# RVD's 750i AH ED Report 2/27/2012



## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

RVD said:


> The full sized pictures are pretty big and would massacre someone on a slow connection, cell phone, etc.
> 
> You can view them however here (including the full size downloads): http://www.danpaik.com/Travel/Europe/Europe-2012
> 
> ...


Cool, thanks! Your rijstaffel photos are making me hungry  I had very good Indonesian food too when I was in Amsterdam.


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## wesleyan92 (Mar 11, 2008)

What a great trip report; I am actually enjoying not reading about the welt or the car  Anxiously waiting for the next post!


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Day 4 - Munchen

Finally, I am in Munchen! Yes, London was fun for a couple of hours. Amsterdam was great for 2 days. But I still had the car in the back of my mind so I am happy to be here.

I am still rather maniacal when it comes to getting to the train station early. I know that European trains are very punctual and in my 20 years of riding trains on and off over here, although I've never experienced a train delay or any real mishap, I still feel uneasy getting to the train station too late.

So my train was scheduled to leave the Amsterdam Centraal station at 10:34. I left my hotel at 9am and got to the train station at around 9:20. It was way too early. I was standing at my gate waiting for the train at 9:30. I would have been way early if I came 30 minutes later.

So I walked into a Burger King that was right there where next to the track and ordered a coke. I wanted to get some change anyway for the u-bahn in Munchen if I take that to the hotel from the train station. I waited in there until around 10:15.

As usual, the train arrived exactly on time and I got on. I got a first class ticket on the train because the price was cheap and the difference between 2nd class and 1st class was minimal (maybe like $15?). I liked having my own seat without anyone next to me. 1st class was also fairly empty so it was nice. There was even a nice quiet area for the passengers in our car as a separate area to relax. I checked it out but didn't stay there too long because I felt a little uneasy leaving all of my stuff unattended. For the same reason, I didn't go to the dining car either.

It was a rather uneventful ride. I did have to change trains once so I couldn't just forget about everything and sleep the whole way. I didn't sleep much anyway and got to Munchen Hbf at 6:27pm.

It was drizzling out and I didn't really know exactly where the hotel was from the u-bahn station (although I knew it was close) so I just took a taxi. I am staying at the 4 points Olympiapark so I can walk to the Welt tomorrow. It was dark, rainy, and I was picturing myself with my luggage standing at the Olympiazentrum u-bahn station looking around with no idea where the 4 points is located.

The cabbie was cool and he was explaining the area as we drove in. He talked about the Olympic tower and the revolving restaurant up there. We passed the Welt and he said "That's the BMW building. You can walk in for free. Across from there is the museum." I was thinking "yeah, I've seen this a lot over the past few months on bimmerfest"...

It was only a 16.10 euro cab ride. The cabbie was nice enough to give me 10 cents so he gave me 34 euros change for my 50. I returned his favor by giving him a 2 euro tip. Is that too much?

Check in was pretty easy. The lady was nice. The upgraded me to an executive room for being SPG platinum. They also wrote a hand written note welcoming me to the hotel (nice gesture). This looks pretty much like a regular room to me. It's bare but has what it needs. She also informed me that parking is 8 euros/night in case I park the car here tomorrow. I'd like to just park it at the Welt for tomorrow night but if they don't let me, then I guess I'll be parking it here.

It's 7:21pm and I'm debating whether I should take the u-bahn now and head down to Marienplatz and walk around and maybe grab some beer and those giant pretzels at Hofbrauhaus but probably not. I'll do that tomorrow. I'm settled in and don't really feel like going out there in the rain.

Update: I decided to just stay in. The nice blonde at the front desk gave me a bucket of ice so I had some drinks in the room with some snacks that I picked up along the way.

Pics/Videos

Video: At the Amsterdam Centraal station






Video: Train leaving the station






Video: Quiet room on the train






http://www.danpaik.com/Travel/Europe/Europe-2012/i-wdhPRP8/0/M/XM3N2941-M.jpg

Video: Self portrait video on the train






Pic: Four Points Olympiapark - Executive Room


















My car delivery is at 10:30am tomorrow! I am going to check in at 9am. I also have the Welt tour at 11:30am. After that, I plan to head down to Marienplatz via u-bahn (not new car) and get some beer.

I will post some quick pics to comply with the 12 hour rule and then write up a more details report later.


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## F30owner (Feb 11, 2012)

That's the room I booked ! Glad to see some pics, looks good !, Update us tomorrow - looking forward to it !


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

T-5 hours for delivery. T-3.5 hours for checking. T-3 hours for leaving my hotel room to go t the Welt.

Oscars were good. 

It's almost time!!!


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

I'm in! I left the hotel at around 8:20 and got here at around 8:35. I took plenty of pictures, walked around, got checked in, ate at the premium lounge, and now I have an hour until my delivery. I don't see my car yet but have seen a few other deliveries today. It seems pretty low key and not busy.

This German keyboard is annoying because the z letter is where the y should be. I guess I am sort of getting used to it but the keyboard overall it a bit off.

The premium lounge is great. It's quiet.

I will head down to the shop for a bit...maybe at around 10am.

The lockers are great. I left some of my stuff in there.

The lady who checked me in was Sabrina. She was cool. I didn't have any questions since I already read up on everything beforehand. She said that I have access to the lounge all day. Maybe I will head back here for some more drinks tonight...


