[gm1963]

Hi everyone,

To keep from writing an even longer book i'm attempting to use a date order method below to describe my experience along with some random thoughts about what we loved as well as what I would do differently if taking ED again. Photos follow the text.

6/29 Picked up 435i GC from the Welt and tour of Dachau

MSport, Tanzanite Blue, Oyster Leather, Ash Grain Trim, 19" Orbit Grey Wheels...Incredible experience, staff was awesome and paid very close attention to what was important to me, recognized my level of interest and my knowledge of the vehicle very quickly and therefore spent most of our time with the car rather than going through a lot of information I already knew, lounge was great, food is excellent there. Factory tour was amazing, incredible to see robots completing 100 welds in 58 seconds...highly recommend doing the tour and booking VERY early, we almost didn't get in even though I emailed 30 days in advance. After a couple of emails back and forth they found us a spot. After the tour we headed down to the shop for purchases, engraved key chain was a nice touch. Everything during delivery day was done so well as you would expect. I believe they said they had around 78 deliveries that day but made me feel like mine was the most important to them. Leaving the Welt we took a short 30 minute drive to Dachau to tour the concentration camp, the most moving experience of our trip, I would spend more time there if possible and take the guided audio tour, we simply didn't have but 1.5 hours to spend there before they closed...after that we headed to Salzburg

6/29-7/1 Salzburg, Fraulein Maria Sound of Music Bicycle Tour, Grossglockner High Alpine Road, Innsbruck and two castles

Salzburg is one of the most beautiful cities in Austria, this was our second visit and our second time to do the FM Bike Tour (50th anniversary of Sound of Music), highly recommend this tour if you want to get a great view of the city as well as seeing the filming locations for the movie...then off to Innsbruck via the Autobahn, stopping off to do a quick out and back on the Grossglockner High Alpine Road (If I were to do this again I would get to this road sooner and take more time there, we didn't get there till 7pm and only had a couple of hours to spend...also would probably leave my passenger (wife) at the hotel for this...awesome driving, not so much fun to be a passenger, per her). Innsbruck is also a beautiful city but we spent very little time there as we visited two castles which took most of the day. Dinner at Vapiano (Italian fast casual bistro that was a cross between Eatzi's and Chipotle)...LOVED the concept and both of us thought it would be a hit here in the U.S...also the fastest restaurant service we had the entire trip (by a lot!)

7/2-7/3 Karlsbad and the Black Forest

On Wednesday morning we got up and drove from Innsbruck to Karlsbad in the Black Forest. Karlsbad is a quaint little town that we used as our stop off point to tour the Black Forest. From there we did a day trip to Freiburg and Titisee. If I had it to do over again I would base in Titisee and tour the Black Forest from there. We rented E-bikes in Titisee to be able to move more quickly and be able to see more trails than hiking or biking regular bikes. I would do this again as the E in the E bike simply assists where needed to conserve energy, make hills more quickly, etc...

7/4-7/5 Rothenburg ob der Tauber

This is a beautiful old city in the heart of Germany, a walled medieval city dating back to the 1100's. Other than the fact that we went there in the middle of record heat (around 99 degrees f) and had no air conditioning we had a blast in this little town. The 8 P.M. tour with the Night Watchman is a must if you visit there.

7/6-7/7 Cologne and The Nurburgring Nordschleife Touristfahrten (single biggest bucket list item for me after ED at the Welt)

Based on the weather reports we decided to head to the ring on Monday night after dropping off our bags at the hotel in Cologne. We arrived a bit early at the Ring and I had already purchased my 4 laps in advance. We agreed that my wife would ride with me during my first (warm up) lap and then I would drop her off and take the other 3 by myself. The Ring was everything I expected and less busy than anticipated probably because it was Monday night and because we started early. On my first lap I was passed by 2 cars and I passed one. Each subsequent lap I was both passed by and passed more cars. I recommend getting there first thing and starting as early as possible. The track did close for a bit about the time I finished my 4th lap...and I did my laps back to back in about 45 minutes or so. I don't know if they reopened the track or not as we left shortly thereafter but you never know when someone will wreck and cause the track to be closed.
Regardless of what some have said on this forum, playing Gran Turismo or Forza before you head there is EXTREMELY helpful in anticipating turns. It doesn't help you understand the off camber turns, the correct turn in points, the severe elevation changes, etc...but it does give you a really good sense of when you need to be prepared to slow down quickly. I never felt unsafe or out of control. Of course I am 51 years old and vowed not to get even close to the limit of what my car would do...and to pull over to the right with indicator on and slow down EVERY TIME another car was coming from behind but I thoroughly enjoyed my 4 laps, it was just the right amount of turns around the ring for an evening for this amateur driver just looking to experience the awesomeness of "The Green Hell".


