# Oct 25th Trip Report - 135i



## former (Apr 5, 2005)

We have a lull here in Frankfurt today. As with, (it appears) most of Europe, the majority of businesses shut down on Sunday so I find myself with some time on my hands to reflect my first week of ownership of my 2009 Montego Blue 135i. [Warning: these are all iPhone photos so I apologize in advance. I have re-touched them where possible, but it is only a camera phone...]

As every good story goes... A few months ago I started getting the itch for a new toy. I typically turn my cars over pretty regularly - every 2 to 3 years. My current vehicle, a 2006 CTS-V was and still is a powerful American car with loads of power and torque. It's powered by the Corvette engine and for a heavy vehicle handles quite well. It also was only produced with a manual transmission and - that I liked along with the relatively low production volumes. However, with the large V8 engine, the gas consumption is not ideal and the car has begun to feel too big for me. I rarely drive with anyone to/from work and a 2 door would work just fine.

So after shopping around, I settled on the pocket rocket and, having urged my parents to do ED (who then ultimately didn't) I decided to take my own advice and pick up the car in Germany and drive it where it was born.

What a wonderful decision. I know others have said the same thing, but I have to re-iterate it here. If you are thinking that ED is too hard, Europe is too different or that the Euro is too pricey versus the dollar, please put all that out of your head. You will save money on the car - in some cases enough to cover the trip. But, even if you don't the experience of picking up the car at the Welt, seeing the museum and Germany in general is just a great experience. You will not be disappointed.










I had read many posts about people landing in Munich and picking up the car the same day only to be too exhausted to drive it. So I decided to come in two days before pickup - on a Thursday night. The flight was direct from LA to Munich so it took about 12 hours from gate to gate. It wasn't too bad - the Lufthansa folks were very nice.










It did take a bit of readjustment to adapt to the fact that they were a German airline and that they addressed everyone in German first and only would switch to English upon request. It also took me until about midway into the trip to realize that I look extremely German, so most people would assume I spoke German and that I had to ask for English. Most people were good naturedly embarrassed that they started rattling off German to an American and I had to end up soothing them.

But I digress. Powered by a sleeping pill and some relatively decent food and a cocktail, the flight went quickly. Passport checks were a breeze - they merely asked how long I was staying and stamped away. There were literally no customs checks for my luggage for some reason.










Upon arriving in Munich, I was able to successfully decipher the mass transit train system and select the correct ticket AND train to get to the hotel. I was staying at the Le Meridian in Munich which is across the street from the main train station. The train stopped for awhile and the driver explained why. In German. No one else seemed panicked though or sought to get off so after about a 10 minute delay we moved on.

The next day was spent seeing the sights in Munich. I won't relate all the typical sights, but it was a pretty dense day of walking, taking photos and figuring out where everything was. The day passed quickly and I turned in early - both for the next day's event and because of some residual jet lag.

I spent the next morning seeing the last few sights that I had missed the previous day and shopping for a few souvenirs. Though my appointment wasn't until 3:40PM, my excitement got the better of me and I left for the Welt around 1PM. I'm glad I did too - the station at Marienplatz confused the heck out of me. The ticket kiosks which were translated into English at the airport were not so much in the city itself. And even the location of the U3 platform was not completely obvious to me. I felt like a complete dope - but like most men refused to ask for help and eventually figured it out on my own.

20 minutes on the train. And there we go - I'm here. 









After months of waiting, I'm all set to meet my car in less than a couple of hours. But before I get to that, let me just talk about the Welt for a second. When I walked up the stairs from the train platform, I started to see that building take shape in front of me. I was really awestruck. First of all, it is incredibly large. Consider that dozens and dozens of cars are driven around inside this thing and you'll start to have a sense of it. But from the outside, the lines of the building, its shapes - they are something that no pictures really can do justice.

The inside is very similar - large and open... Flowing lines and organic shapes and layout... a sense of openness and space. Startling and beautiful. It's also well integrated into the rest of the campus with views to the factory, the office building and the museum from many points inside the building.




























The bottom of the Welt is composed of a display of most of their European models, a cafe, many technology show pieces and a gift shop.

