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Words of caution- I've been having jetlag issues and have been staying up til about 8 AM everyday here. Thus I had a lot of time to write about the experience.


Day 1- In the morning my dad and I took my brother to the airport for his flight to Munich. He wanted to come along 10 days before the trip so he ended up booking a different flight than us. At about 5:00 PM I went to school to take my marketing final.
Drove home at about 6:00 to finish packing up a few remaining items such as toilet paper, toothpaste, etc. We then headed to the airport at to catch our flight to Munich from SFO at 9:55 PM.

We were pretty much the last to check in. The plane took off about 10 minutes earlier than expected. As soon as the last passenger boarded, they left the parking station and soon we were on the runway; it was a full flight. I was pretty surprised with Lufthansa’s seats as they were pretty narrow. I mean I’m in no way a big guy, I guess I was just expecting them to be like those of AA and such airlines. My brother later told us that his seat on British Airlines was pretty big and he had a lot of legroom. Well at least the food was decent.

Day 2- We landed in Munich at about 5:50 or so- about 25 minutes before around scheduled arrival. After baggage claim we went to our pre-arranged meeting spot with Rolf. Unfortunately he’s not yet arrived which we didn’t blame him since it wasn’t his fault that the plane landed early. Haha After about 15 minutes or so we gave Rolf a call to let him know that we’ve landed early and to make sure that he was coming. He told us that he’d just arrived and was looking for parking. A few minutes later he came strolling in on a scooter while pushing a luggage cart. LOL What a guy!

We then bought some kind of donut looking stuff that was recommended by Rolf. We ate some ourselves and treated Rolf to some “donuts”. On our way to the car Rolf told us a few facts about the airport. He showed us that one red train that was never completed (forgot why). We took some pictures at the airport and its biergarten. Rolf drove his 3 series wagon today. We hit about 120mph on the way to the Marriott. On the way Rolf explained and showed us a few landmarks such as the television tower and the BMW 4-cylinder building next to it.

He also sat with us for a while and recommended some things to do and places to see. After check-in we unpacked and took a little nap. Per Rolf’s recommendation, we bought a subway ticket at the front desk for 9 Euros (covers up to 5 people) and took a ride to Marienplatz.

What a beautiful place!!! Everything was so historical yet refined. It was cool to see how people were just sitting outside eating just like our home country Vietnam. We tried some ice cream there. It was good- I liked it a lot! We took some pictures there and walked around a bit.

The taxis were pretty much all Mercedes painted in a cream color. After about an hour or so I suggested that we should have dinner before heading back to the hotel. However, my brother wanted to see a little more of the city before eating dinner.

We walked to this six-way intersection that reminded us of an intersection in Ho Chi Minh City. Everything there was just like Vietnam: people hanging on the sidewalks, sitting on steps eating and drinking, etc. We didn’t feel like we were really in a foreign country at all. Afterward we got back on the subway and headed to the hotel. I almost forgot to mention: holy crap was those stairs steep!!! It was like one of those log-rides at Great America. Oh and German girls are HOT!!! I saw a lot of hot girls on the subway and in the city. WOW!!

Day 3- Back at the hotel, we had our dinner in the room since everything was pretty much closed at that time. We went to bed at about 1:30 AM or so. My mother had no problem falling asleep. My brother had about an hour of sleep before waking up to finish writing his essay. He had to turn it in the following day. I got about 2.5 hours of sleep or so before waking up and stayed up.

We started getting ready at about 6 so that we could meet Rolf up at 7:15 in the lobby. This time Rolf picked us up in a black BMW 730. The delivery center was actually pretty close by. I gave the receptionist my passport and we headed up stairs for breakfast. They did ask for the voucher- luckily I printed one out in preparation for the trip. From what I know they won’t hassle you if you don’t have one but it was nice to be prepared.