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Ok just got back to the hotel from the Welt after picking up the car and doing a factory tour.

Here's my official picture to comply with the 12 hour rule.

i'm not really that happy with the picture but I guess she felt that this was the best one out of the 3 that she took.

Anyway, I am happy to have the car!


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## dencoop (Aug 17, 2005)

RVD said:


> Ok just got back to the hotel from the Welt after picking up the car and doing a factory tour.
> 
> Here's my official picture to comply with the 12 hour rule.
> 
> ...


Nice !!!! Congrats !!!! Keep us posted with video pix of the remainder of your trip.


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## Valentino15 (Apr 26, 2011)

Looking forward to more pics of the Imperial Blue! I like what I see so far! I'll be there in 14 days to pick up mine.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

*Day 5 - Munich (Car Delivery)*

Day 5 - Munchen (Car pick up)

Finally the day has come! Today was pick up day at the BMW Welt for my 750i AH! After a rather uneventful day 4 (travel day), day 5 was filled with excitement and activities.

I was so antsy that I couldn't sleep. I went to bed at around 10pm and was planning to get a full night's rest and get up at around 7 or 8am. Instead I got up at 4am and couldn't fall asleep again so i just got up and stayed up.

Of course when 7:30am hit, I started getting tired but by then it was too late. I had no choice but to stay up.

My check-in time was scheduled for 9am and my car pick up time was 10:30am. I did so much reading over the past few months on bimmerfest that there really were no surprises. My checkin was conducted by Sabrina who was very nice and thorough. She also had a trainee with her today who just stayed quiet.

We finished signing stuff and she explained everything. We were literally done in about 5 minutes. I didn't have any questions, and I didn't really have to read through all of the stuff that I was signing.

There was another table with 5 people. They were already getting signed in when i got there and it took them awhile longer. Since I didn't see anyone else with a pick up today on bimmerfest, I assumed they were not bimmerfest members.

I got to check-in pretty early***8230;around 8:45.

After check-in, it was way too early to do much of anything but I grabbed a snack in the premium lounge. BMW does a great job at making you feel special and keeping out the riff raff. love it.

I took some more pictures here and there and then went to the shop. I went online using the computers in the lounge for a bit as well. Maybe I should have brought my laptop but I left it back at the hotel uploading videos.

I got my keychain engraved and used my 10 euro credit to buy a canteen bottle + pin. I wasn't sure what to engrave on the keychain. She said that I could engrave up to 7 letters. "BMW ED 2012" was too long. I didn't want to do "ED 2012" because everyone will see that and say "who's Ed?"

I didn't want to put my name because that's hokey. In the end, I just put my son's name. Not sure why but I figured he'd get a kick out of it.

When it came time to pick up, my associate was a guy named Guido. He was a nice enough guy. He said that it was his first time delivering a 750i AH but he seemed to know pretty much everything. Maybe it's because I didn't ask too many questions but he started saying ***8230;"and yeah, you know that already" and I'd have to sometimes stop him and say "uh no, I don't know that part." He gave me the USB key with my picture on it. I put the USB key on my new keychain with my new key.

My plant tour was scheduled for 11:30. With a 10:30 pickup, it was cutting it close. I took my car to valet but asked if I could leave the car overnight. She said no but offered to give me a parking card to use to exit the Welt parking structure. So I drove my car to the Welt parking structure and went to the tour. I got to the tour at 11:25***8230;just in time. I am leaving for Prague tomorrow so I wanted a place to store the car for the night. The 4 points charges 8 euros/day so I figured I'd park it at the Welt for free and the Welt parking structure seems very safe.

The plant tour was good although a bit repetitive. The robots doing their work in small areas is amazing and cool. The paint stuff was interesting. The engine stuff was ok too. I do recommend that everyone do the tour at least once. I don't think I'd ever do it again though but it was pretty cool.

After the plant tour got out at 1:30, I went back up to the premium lounge to grab a quick bite to eat before heading out. I went back to the hotel, dropped off everything, posted that picture of me in front of the car, and then went out to Marienplatz.

I took the u-bahn. The ticket thing was kind of confusing though but I got the hang of it now. Buy ticket from machine, stamp ticket from one of those machines before you get on the escalators to go down to train level, etc.

Went to Hofbrauhaus. It was sort of crowded as expect but not too crazy. I was able to find a small empty table and just sat there and got a beer and pretzel. It was a 1000cc stein so I only drank about 1/2 of it. The pretzel was decent.

I went back to the Marienplatz and went up to Rathaus for a nice view of the city. I walked around the platz for awhile and got bored so I took the u-bahn back.

I wasn't sure where to go next. I was debating whether I should go to the dnglisher garden but decided to just go back to the Olympic park instead. I hadn't checked out the Olympic park yet so I rode the scooter over to the tower and around the park. It's actually a pretty nice park.

I have already been to Dachau so I did not go there this trip.

After getting some exercise on the scooter and taking some better pictures of the Welt, I went back into the Welt to look around and check out the Welt. Earlier in the day I just walked through but this gave me an opportunity to study with more detail. The Welt is actually a fun place to go to even if you're not getting a car delivered.

I went up to the premium lounge again at 4:50 to grab a drink and it was pretty empty. The lady said that they close at 5pm so I just grabbed a quick drink (water) and left. She was actually cleaning up and putting everything away so I barely got my drink.