But, that would wait for later. For now, it was time to get the ball rolling on the delivery. I found the elevators for delivery which whisked me up to level 3. I apologized for being early, but they did not seem disturbed by it. My delivery advisor Harald went through the delivery paperwork, the registration and insurance papers, etc. and then wasable to move up my delivery by 30 minutes because of a gap in the schedule.

I was shown to the premium lounge and had a snack and a drink. Checked email at the Internet terminals and then snuck out to the balcony to give myself a spoiler. Sure enough, she was right at the bottom of the balcony going through her final check out.










I snapped a few more shots from the balcony - caught an M3 getting ready to be delivered as well.










But, it was still almost an hour before delivery so I returned to the ground floor for a while. This was time well spent. There's a lot going on down there that I didn't have a chance to completely explore. I did have a chance to see the 1 hatchback, the various diesels, etc.



















The kids area was interesting and warranted a walk-through from an overgrown kid like myself. I also stopped into the gift shop to pick up a vest for Austria. [Here's an area I misunderstood. Thought you just needed one in the car. You actually need one for *each *passenger.]

Time ticked away quickly and I found myself standing in front of the reservation sign. Matt came out right about the appointed time and we took a walk down the deliver staircase chatting about my previous BMWs. Even though I had a "spoiler" glimpse before, there was something special about the presentation and it meant a lot to greet my car that way.










I really loved the color combination and the features I selected. The rest is just standard car delivery - we went over some of the system options, gawked at the engine, checked out the trunk etc. I'll talk more about the new iDrive in subsequent posts, but for now, I leave step one of Euro Delivery as a very happy camper.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Stage two*

I now have my car, they've handed me my keys and I take my victory lap. First thing I do? Hand it over to the Welt valet staff. I've got a museum to see!

Admission to the museum is free since you've just bought a car (as is the valet service apparently) so it is definitely something to take advantage of. I had my backpack with me which isn't allowed in so I had to drop it in the free lockers. As a result, I entered the museum from soft of the bottom side.

So many wonderful vehicles! The M cars, the racing cars, the crazy Isetta and so on. I will just post a few that I especially liked as well as a few M1's that showed up outside the museum after I entered.




























This one is definitely worth a mention. e46 M3 CSL...









Oh, and this wasn't really from the museum, but Munich cops look like this for the most part:


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Stage Three*

Time to drive. Matt, my delivery advisor had kindly helped program the iDrive Navigation for Munich airport. It was time to go pick up my wife. 

Off we went and even with the Nav's help I made an immediate wrong turn. European streets are terribly difficult to navigate, but I found their pattern to be different enough that I would sometimes hesitate at the wrong moment.

Nonetheless, my faithful navigator corrected my route and we quickly got back on track. We were onto the Autobahn pretty quickly enroute to Munich and within the span of 8-10 miles were in an unrestricted zone. I'm one to obey the break-in procedures and I certainly did. But it is nonetheless odd to be driving 95 miles per hour both on your maiden voyage of your car, legally and completely without drama. I left plenty of room around me at all times due to tire and brake break-in issues but had no problems whatsoever. I found the wife without incident and headed back into town with the help of the Nav unit. We also filled up on the way back - Super 100 for the new girl. About 68 Euro...

I have to say at this point that I had a BMW with the first gen iDrive and that thing was a pile of garbage. While I can see that the 2009 still isn't perfect, it is MUCH easier to use that the old one and the Navigation is top notch. I think it would be very hard to drive in Europe without a nav unit. And it seems the natives agree - I cannot tell you how many people had nav units stuck to the windshields of their cars. They are ever-present.

The hotel parking wasn't cheap but it was off the street. It was also somewhat snug. The 1 series fits pretty much anywhere though and the fold in mirrors are very helpful as well.

Day 1 was over and the car would take a day off until we left for Vienna.


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## PhillyNate (Jul 27, 2008)

Thanks for the wonderful photos. Everytime I see these pics I get mad because my wife and I should have done ED this time around. Make no mistake, when I do the M3 in a few years I will not deprive myself of the experience again. Best of luck to you and enjoy.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Day 2 (in car time)*

Off to Vienna we go!