My mom and brother had sandwiches, Rolf had some white sausages and I had some meatballs with curry sauce with orange juice. All were good food!! The center was quite full that day. When we came in there were already about 15 people waiting. After a few minutes more showed up. It’s no surprise since Friday is usually their most busy day.


We only waited for about 15 minutes before Judith greeted us and went over the paperwork. We then headed down stairs and into the garage to see our car.

The garage was pretty much packed with cars and motorcycles. And there was it was- the black pearl. Man the car was so shiny and the black so deep I can almost feel myself being absorbed into it. Judith went over a few new things with us and helped set up the navigation system. It all took about 10 minutes since we’re not new to BMW thus we asked for a quick walkthrough.

Judith bid us goodbye and wished us a happy and safe trip and we headed off to Harms to do our paperwork. We got there in no time thanks to the navigation system. It only took us about 10 minutes or so to do the paperwork. Thomas was nice and friendly. He went over all the paperwork with us and explained the entire process and also what we needed to do when dropping off. Then it was off to Fussen to visit Neuschwanstein.

We set the nav to avoid highways and had a nice drive through the back roads. It was a pleasant drive. We stopped at a grocery in town to buy some water and snacks before completing the 5 minute trip to the castles. We bought tickets for both castles but only got to see one because we missed our tour time. So then we took the horse carriage up to Neuschwanstein and waited for our tour.

I felt kind of bad for the horses because there were about 12 people or so in the cart and there were only two of them pulling us. Later on the walk down I saw them sticking their tongues out as if out of breath pulling yet another cart of visitors up the slopes. Anyway, about 5 minutes before the start of our tour the wind picked up and it started raining. It was pretty crazy because the wind was very violent. The whole mountain howled as if it came to life. We took shelter in the gift shop for a few minutes before going through the ticket gate.

 

Very beautiful castle!! Oh and did I mention big?? The freaking thing was humongous with giant yards, long walkways, and big rooms. Every single thing in the castle was perfectly detailed. Granted that the castle wasn’t finished because Ludwig II died before construction was completed, it still looked amazing. I wasn’t sure if the guide was tired since ours was pretty much the last tour of the day but it only lasted about 20 minutes or so. I didn’t really care since I just wanted to hit the roads again. We got home at about 8:30 or so and checked into the Renaissance.

We originally booked all 3 nights at the Renaissance via Priceline but needed another night with some changes in our travel plan. With a bid of $70 + fees we got the Marriott the night before. I must say I liked the Marriott much more than the Renaissance.

We were tired from the trip and wanted to just crash for a while. It was pretty hot in the room and we found that it had no AC. Eh well- opening the windows and door seemed to do the trick. We ordered some pizza for the night as we were too tired to go out. Besides my mother, my brother and I only had a few combined hours of sleep. Besides we needed to go to bed early for our long trip tomorrow.

Day 4- We awoke at 4:00pm and got ready for the trip to Venice, Italy. We left a little past 6 with an ETA of 11:30. We hit a lot of traffic on the way there so the ETA was bumped up to 1:30. I must admit that I don’t like the Italian toll system at all. Every now and then we had to stop and pay the toll which ranged anywhere from 1.60 – 19.5 Euros. I was just frustrated because it seemed like they were everywhere. Here in the states I’m used to just 2- one in San Francisco and one going to Sacramento. We actually ended up in a little town outside of Venice and stopped by a local pizzeria for some Italian spaghetti. I had some seafood one which was pretty good. We also tried some Italian ice cream which was quite tasty. We then asked the locals of things to see and got nothing from them. One lady told us that the sea is pretty much the only thing around there but it’s quite some distance away. Never having been to Venice before, we had no idea whether how far the sea was and she couldn’t tell us either. We then just drove around visited some parks in Venice. Then we headed back toward Milano and Lake Como.