Before leaving for the night, I put my scooter and camera into my car trunk in the lot. I assume it'll be safe down there. I just thought I would make my walk over there easier tomorrow with all of my luggage when I walk from the hotel to the Welt. The four points isn't necessarily the best hotel around but you can't beat the location. I will definitely stay here for future EDs. I just like being able to walk back/forth to Welt.

On the walk back to the hotel, I went to the supermarket to buy some random stuff. Then it actually hit me***8230;what was in front of my face the whole time***8230;I realized that I'm in Germany***8230;home of the reisling grape***8230;so I grabbed a decent bottle of reisling for the hotel. I'm actually not much of a beer drinker although I do drink beer when I'm in Germany. I'd much rather drink wine and reislings are fine with me. I also grabbed a quick cheap eats dinner of doner + frites.

I pack again tonight and head to Prague tomorrow. I am planning to leave at around 10am and get there by around 2pm but maybe I'll leave at 9am to be safe. I don't really drive too crazy so you probably won't see any pictures of me going 160mph.

Crashed for the night at 7pm. Got up again at midnight. Slept again at 4am. Got up again at 7am. Oh well.

I might meet up with extremeromance out there if he's around (and if he answers my PM).

Update: Heading out to Prague now. Pictures are taking forever to upload. Still no word from extremeromance. Oh well***8230;

Pics/Videos

Below is a subset of the pictures and videos.

All pictures (including high res versions) can be viewed at: http://www.danpaik.com/Travel/Europe/Europe-2012

All videos are at: http://www.youtube.com/rvd90277

Pics: Early morning pics on the way to the Welt




























Pics: Premium Lounge
































































My car



























































































Tornado










Video: Car elevator at the Welt






Video: Car turning on the carousel






Video: Victory lap! I didn't do such a great job with the camera (driving with one hand, recording with the other) on the first lap but did a little better on the second lap. I am not comfortable driving new cars so I tend to be very conservative.






Video: BMW Welt Parking Lot






Video: Loading up brand new BMWs at the factory






Marienplatz





































Rathaus Square / View from Rathaus Tower

You can see the BMW 4 cylinders and Olympic Tower in the distance on some of these pics.





































Marienplatz Again



















Video: Marienplatz. There was a guy playing a full on grand piano.











Video: Hofbrauhaus






Video: Rathaus






BMW Welt Again



















Video: Tour of the BMW Welt






Update: Will update later with a few more picture. Upload is taking too long and I'm late...(about 30 more pictures left)


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## VMcV3y (Jul 6, 2011)

Great write-up and pics!

The instrumentation display is fantastic.


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## jdefg2000 (Nov 28, 2011)

Love the color combo, nice choice! Great ride!


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Some more pictures from Day 5 in Munich.

Hofbrauhaus























































Olympic Park / Olympic Tower / etc




























More car pics




























More Welt



















Ok that's it for day 5.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

*Day 6 - Prague*

Day 6 - Prague

I drove the car today! I left the car parked at the Welt overnight. The parking structure at the Welt is great with plenty of space.

I picked up the car in the morning and took a few pictures of the car at the Welt. I figured this would be my last chance to take any pictures of the car at the Welt so I may as well take a few more.

I got gas on the way to the freeway from the Welt. I put in super unleaded (95 octane) and it was 1.659 euro per liter. My total was 90.10 euro for 54.31 liters. The car came with about 1/4 of a tank of gas. After filling up the tank, I changed my computer settings to km. Car said that I had a range of about 640 km so that seems pretty good per tank. Prague is about 380 km away and ended up using about 1/2 of a tank. The gas station also had "racing" 100 octane gas but I didn't get it.

I didn't drive too crazy. It was raining all day so the roads were pretty slick. There were also a lot of trucks out on the road so the roads were congested. There were a few gaps here and there when I took the car up to about 120 mph / 180 kph but it was brief.

I bought a vignette for the Czech Republic at the border for 16 euros. It was relatively straightforward. It says to write your registration number on the vignette. I wasn't sure what that was so I put my license plate number there. Didn't seem like a VIN number was what they were looking for.

GPS worked well and got me to the hotel in Prague. The Hilton Old Town Prague is nice enough and the location is great. The parking garage is ok but small. It's a bit narrow in places, etc. so I wouldn't recommend it. They don't have valet parking so I parked down there. I saw another BMW 750i ActiveHybrid in white***8230;.yup, extremeromance's car.

GPS took me to an odd route but at least it got me there fine.

After checking in, I didn't really unpack this time. It was around 3:30pm and I wanted to get out for a couple of hours before it gets too dark. I don't have any status with Hilton so my room is a standard room. It's pretty small. This is the smallest room that I've had so far but that's ok. It's a fine room and unlike the other places, there's an ice machine here.

I walked outside and went to an ATM to get some czech currency. I then walked over to Old Town and the Charles Bridge. Wow, Prague is great! I was a little apprehensive before coming here but I love it. I love the architecture of the building, the colors, the big square, etc.

With the rain, it wasn't the best situation for pictures so I didn't bring the camera. So not a whole lot to show today in terms of pictures and video.

I picked up some Prague food at the old town square (sausage, potatoes/saurkraut, grilled pork). It was ok but probably smelled better than it tasted. I guess I'm a sucker for big grills and bbq.

Tomorrow I spend the whole day in Prague. I plan to head out to Old Town square again and the Charles Bridge. I may head over the castle as well as the Jewish square. It will be a touristy day filled with sightseeing (sort of like Day 4 (Amsterdam)).