Only in the USA did the time change move last year (or was it the year before? I forget). So, Sunday morning we "fell back" with the clocks. So, we got out of the hotel for a coffee and a quick snack to sustain us for the trip today. The doorman offered to fetch my car, but I declined. While I was fine with BMW parking my car, my trust just about ends there after watching valets in the USA kill off my manual tranny cars multiple times on the way to the parking space.

However, when I pulled the bright blue rocket around, he offered to drive me anywhere I wanted! Very nice guy.

We hit the road and let the car warm up nicely through the lower speeds around Munich. It was overcast and chilly as well so I wanted to give the car extra time to warm up - no need to push anything too fast. After a while though, we settled in. In the unlimited sections, actual speeds varied from about 100 kmh to around 170 kmh. And, every once in awhile, a Porsche or something would just rocket by. :thumbup:

To break up the trip we stopped at Salzburg. We did pickup the toll sticker at one of the gas stations before the border since it's one of the very first towns into Austria. 









It was a great little town with some real charm. Unfortunately, being Sunday most of the town was closed. Still, we managed to take a few pictures of the area. There was this crazy artwork in one of the courtyards:








Though that might look like Obama, I don't think it was meant as a political statement. :angel:

The architecture was really something in Salzburg. 









The Austrian autobahn is very similar to the German one. Large sections of it were "unlimited" to the national speed limit of 130 kph. However, the locals don't seem to abide to that much so it is pretty easy to get used to driving very fast. The car handled well throughout - no surprises, at all. Wind noise does tend to pickup quite a bit north of 95 mph though. The 1 series isn't exactly an aerodynamic beast after all. Managed about 23.5 mpg throughout this section of the trip and I was quite pleased at that.

After Salzburg, we headed onto Vienna. I stopped for gas most of the way there and paid a little less than Germany. I definitely noted quite quickly that gas alongside the motorways is not the cheapest source of gas. However, it was still cheaper than Germany.

We reached Austria as it got dark. Once again, the Nav was indispensable - a strange, dark city at night was not easy to navigate into and the Nav's helpful voice and maps made a huge difference.

iDrive note: We setup the iDrive to have the split screen view so that is shows the map plus the current street you are on, what you should do now and what you should do next. It was very helpful for planning ahead. It also will tell you visually, which lanes to be in once you are in this mode.

Once we reached Vienna, the car stayed put for another day, but I'll leave this entry with a couple more pictures of Vienna. It's a really great city.

St Stephans Church









Austrian Parliament


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## MB330 (Oct 18, 2005)

Excellent write up and good photos too.
Thank You for sharing!
Congrats on your new car and ED!


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

A day in Vienna and then we took a quick day trip back out to Melk, which we had passed on our way into Vienna after darkness had fallen.

Melk isn't a very large city, but it has an amazing Abbey there which is worth the trip. It was overcast, gloomy and damp so no heroics on the autobahn today. I will say though that even as temperatures approached the low forties and in damp conditions, the car felt just as secure as it had two days before. No issues with braking or handling at all. We were now at about 400 miles on the odometer.

We drove about 40 minutes - give or take. We spent about 2 or 3 hours in Melk, most of it in the Abbey.

I snapped a shot of my car in the parking lot amongst the fall colors:









Approaching the Abbey from the parking lot:









The courtyard of the Abbey:









One of the great rooms in the Abbey:









The interior of the church - believe me, these pictures do not come close to doing the artistry justice!



























And lastly, the Abbey as seen from below. It overlooks the town:


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## Vitacura (Jul 22, 2005)

Wow.. some great pics!


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## NateXTR (Aug 8, 2006)

Great write-up thus far! Can't wait for more... I am also quite impressed by the iPhone pictures; much better than I assumed.


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## SJAPoc (Apr 14, 2007)

Great report and pictures. Looking forward to more :thumbup:


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## crazyeyeskilla (Sep 12, 2008)

Great looking car.:thumbup: Really enjoying your detailed write-up. Keep it up.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Back to Germany*

After our day trip to Melk, we returned to Vienna for another couple days and then headed back to Germany. We stopped briefly in Linz, Austria - which was a pretty little town _and _is packing a cathedral in it's pocket.



















