day was cloudy and/or rainy at least for a while. Salzburg was very pretty and had lots of good shops.

Finally, we drove to Vienna, dropped off the car, took at cab to our hotel and spent the rest of the day touring the old center. 

Now I am at home and I have started the miserable waiting process! The old Honda Civic just ain't cutting it today!

I will post some pictures in a minute.

-Dale


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## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

*At the ED center...*

Mystic blue is awesome in person!


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## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

*Market Square in Rothenburg*

Getting up early has its advantages! You can pose your car for pictures in cool places. Too bad it was overcast. This is Mystic Blue in its dark persona.


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## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

*Photos...*

I should also mention I have the 2048x1536 originals if anybody wants them. I shrunk these down with Microsoft photo editor which does a mediocre job.

I used a Canon Powershot S30.

If anybody is interested in non-car pics I can put some of those up when I get a chance.


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## hockeynut (Apr 14, 2002)

Congratulations, sounds like an awesome trip and that definitely is an awesome car!

:thumbup::thumbup:

SteveH


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## cruztopless (Sep 23, 2002)

Looks awesome Dale. Congrats! Post more pics when you get the chance.

:thumbup:


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## missing23 (Feb 1, 2002)

Rothenburg is great and the Night Watchman's tour was super interesting and fun...did you stay at Hotel Eisenhut?


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## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

greginaz1 said:


> Rothenburg is great and the Night Watchman's tour was super interesting and fun...did you stay at Hotel Eisenhut?


Honestly I don't remember the name of the place we stayed. I wasn't in charge of hotel reservations. Just driving. :thumbup:


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## GeoMystic (Aug 21, 2002)

Awesome lookin car! Great photos, can't wait to see some more pics! Oh yeah and great color choice


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## AF (Dec 21, 2001)

Looks really close to my topaz . . . now you gotta get clears and painted moldings wouldn't hurt


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## beewang (Dec 18, 2001)

AF330i said:


> Looks really close to my topaz . . . now you gotta get clears and painted moldings wouldn't hurt


Pffstt!! dude!! not even!!  Topaz is CRAP!!  Mystic rules baby!! 

beewang :bigpimp:


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## Chaaaosss (Feb 9, 2003)

Painted moldings look so much classier.


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## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

Chaaaosss said:


> Painted moldings look so much classier.


Its pretty ridiculous that the sedan doesn't have painted moldings. They should at least include it in the sport package or something.

I am definitely considering getting it done. How much does something like that go for?


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## AF (Dec 21, 2001)

Dale Pickle said:


> Its pretty ridiculous that the sedan doesn't have painted moldings. They should at least include it in the sport package or something.
> 
> I am definitely considering getting it done. How much does something like that go for?


I had to buy new side moldings which cost about $100 plus another $275 to have all the moldings painted.

If your interested in it, sent me a pm and I'll give you some quick and easy directions to do it


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## JEM (May 3, 2003)

I agree re German road construction - when they decide to redo a road, they redo 50km of it, which leads to some serious backups.

Anyone aware of a website anywhere that lists current/scheduled Autobahn construction zones? 

Of course, then I'd ask for the same thing for French, Belgian, Italian, Austrian, Swedish freeways...


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## beewang (Dec 18, 2001)

JEM said:


> I...Of course, then I'd ask for the same thing for French, Belgian, Italian, Austrian, Swedish freeways...


French!!!??? did ya say french??!!   :thumbdwn:  :violent: :behead: :bang: :jack:

well.... you know how I feel about the french.

beewang :bigpimp:


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## Olin (May 14, 2003)

JEM said:


> Anyone aware of a website anywhere that lists current/scheduled Autobahn construction zones?


Well, if you don't mind that it's in German..  Here is something from the German ministry of transport. Klick on the blue Autobahn numbers and you will see where the construction on this particular road is. The first column describes between which exits it is, the second the kilometers, then the length of the construction, then the (estimated  ) date of completion, the speed limit in this section and why there is a construction.


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## EZ (Feb 27, 2003)

Great car and terrific trip! Did we see each other in one of those towns?

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34927 http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34929

My wife and I went to Rothenburg (1 night, Watchman's tour, Medieval crime and punishment museum), Baden Baden (1 night, Roman Bath), Montreaux (1 night), Lautenbrunnen (3 nights, a lot of hiking, Jungfrau, Schilhorn, Murren, Wengen, Trumelbach falls, the Eiger trail), Zermatt (2 nights, hike up to Gornergrat), Fussen (1 night) and Salzburg (2 nights, Mozart dinner concert). The best vacation that I can recall! We need to buy another bimmer in couple years :beerchug:


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## Dale Pickle (Apr 22, 2003)

Thanks to all of those who like the car. I sure do miss it. It is incredibly frustrating that I have no idea where it is. BMW needs to work on better (and by better I mean "some") tracking information for ED cars. I check the W&W site like 8 times a day but no luck yet.

The guy at the drop-off in Vienna said it would probably be picked up the next day. So where the heck is it now? Argh. :dunno:


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