Some pics:

Car at Welt




























Hilton Old Town Prague



















Video:

I took a video in the car while I was driving. I don't know if any of you will find it interesting but it is a time lapse video. youtube might take it down because of the music. if they do, i will upload it to another place.






Charles Bridge


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## wmo168 (Mar 26, 2009)

Do you have any pic of the hilton garage? Looking forward for these set as I plan to go visit Prague in April.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

I will take a picture for you. But please keep in mind that I DO NOT recommend it.

The garage is small and cramped. The spaces are not very wide and if it is filled to capacity your car will likely get dinged.

Please note that this is the Hilton Old Town Prague. There are 2 Hiltons in Prague and the other property is considered to be much better when it comes to parking.

The lot here is also self park. It seems secure.

extremeromance is also here with his car and he agrees that it's a tight fit. 

On a similar note, the parking garage at the 4 points Munich is also a pain if you want to drive up to the front desk to get your bags. There is a winding path to get up 2 floors and it is very narrow. If you have a big car like a 7 series, you do stand a good chance of scratching something...wheels or worse if you aren't careful.


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## roots (Sep 27, 2002)

RVD said:


> Video:
> 
> I took a video in the car while I was driving. I don't know if any of you will find it interesting but it is a time lapse video. youtube might take it down because of the music. if they do, i will upload it to another place.


I like it! That's a really cool idea. How did you mount the camera?


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

heh, maybe i'll take a picture of that too.

i use a gorillapod attached to the passenger seat headrest area.

http://joby.com/gorillapod


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## extremeromance (Sep 14, 2010)

RVD said:


> I will take a picture for you. But please keep in mind that I DO NOT recommend it.
> 
> The garage is small and cramped. The spaces are not very wide and if it is filled to capacity your car will likely get dinged.
> 
> ...


Not to mention they charge you $40 per night for the parking garage, that is downright ridiculous, I've had valet parking at other hotels for much less, very excessive in my opinion.

Btw RVD, I made it to Munich in just a little over 3 hours and back home already, let me know if you see my car there when you drop off thanks


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

I dropped off my car today in Hamburg. I drove up to Hamburg, dropped off the car, am staying here tonight, and will take a train to Berlin tomorrow.

They charged me 1450 CZK for the 2 nights parking at the Hilton. This is a lot but it's actually cheaper than the Sheraton who charges 1000 CZK per night. Yes, it's too much.

Weather was rainy and foggy on my drive to Hamburg so I didn't drive too fast...kept it mostly at around 100 mph or so. But the weather did clear up a bit so I took the car up to 140+ mph which was fun. Nothing like 160 though.


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## Valentino15 (Apr 26, 2011)

What are your thoughts on the car overall?


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

The car is great. I kept the car in comfort mode most of the time but even in comfort mode, if you step on the gas, the car takes off. I played around in Sport mode for awhile as well and the car really takes off there. Comfort+ is way too soft and unresponsive for me. Sport+ seems interesting but it was wet when I was driving and I didn't feel comfortable disabling the traction control.

The ride is smooth and even at 140 mph the car doesn't struggle at all. I think the sweet spot for this car is riding at around 110 mph. The car hums along happily. Or maybe that's just the sweet spot for my comfort level.

The screen for navigation is huge. I split it for awhile but I actually prefer using navigation with the full screen because there are some icons on the right that cover up parts of the map. It feels a bit cramped when in split mode.

I did not get the active ventilated seats.

My only knock against the car so far is that the steering wheel is ok. I prefer the sport M style steering wheel a lot more but this will do. The leather is soft and it's a little slippery though.

There is a usb jack in the middle console and since i received a usb key from BMW, i loaded it up with some music and listened to it during this trip. I didn't listen to the local radio stations.

For gas mileage, I was mostly on the freeway and not too crazy but with the occasional high speed, I got around 22 miles/gallon over around 700 miles. I have more exact stats on my video camera since I recorded the screens.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

*Day 7 - Prague (2/29)*

Day 7 - Prague (2/29)

Wow, Prague is a great city. This is my first time coming to Prague and it's been a real eye opener. The city is beautiful and there is plenty to see.

I am staying at the Hilton Old Town Prague. It is in a pretty good location since it's only a few feet from Republicky Square which is about 5 minutes away from Old Town Square. The Old Town Square is pretty cool with lots of excitement and tourists. There is an astronomical clock, some statues, nice building, etc.

I parked the car in the underground parking lot. It's a safe structure with cameras, etc. to prevent car theft. But the structure is a bit cramped and the spaces are set up pretty tightly against each other. However, the lot is also relatively empty on the -3 floor (bottom floor). I parked my car in one spot and the 2 empty spots next to it were always empty (as far as I can tell).

I got my day started really early. I left the hotel at around 8:30. Since it was so early, the square was pretty empty at that time. The weather was dreary and cloudy but at least it wasn't raining. Pictures aren't so good in this kind of weather. There was about 10 minutes of sunshine throughout the day and I tried to take some pictures during these moments.

From there, I walked over to the Jewish district. The museums and places up there were all closed and the signs said that they open at 9:30. It was only around 8:45 so I decided to walk across the Charles Bridge and head over to the castle.

The Charles Bridge was empty as well in that early morning hour. I touched the 8th statue on the right (believed to bring you back to Prague someday if you do that) and made my way across the bridge.