So that part of the trip was nice. However, the weather started deteriorating at that point. We saw a good deal of rain after left Linz on our way to Regensburg. As the rain came in, most drivers slowed down to the recommended 130 kph and I did the same. The tires held up very well in wet conditions - at one point I found myself doing 95 MPH and it was pretty stable with no sense of hydroplaning.

So, it was a little bit longer of a trip to Regensburg than we had planned, and it continued to rain that evening which dampened our enthusiasm for sight seeing a bit, but we soldiered on the next day.

Never let it be said that small towns aren't interesting. Regensburg has St. Peter's Catherdal (Dom) and it is perhaps even more amazing because of how large it is compared to the town around it.










If it doesn't seem big, this is what it's like to stand at the base of it.










But, the highlight of Regensburg, was, hands down, the Basilika at St. Emmeram. It looked like almost nothing from outside, just a charming little chapel or something. But once inside, it was just gorgeous.




























Next step, Stuttgart.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Stuttgart*

Yesterday it was rain, today we faced the cold. After we started out, temperatures started to slowly drop from the mid 40's into the upper 30s. About halfway into the trip, they bottomed out around 37 degrees.

Needless, to say this was making me nervous. I was driving on summer tires and I know the handling and responsiveness of those tires tends to drop after about 40 degrees. But, I was able to just increase following distances and sharpen my game to compensate for the "what if". However, my larger concern was the possibility of snow. Should that come to pass, we'd be pulling off the road voluntarily before it became involuntary.

Luckily, though we did pass through some areas where there was a dusting of snow on the ground adjacent to the roadway, we never hit any snow on the road, nor falling from the sky.

Arrival in Stuttgart was prettier than I expected. It's really a lovely city surrounded by a great deal of water and some geographic variation. It's also the home of Mercedes and Porsche which we saw a bit of. As soon as we checked in, and I heartily recommend Le Meridian in Stuttgart by the way, we took a walk down to the city center. Along the way, we saw a Mercedes test mule of some kind - I wasn't quick enough to get a shot of it though. 

This is the view from our hotel room, overlooking a large park.









This isn't the best photo of the palace there, but it gives you an idea.










We spent a bit of time touring the churches and shopping and seeing the sights there. We liked it a great deal and wished we could have spent a bit more time there.

On the way out of town, we drove through the Porsche delivery zone. They have a similar ED delivery center setup and they are also constructing a Welt looking museum. Looks like they are most of the way there. The center was closed so we couldn't really stop anywhere for photos or anything else interesting.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Heidelburg*

Day trip time!

The weather had improved - it was warmer and the rain held off. We also weren't driving through any snowy areas. Speeds picked up today and we were able to spend some safe, quality time north of 100 MPH on the Autobahn.

If you are anywhere in the area of Heidelburg, I cannot advise you strongly enough to visit it at least once. Sadly, it was November 1st which apparently is All Souls Day or Day of the Dead or something similar. So most things were closed, almost like a Sunday. But that didn't affect most of the sights, cafes and churches, so it was an idea time to get out of Stuttgart for the day.

The castle overlooking the town:



















A view of the town from the Philosophers' Walk next to the castle. It is a pretty healthy walk to get up there, but the view is wonderful.










One of the central churches, the Church of the Holy Spirit:









The sun peeked out and dried out the roads a bit toward the end of the day. As a result, it was an easy drive back to the hotel.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Frankfurt*

Onto our last city, Frankfurt.

Frankfurt was probably our least favorite city of them all. However, it wasn't because there was anything wrong with it. To the contrary, it still featured some very nice areas, pretty scenery and nice churches. No, what made Frankfurt less enjoyable is that, to a large degree is is very similar to many large cities in the U.S. It felt quite a bit like Chicago where I used to live some years ago. That's not a bad thing, but we really wanted to experience more culture and that tends to fade in a larger city.

First notable event was that we were pulled over on the way to Frankfurt by the Polizei. I've already posted separately on this, but they checked our papers and then on we went.