7/8-7/10 Amsterdam

We closed out our trip in Amsterdam and basically parked the car except for one night where we drove out to a beautiful picturesque seaside town outside of the city called Volendam where we had the best fish and chips we've ever tasted. Highly recommend the tour of the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam Just be sure to get tickets to both in advance on their website. We waited in line for 2.5 hours to see the Anne Frank house and found out later we could have saved that by purchasing tickets in advance...they recommended doing so 6 to 8 weeks ahead of time as the advance tickets sell out quickly.

Final thoughts:

Driving in Europe...If you're going to do ED, I highly recommend getting navigation as an option on your vehicle. BMW provides a USB Drive with European maps that works perfectly...more perfectly than any Nav I've experienced in the U.S. If you purchase a car with Navigation you'll be provided the same thing. Both my wife and I were easily able to pinpoint destinations, put in addresses and not worry about where we were going and this was a huge stress reducer. Our specialist at the Welt also showed us how to take advantage of the interactive map feature on the iDrive system to easily move the cursor to a destination and activate guidance to head there. I was also told by one of our hosts at a B&B that our license plates were not normal and looked to be that of a "foreign diplomat" and that we would never be pulled over by the police for speeding with those plates (his words, not mine and only hearsay so take it for what it's worth). I did consistently drive over posted speed limits where they existed (mostly with the flow of traffic on the autobahn) and was never stopped by a cop. There are many areas on the autobahn that do have speed limits and a lot of construction areas but I managed to get to 250kph a few times and routinely drove between 140 and 160 kph. The autobahn is absolutely awesome!! I can only dream of a highway here where people get the heck out of the left lane when overtaking cars are coming from behind. For the most part, drivers in Germany are courteous and pay attention to those around them much more than do drivers in the U.S.

Thanks to all on the forum that helped during the process...I started shopping and building this baby in October of last year and have had a great time utilizing the forum to learn so much about ED, pricing, and BMW as a brand. I'm extremely grateful for all of you and for your participation in this forum, you made a huge impact in making my ED experience a great one. A final shout out to my dealer Jason Ruzek at Bel Air BMW in Maryland...Jason you did an awesome job, sorry I won't get to see you in person at final delivery but I would recommend you to anyone who does ED for their next BMW.

See you all down the road!

[DrivenByE30]

Awesome trip and awesome car combo !!!

Thanks!

[JasonX4MComp]

Thanks Gary. It's been a pleasure working with you as well. It's been great following your trip on Facebook and seeing all the pictures. Looks like you had a great time and the car looks even better than I imagined! Can't wait to talk to you after your PCD!

[Brian_R]

Sounds like it was a great trip! Working on getting my itinerary nailed down at the moment so every ED report helps. How do you like the ride on the 19s? Was it compliant enough in the few days you drove it? Thanks!

[jeremicium]

Nice. Thanks for the post. Love BMW blues.

Any recommendations for places to eat and things to do in Cologne and Rothenburg?

I'm doing ED in September and was planning to get my 1200 mile service in Cologne (I assume there is a dealer there.) before driving the Ring.

[fusion0389]

Congratulations, doing an ED is definitely on my list of things to do whenever I get my next BMW. Is there anything that BMW does to resolve or protect your car from any rock chips or damage from other road debris that you may run into while over there? I usually get paint protection film on all my cars, but I dont think ED will give you that as an option.

[gm1963]

Originally Posted by Brian_R

Sounds like it was a great trip! Working on getting my itinerary nailed down at the moment so every ED report helps. How do you like the ride on the 19s? Was it compliant enough in the few days you drove it? Thanks!

Yep, they seemed plenty compliant...as always, the run flats get louder after they get broken in. It's really amazing how much difference there is between comfort and sport as well, I have DHP which I'm sure my wife appreciated...left it in comfort a lot as you could definitely feel the difference in ride as a passenger (of course by myself I'll probably always drive in Sport)...honestly have zero complaints even with the fact that there's obviously a difference between my old E90 in terms of road feel...but I guess i'm not as much of a purist as some...absolutely LOVED the car, can't wait to get it home

[gm1963]

Originally Posted by fusion0389

Congratulations, doing an ED is definitely on my list of things to do whenever I get my next BMW. Is there anything that BMW does to resolve or protect your car from any rock chips or damage from other road debris that you may run into while over there? I usually get paint protection film on all my cars, but I dont think ED will give you that as an option.