On the other side of the bridge I walked over to the castle. This is a hilly climb so it's a bit of a pain to walk up there but not that bad.

Once on the top, you are rewarded with a nice view of Prague. The castle area itself is also pretty nice. The highlight was a church called St. Vitus Cathedral. I bought a "short tour" ticket which basically gave me access to the main 4 or 5 places there. I also saw some crown jewels, dungeon, small shops, etc.

Prague is part of the EU but they are not part of the EuroZone. This basically means that you have to use Czech Koruna (their currency) to buy stuff. Overall, I felt that Prague was a little cheaper than most European cities but not by much. Just for reference, stuff like coca cola would be around $2 (40 cz), lunch will be around $7-$8 (150 cz), admission to museums around $13 (250 cz), etc. Beer is pretty cheap and is generally around the same price as coca cola (or many times it's cheaper).

There is a tower as well so I bought a ticket to climb. It was a bit of a climb and longer than I thought. I stopped a few times to catch my breath but at the top was an even more awesome view of Prague.

After spending a few hours at the castle I walked through the "Lesser Quarter" through some parks, etc. It was a nice walk. I then walked back to the Old Town side via another bridge and saw the National Theatre. I also had lunch at a nice cafe called Kavarna Slavia. This is one of the most popular cafes in Prague and it's a great place to get some coffee, tea, dessert, etc. They also have a full menu of decent food. I tried the Czech food and ate a beef goulash.

The sun came out for a few minutes so I tried to snap a few pictures to take advantage of that.

After lunch I walked over to Wenceslas Square. This is just a big street with lots of shops everywhere. It's sort of like Times Square I guess. I'm not really big into shopping so I walked through until the end where you get a nice status of St. Wenceslas himself.

I walked from there to the Jerusalem Museum which had some interesting architecture. I did not go into the museum though.

I then walked back to my hotel for a quick 15 minute break. I charged up my camera batteries a little bit drank some water, and then headed back out to go to the Jewish section again. It was also hot so I chose to leave my coat and change into a sweater instead.

I walked back over to the Jewish section of town and the museums were opened this time. I went to about 5 different museums but couldn't take any pictures because they were forbidden.

The 2 best places were:

1) The Pinkas synagogue has the names of thousands of Jews from Prague that were killed. It's amazing to see all of the names written on the walls. This synagogue also has some pictures drawn by kids in the concentration camps. The innocent of the children in these horrific conditions is sad beyond belief. The pictures were most happy and light and I could imagine young kids laughing as they drew pictures on the backs of newspapers or any other scraps that they could get. I could also imagine the adults trying to keep these kids in happy spirits while the kids just didn't know any better. Very sad.

2) The cemetery is also interesting. It's a relatively small cemetery for the entire area and there are thousands of Jews buried here. The headstones are all over the place and almost on top of each other because they ran out of space long ago.

After the Jewish section, I walked back to the old town square for a little while. I tried to time it with 4pm so that I could hear the clock tower. At 4pm, the tower bells went off and trumpets sounded. It was pretty cool and I would have loved to take video but I left my video camera at the hotel when I took my break.

I concluded the day by going souvenir shopping a little bit. There really wasn't much to buy. I didn't really feel compelled to buy a "Czech Drinking Team" t-shirt. I bought a sweatshirt for my son and that was about it.

My day was over at 5pm. It was starting to get dark but more importantly I had seen everything that I wanted to see in Prague. It was another pretty hard core day of walking around everywhere while packing in everything that a city has to offer in a single day.

I crashed at around 6pm and woke up at 2am.

I leave for Hamburg at 6am. I believe that it's about a 7 hour drive and I would like to drop off the car. The cutoff to drop off the car is 3pm so that leaves me 9 hours including buffer. I think I should be ok.

Pics:

Gold Porsche Panamera










John Lennon Wall




























Beef Goulash










Grilled pork, potato/saurkraut, sausage - I ate this for dinner. It was ok but not as good as it looked.










Old Town Square









































































Charles Bridge










Random Stuff
































































Hilton Old Town Prague Parking Lot


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Regarding the John Lennon wall. I was told that when John Lennon died, some people in Prague wrote on this wall. The government was obviously not very happy about that so they cleaned it up. 

But these free speech kids just kept writing up graffiti on the wall again. It became sort of a game of the state run police vs. these misfit kids who felt that it was important to pay homage to John Lennon as well as exercise free speech (that didn't exist under the communist rule).

It went back and forth to the point where kids who were caught were severely punished. But these kids would still keep coming back late in the night to tag this wall.

Anyway, after the fall of Eastern Europe, the wall is no longer being painted over by the government.


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## Mikla (Nov 20, 2011)

Thanks for posting these pics! You obviously have more talent with the camera than I do. Keep 'em coming!

Mikla


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## jdefg2000 (Nov 28, 2011)

.....man, the food in Prague/Czech is so good!


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## chrischeung (Sep 1, 2002)

Actually, I found Czech food a little rough around the edges. My favourite European food is Belgian - seafood, goulash, mussels... But it's all pretty great!


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## wmo168 (Mar 26, 2009)

Thanks for posting, especially the parking garage, I am thinking it will be one of my stop for 1 day after Vienna...


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Regarding the parking lot...

The hotel location is great. It's walking distance to Old Town square, Charles Bridge, Jewish quarter, etc. It's really nice.