But, one thing that was definitely fun was at the Westin Grand they had a display of some great classic (mostly) European cars in the lobby:

*Bentley 6,5 Liter Roadster (1928)*









*BMW 328 (1936-1940)*








*
Mercedes-Benz Type Stuttgart 200*









*Cadillac Thirty Five-Seat-Demi-Tonneau (1911)*









*BMW DA2 Ihle (1928-1932)*









But the city certainly has it's moments too. There is a great deal of beauty in Frankfurt as well.

Alte Nikolaikirche is one of the oldest Protestant churches in Franfurt. It's located in the old town square.


















One funny thing we came across too, was a Mercedes-Benz cafe. Just an odd sighting...


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Wiesbaden*

We took a quick day trip to Wiesbaden while in Frankfurt as well. At this point I should mention that I was right around 1,000 miles and the car was working fantastically. The 1 series is an idea chariot for the tight parking spaces and sometimes tight lanes in Europe.

I especially enjoyed the power folding mirrors which I used every time I parked to keep my mirrors safer from impacts and scratches from passers by - walkers, bikers or cars... We were averaging around 23.7 mpg and about 47 mph. I was quite pleased with the fuel economy considering our higher speeds on the autobahn and the slower speeds in towns. There were also a few missed turns that, with help from the Nav, kept us in certain areas probably longer than needed. 

In any case, we took a short trip out to Wiesbaden. It was only about a 35 minute drive out from the city. It was easy to find and was charming.










It also was the home of St. Bonifatius which was a beautiful church - quite unlike any of the others we had seen on the trip. Of particular note, the Montego Blue 135 parked outside the church was not actually mine - it was a local's 2008. It was one of only three 1 series coupes I saw during my entire time in Europe. The 1 series hatchback, on the other hand, was everywhere...


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*A stop in... Ingolstadt?*

I might be a BMW *owner*, but I'm a car _lover _so I stopped by the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt on the way back to Munich to take a look around. It's not as nice as the BMW museum, but it was still a worthwhile experience.

Just a few quick pics:



















The Le Mons diesel V-10 R8.









And a picture of that engine:


















Also, during this trip, I finally passed 1,200 miles and was able to open her up a bit. I saw a quick nip above 130 mph and spent awhile above 120 where advisable. Tomorrow would be the final day before turning her back in.


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## former (Apr 5, 2005)

*Goodbye for now*

The day had dawned. Our vacation was just about over and it was time to turn the car in. But, what's this? We have somewhere between a half and a quarter tank. Since they would just siphon that off anyway, let's see if we can have some fun before we go!

I made my way to the A9 and a took a run one way and found no room to run. I turned around and started heading back the other way and things got... dynamic. From nowhere a black Audi wagon with what looked like RS markings on it slid by me in the fast lane and his motion got people to move over. Bingo!

I moved into the number one lane and once that Audi pushed though, he _*NAILED *_it. He was off like a shot and I was right after him! He pulled away (I had stayed in 6th) but my speedo still climbed pretty quickly, 100, 110, 120, 130, 140MPH. I stopped looking at the gauge because at that point I realized that I was driving, very, very fast. I don't know how fast I got it up to. I never looked down again. Sadly, traffic closed down at that point and I did have a date to make.

I took a nice leisurely drive back to towards Harms at around 120 kph. I went ahead and washed it for two reasons - I did not want all the crap to bake on my paint for two months and I couldn't really tell if there was any damage. The rain had caused a lot of smearing and road dirt to wash up onto the paint so I figured it was best to get it clean.










So I popped off the plate and emptied out the car. Sven at Harms quickly processed everything and indicated that my car should head to port this week. :thumbup: 1,395 miles, 23.7 mpg, 50.2 miles per hour average. Oh yeah, and the experience of a lifetime!










Once last thing - BMW really is everywhere in Munich. On the way to the Harms drop-off, I saw they have a giant service center/body shop out there. Must be for the really nasty repairs.










And, in the airport:









And in the hotel in Frankfurt, in the business center. (Sorry it's such a crappy photo but the lighting wasn't all the great near the floor. The lights on the "car" were on when the computer was on.)


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## SJAPoc (Apr 14, 2007)

Again... A great report! My compliments :clap:


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## TheCritic (Sep 6, 2008)

I want one of those computer cases! If anybody's seen them for sale online please post a link!


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