I think you're right, there is no option to get film or tint or anything else that would be either dealer installed or port installed options. Having said that, I've heard from others on the forum that at times there were door dings, rock chips and other minor damage that mysteriously disappeared when the car got home. I think they have folks that handle all kinds of minor shipping damage because I would suspect this happens all the time. Fortunately I didn't have any damage, not even a slight rock chip, when I dropped the car off. I did have some minor splatter on one fender well from driving through what I believe to be fresh paint on the road and I couldn't get it off with what I had available but I think (assuming it's not gone when I get the car) I'll be able to take care of it when the car gets home when I have my full battery of cleaning gear but I do intend to opticoat the car as soon as it gets home and maybe clear bra the front and rear, haven't decided exactly what yet but I've got a guy that is extremely anal that does this, i'll probably rely on his judgement....Cheers!

[gm1963]

Originally Posted by jeremicium

Nice. Thanks for the post. Love BMW blues.

Any recommendations for places to eat and things to do in Cologne and Rothenburg?

I'm doing ED in September and was planning to get my 1200 mile service in Cologne (I assume there is a dealer there.) before driving the Ring.

1200 mile service...so is it an M3 or an M4? I didn't even think about that issue when choosing my car but glad I didn't have to mess with it...but yes i'm sure there are several dealers in Cologne.

You want to make sure and go to the Cathedral in Cologne both day and night if possible...amazing piece of architecture and we ate at a great traditional German restaurant/brewery about a mile south of the Cathedral called Malzmuhle Brahaus with a solid wood revolving door for an entrance...really cool place but very busy, be sure you're never in a hurry when dining over there...service is slow EVERYWHERE and usually there are like 40 to 50 people per server and this place was no different...but it was awesome!

In Rothenburg the best restaurant we found was named Reichsküchenmeister I believe...has a great patio overlooking a little church. You will just park your car in Rothenburg and be on foot the entire time you're there, just fyi...it's a completely contained little medieval town and you can see the entire town in a couple of days, just walking...we loved it, be sure and walk the wall and also like I said early go do the walk with the Night Watchman in the evening. Huge Christmas store if you're into that kind of thing, it's sort of a Christmas town.

Also, be sure after you go do the ring to go to nurburg and eat at the little restaurant on the left as you're heading into town...it's got amazing memorabilia, signed photos, etc...We just happened on it but I was told it was THE place to go after driving the ring (we just got lucky)...several mechanics, other ring employees were also there, it's only a couple of miles from exiting the road to the ring. Sorry I don't remember the name but you can't miss it on the left as you're heading into town. They bring your steak on a stone and it continues to cook for as long as you'd like, comes out rare but as you cut it you simply leave the steak on there to taste...it was the bomb!

Have a great trip!

[Fazerfahrer]

Originally Posted by jeremicium

Nice. Thanks for the post. Love BMW blues.

Any recommendations for places to eat and things to do in Cologne and Rothenburg?

I'm doing ED in September and was planning to get my 1200 mile service in Cologne (I assume there is a dealer there.) before driving the Ring.

...there are a lot of dealer in Cologne, BMW own and Procar, but I heard that they have nice showrooms but not the best reputation for service.

Dealer Hakvoort in Koenigswinter should be a good option. Koenigswinter is around 25 miles south of Cologne direction Nürburgring. When you're in Königswinter you should take the chance to use a small rack railway to enter the Drachenfels from where you have a nice biew from the mountain on the landscape snd the river rhine.

[jeremicium]

Thanks for the input guys. I'm getting an M4 so it does require the 1200 mile service. From what i've read the engine won't rev beyond 5500 until the service is performed and the ECU unlocked.

After doing some research i found that there is an M certified service center in Trier...which was high on my list of places to visit.

We're doing two night in Rothenburg, so i'll be sure to check out the restaurant and do the wall walk.

[gm1963]

Hey all, just a heads up...i've had two speeding tickets come rolling in the last two days...expecting more now. I think I failed to slow down enough entering some of the tunnels...fortunately they're only small fines, 17 and 35 Euros so far anyway (if I decide to pay them, haven't made that decision yet, don't expect to drive in Europe again for many many years if at all) but wanted to give a heads up about them as I only remember one flash(where we knew there was a camera), seems like they are only in the areas where the speed limit goes down to 50kph, yes there are areas on the Autobahn where you have to go that slow...like I say, just wanted to give a heads up if you're headed over there