The parking lot is small and cramped. They charge 750 CZK/day for parking (roughly $40). I believe that is typical for Prague.

If the parking lot is full, your car will likely end up getting dinged. 

When I was there, the parking lot was always pretty empty (floor -3). But this is February/March which is a lot time for tourists. In the summer, it may be a completely different story in that lot.

Other reviews on bimmerfest indicate that the other Hilton (not Old Town Prague but the one on Poznezi (sp?)) has a much better parking lot.

Czech food was fine for me. I wouldn't necessarily say that it was good but it was hearty.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

I'm back. This was a great trip. I'm uploading pictures and videos now that I'm back home and I'll write up some more stuff.

I guess I never realized how great my internet connection is at home and at my office. I uploaded a video that's around 650 megs in about 7 minutes. This same video spent about 20 hours trying to upload at my hotel in Hamburg and only got about 20% done. The same video got up to about 30% while waiting in the airport lounge yesterday for about 3 hours, etc.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

*Day 8 - Hamburg*

Day 8 - Hamburg

Well, today is the day that I say good bye to my car for awhile. I wanted to go to Berlin but there's no drop off point in Berlin and the closest is Hamburg so I decided to drop off the car in Hamburg.

Since the drop off location closes at 3:30 and they want you there by around 3pm, I had to leave pretty early from Prague. I didn't want to cut it close in case I hit traffic or something. I also never recovered from jet lag so I have been waking up at 2am each morning.

So I figured I would just leave really early and make sure that I get to Hamburg on time. I left Prague a little bit after 5am and arrived at the delivery center at around 11:30am&#8230;plenty of time.

The drive was pretty wet and rainy for most of the way. I didn't push it too hard and mostly drove around 90-100 mph which is pretty slow for this car. When I got close to Hamburg, the weather cleared up in the sense that the sun never came out but at least the road seemed dry and it wasn't raining. So I pushed it too see how far I could go and I got up to around 141 mph or so. It was pretty fun.

I read on bimmerfest that the Hamburg drop off location is really hard to find. It is. I printed out a lot of directions, emailed the guys over there for directions, etc. In the end, the GPS was able to find it and guide me there so it worked out well. If the GPS didn't work, I'm not sure if I would have found it. It is in a really remote and odd area with really nothing else around.

I took a taxi from the drop off point to my hotel in Hamburg. I'm staying near the center of Hamburg at the Le Royal Meridien. It was a bit of a ways from the drop off point and the cab came out to about 30 euros.

I took the xootr and went exploring for a few hours. Hamburg is mostly a shopping type city so I looked around at some stores. There are a few sights here and there but not much. Nothing like Munich, Prague, Berlin, etc.

Tonight is my last night in a "good" hotel. Tomorrow I am staying at a cheap hotel near the Berlin airport because my flight is at 7:30am the following day. The day after tomorrow I am staying at a cheap hotel near the Madrid airport because I have another early morning flight to come back to the US.

My train tomorrow is at around 12:30 so I'll relax a bit in the hotel room before heading out. See y'all in Berlin!

Videos:

Morning






Driving 140+ mph






Hamburg Rathaus






Time lapse video of the drive






Pictures:

On the way to Hamburg










My setup for recording time lapse video










At a rest stop



















Le Royal Meridien Hamburg





































Sightseeing









































































Fancy Starbucks










More fries










Self portrait of my growing facial hair


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Day 9 - Berlin (3/2)

Plane, trains, and automobiles. In my case, it's plane, trains, automobiles, and then trains and planes again. Having completed the automobiles portion yesterday, today was back to another train.

I started the day in Hamburg. I bought a train ticket from Hamburg to Berlin for 12:00 noon. I would have preferred to leave Hamburg earlier but I wanted to be safe in case I was not able to return the car yesterday. In that case, I would have had to leave first thing this morning to return the car to the logistics center at 9am and then head out to the train station so I wanted to plan for that.

As a result, I just sort of hung out in my hotel room all morning. I ate breakfast in the hotel which was really good. They charge 30 euros for it and I don't know if it's worth that much but as an SPG platinum member, I was able to partake for free as my platinum amenity (a new feature that just started 3/1).

I left the hotel at 10:45. The train station was only a 5 minute or so walk from the hotel so I got to the train station and sat around at my track at around 11am. I was way too early again.

The train itself from Hamburg to Berlin was only 1:40. I got a second class ticket this time and although the seat was fine, the car was packed and crowded.

I got to Berlin. My hotel reservation was set for a cheap hotel (around $60/night) near the Tegel airport where I would be flying out of tomorrow morning at 7:20am. I also read that there's really nothing in that area.

I decided to leave all of my luggage in a locker at the train station, explore Berlin for a few hours, then head back to the train station to get all of my luggage, and then take a taxi to the hotel for the night.

The other option would be to go to the hotel now, then get back into the center of town, etc. It was already 1:40pm so I didn't really have much time.

Also, the only way to get to the hotel with public transportation is to take an express bus from the train station to the airport and then take the free hotel shuttle. This would take too long and would eat up too much precious sightseeing time.

So I was able to secure all of my stuff in a locker. I had to carry my valuables with me though in my backpack like my laptop, kindle, money, camera, etc. so my backpack was heavy.

I started by going to the Brandenberg Gate. This was pretty cool. This was a symbol of Germany and used to be part of the Berlin Wall (well the wall came up right alongside it).

I then walked over to the Rathaus where Hiltler and his guys made a lot of decisions. It was a huge and impressive building.

I then rode my xootr over to checkpoint charlie. It was further than I thought on the map and it would have taken forever if I didn't have my scooter. I went to the museum. It was interesting to see all of the ways that people would smuggle themselves over the border. Suitcases, cars with the fuel tank modified, hot air balloons, mini submarine, tunnels, etc. There was even a small modified BMW Isetta that a person could crawl into to hide themselves.

I took the metro from there to Alexanderplatz. This was a big open square and used to be a major part of East Berlin. It's just a bunch of stores and shopping now.

I then took the metro to the west part of town. The schloss charlottenberg. I didn't go in but it was certainly an impressive castle-type place.

And finally I took the metro to Kurtsdamme, the major shopping street of Berlin. This was sort of like Rodeo Drive / Times Square and was a fun street to go window shopping.

At conclusion, I took the metro back to the train station. On the train was a guy eating currywurst. It didn't necessarily look that good but he was really scarfing it down. It stunk up the entire car.

When I got to the train station, I realized that it was 6pm and I hadn't eaten since breakfast at the hotel in Hamburg. I ended up getting a currywurst like that guy on the train but I got it to go.

I got my stuff out of my locker, got in a taxi, and went to the hotel.

I am staying at the Mercure Hotel Tegel Airport. It's a no frills hotel located just a few meters from the airport. There is really no reason to stay here unless you have airport stuff to attend to (early morning flight, etc.). The restaurant looks decent and the reviews say it's ok but I just ate my currywurst.

They have wifi internet and it's only 9 euros/day so that's good too.

The beds aren't great but for $60 I didn't really expect much anyway. They have a free shuttle to the airport starting at 5am so it's nice.

Tomorrow I start my journey back home. I am flying to Madrid at 7:20am. The flight is roughly 3 hours. I am staying at a hotel near the Madrid airport so I will go there first thing when I land. If my room isn't ready I will just drop off my stuff there. If possible I'd like to check in my 2 bags tomorrow all the way to LA.

After almost 24 hours in Madrid (23 hours and 55 minutes), I head to Miami. I have a 3 hours layover in Miami and then I'm off to LA where I arrive home at 9:15pm on Sunday night. Monday morning is work.

It's a trek and this trip has been a journey highlighted by picking up the car. I knew that this would be a whirlwind trip and I planned it that way since I was traveling alone. Next time I think I'll bring my wife and we'll make it more of a 5 day trip where we hit Munich and 1 other city (I'll let her pick from Berlin, Prague, Vienna, etc.). That way we'll have some breathing room.

It will be interesting to see how much weight I've lost from this trip. I weighed myself at the hotel yesterday and it said 80 kg. My rough calculation has that at 176 pounds which would be freaking amazing since I was around 190 or so when I left LA. My goal weight is in the 155 area but I don't know if I'll ever get there.

Videos:

Someone asked about the BMW USB key so here's a video showing it. I actually took it off my keychain shortly after this video because the USB key is a little sharp at the edges. I think I'll file it down so that it does scratch up the key.






Brandenberg Gate.






Pictures:

Brandenberg Gate










Reichstag










Checkpoint Charlie














































Alexanderplatz










Schloss Charlottenberg










Kurfürstendamm




























Currywurst


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

*Day 10 - Madrid (3/4)*

Day 10 - Madrid (3/4)

Today started with an early morning flight to Madrid. My flight left Tegel airport in Berlin at 7:20am. This meant that I had to get to the airport by around 5:45 to check in, etc.

I was able to check in my 2 big bags all the way to LA. I was hoping that they would let me do this even though I have a day in Madrid. I have to get my stuff in Miami to go through customs but that's all normal stuff. At least I don't have to lug my bags around Madrid.

The flight was relatively uneventful. They boarded the plane pretty late. It was supposed to start boarding at 6:35 but they actually started at 7:10. As a result, we left at around 7:30 (10 minutes late) but we still ended up arriving roughly on time.

In Madrid, I decided to get a hotel right next to the airport with a free shuttle. This way I can just hop on the shuttle in the morning to catch my flight. I called the hotel and they picked me up. It took them 30 minutes which was a drag but it turned out that although the hotel is pretty close to the airport, the route is kind of weird&#8230;seems like the driver was driving around in circles to get to the hotel. It took around 10-15 minutes for what should have been about a 1 mile drive.

After checking into the hotel, I took the metro to the center of the city. The metro stop is a few blocks away so it's not too bad. But this is the last stop of the line so it takes a good 30-40 minutes to get into the city. I wouldn't stay here if i was staying in Madrid for more than 1 night.

I know Madrid pretty well. I came here twice before in 2009 and 2010. In fact, I was here for New Years 2010 which was a blast. So I didn't really have anything specific in mind. I contemplated going to the Thyssen museum since that's the only museum that I didn't go to on my previous trips. But I'm just not a huge fan of museums&#8230;probably just me but if you've seen one masterpiece, you've seen 'em all&#8230;

So I went to Puerta del Sol. It was lively as usual. I walked over to Puerta de Oriente and relaxed a bit. I then went to Plaza Mayor to see the craziness there.

One of my favorite things to do in Madrid is eat. I love tapas. Normally I would spread out my favorite food over a few days but since I only have 1 day, I had to pig out in order to eat everything.

I started at Mercado de San Miguel. This place is awesome. I love the tapas stands in here. It's always crazy crowded and today was no exception. I did manage to get a small bowl of paella but it was actually pretty bad. I ate about 1/3 of it and threw it out.

I love the gambas alla plancha at this one place but it's also the most popular stand there. It's an awesome grilled prawns dish and they just have these perfect seasonings. I couldn't get through the crowd though so I gave up and left.

I walked down the street to mason de champinones which is a small tapas place that focuses on mushrooms. Their mushroom caps are awesome. They also have these awesome pimientos (peppers) that I love. I ordered both and had a small cup of wine.

I then walked over to the chocolatier on San Gines where I always have their chocolate con churros. This is a thick hot chocolate with fried churros that you dip into the chocolate. It's heavenly. I ate that too.

At this point, I had a decision to make. Go to the Thyssen or stay here and try for the gambas alla plancha again and do some souvenir shopping. I chose the latter.

So I went back to Mercado determined as ever and got my way through. I was able to order my dish and eat with with a small cup of cerveza (beer). It was awesome as usual although a bit pricer than I had remembered. The dish was around 17 euros. Usually the smaller tapas dishes are under 5 euros but oh well.

I then went souvenir shopping along the streets as I walked back to Sol. I took the metro back and came back to the hotel before 5pm. Early enough to make sure that I don't get lost and early enough to get a good night sleep before going home tomorrow.

However, I did save the best meal for last. While shopping, I stopped by a jamon (pork meat) place. Jamon iberico de belotta is the best cut of jamon available. It's so precious that Spain doesn't even export much of it outside of the country because it runs out in the country. The stuff that I bought was just for a taste because each kg costs 99.90 euros! I only bought about 150 grams so it was around 15 euros worth. I have seen it at some of the high end markets here in the US every so often but it's always really expensive.

I took the jamon back to the hotel and had it for dinner. I used to smuggle jamon back to the US in my checked baggage but I don't think I'll do it this time.

6 hotel rooms. 6 flights. 2 trains. 2 road trips. 3 monetary currencies (4 if you include USD). 4 new cities that I've never been to before. 2 return cities that I love. What an awesome trip.

Videos:

Chocolate con churros






Mercado de San Miguel






Puerta del Sol






Meson de Champinones






Plaza Mayor






Pictures:

Sol



















Opera










Oriente



















Mercado























































Meson de Champinones





































Botin (oldest restaurant in the world - good suckling pig)










Plaza Mayor




























Chocolate con churros










Jamon iberico de bellota


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## Red Lined (Jan 3, 2012)

RVD, forgive me as I don't know much at all about photography, but what focal length are you using for your wide angle photos. They are really great. Do you find yourself going below 28mm much of the time for landscape and architecture photos? 

Thank you.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Red Lined said:


> RVD, forgive me as I don't know much at all about photography, but what focal length are you using for your wide angle photos. They are really great. Do you find yourself going below 28mm much of the time for landscape and architecture photos?
> 
> Thank you.


Short answer: 17mm.

Long answer: I use a Canon 1Ds Mark II which is a full frame DSLR. My lens is a Canon EF 17-40mm 4.0L. It's a decent lens for wide angle, etc. I find that in Europe, it is my primary lens that I can use everywhere. I would also say that around 75% of my pictures were taken at 17mm with the aperture ranging from 4.0-6.3 or so.

RVD.


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## jdefg2000 (Nov 28, 2011)

Great stuff RVD......gotta love Madrid...that's a city with life.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

Madrid is pretty nuts.

I remember my first trip out there a couple of years ago I was with some friends. We went out to dinner at 10:30pm and at 12:30am we were still in the restaurant and it was still packed full of people eating dinner. We were like "what kind of place is this?"

Then we went out to a bar and club...until 6am and when we got out, the streets were full of people trying to catch cabs to get home. 

The city comes alive at night. Crazy place but I love it.


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## Gluhwein (Aug 21, 2011)

You have to be the only guy in the world who goes on vacation to _lose_ weight! LOL. Love your reports. Interesting contrast between the 140 mph BMW and your scooter.


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## rmorin49 (Jan 7, 2007)

Your comments about Berlin bring back memories of my trips to Berlin from "West Germany" on the duty train. Scary giving up your passport to the East German police at the border and then getting them back when the train entered West Berlin. Both of my kids were scared SH**LESS when the police came through the train looking in every compartment when we left West Berlin headed back to West Germany. I also remember the trip when I drove from West Germany to Berlin using the one autobahn that was authorized for US military personnel. You could not get off and were warned not to stop for any reason. You get checked at the border entering East Germany and then again when you got to West Berlin. I have to admit I did trade an East German soldier 4 Playboy magazines and a pair of Levis for an East German belt buckle, an East German military uniform hat and 2 model train engines. In uniform, we could go through Checkpoint Charlie into East Berlin. On the street you could trade a W. German Deutschmark for 8 E. German Reichmarks. Then you could have a complete 4 course meal in an E. German restaurant for the equivalent of one U.S. $. It was very sad seeing the E. Germans lined up at the stores each evening for a loaf of bread and watching the 2 stroke Wartburgs spewing pollution into the air.


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## RVD (Sep 28, 2006)

I also ride a Brompton folding bike sometimes. That also gets me some interesting looks.


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