When we got to Lake Como it was a little windy and rainy. Wish we had gotten there earlier that day when the sun was shining bright. We took some pictures by the lake and then shopped for gifts for our family back home. My father wanted to buy a leather jacket but we couldn’t find one that’d match him. In fact, I wasn’t even sure that the mall we went to even carry the kind of jackets we were looking for. All the jackets they had there were very thin and well…not very stylish. We then went around town looking for a place that carries some quality jackets but couldn’t find anything. All the shops closed pretty early there. After some final attempts in vain, we left Lake Como is dismay. With the navigation set for the Renaissance Munich, we were on our way toward some much needed rest. My brother drove from Lake Como through the Italian Alps towards Munich because I was feeling very sleepy then. He actually got flashed by radar before getting off the autostrade and onto the mountain roads. When we got back on to the autobahn, I took over and up to about 120mph. Although it wasn’t our first time at that speed on the autobahn, it was indeed our first at night. The road was pretty much a straight line with virtually no cars around which made the drive a very easy and enjoyable one. By that time it was already 11:30 so everyone was either at home sleeping or at a local pub with friends. We got back to the hotel at about 2 in the morning and just crashed.

Note: this was the most disappointing part of the trip. We made a bad choice of driving all the way to Italy and didn’t really get to see or explore much of the city. We also couldn’t find a jacket for my father since all the shops were closed. We actually wanted to buy him some authentic Italian leather jacket as a souvenir. I know we can buy them in the states but it would mean more if we actually bought it in Italy. We also had to pay a few hundred Euros in gas that day. We just laughed about it and everyone agreed when I said “just think of it as very expensive plates of spaghetti”. Hey, at least we can say that we’ve been to Italy. lol

Day 5- This was the best part of our trip. In the morning we went back to Marienplatz and took the “sightseeing” tour bus and went around the city. We filmed and took pictures of pretty much everything the guide talked about. The tour was just perfect- it wasn’t too long as to make it neither boring nor too short as to make it not worthwhile. We learned quite a bit about the city, its landmarks as well as some historical figures. For example, there was a statue of King Ludwig on a horse that was erected in honor of him. The statue was ironic because Ludwig did not know how to ride a horse. After the trip we headed to the English Garten to well…walk around. It was pretty much a big park with a stream running through it and a lake nearby. After seeing some nude people sunbathing, I then remembered what Rolf said about how people just take off their clothes when it gets hot outside. It was kind of cool to see that people are so comfortable being naked in public. Besides, I didn’t mind being around naked chicks

Afterward we headed to Ingostadt to visit the town. We walked around for a bit, tried some ice cream, took some pictures and headed on over to Rothenburg.

Rothenburg was awesome!! It’s like we traveled back to medieval time. If you saw Lord of the Ring or any of those movies then you can pretty much imagine what Rothenburg looks like. It was a small city encompassed by a brick wall. People here dressed like Disney characters from Robin Hood to Paupers to the witch in Cinderella (although not exactly like a witch of course). A lot of shops were opened and we bought most of our souvenirs from there. We bought some wooden swords, shields, bow and arrows, plastic toy horse and knight, posters and some other stuff which I cant recall at the moment.

We explored a church inside the city and walked down to the basement. It was quite eery. It was dark and narrow with only a few very small windows to let some light in. At the end of the walkway we climbed the narrow and steep stairs back up to the church’s main room. Although there was a sign that said “no photography”, the watchman was kind enough to let us snap of some pictures. After my mother and I went outside, my brother snuck up the upper level to see what it was. The word snuck in this context means that we didn’t know he went up there, not because they didn’t allow anyone up there. He later told us that it was pretty scary up there. He said there were long, dark, narrow hallways with darkened rooms on the sides which add suspense to the mysterious and eerie feeling the place gives out.

We up, down, and all over the city and saw a lot of things there. For one thing, there were tons of tourists; not just Americans but also Chinese, Koreans, and people from nearby countries. There was also some kind of flea market with music and dancing. They were selling everything from food to blankets to rings to soap. What a unique and culturally rich city. People there were very friendly. It was such a wonderful experience. What a way to spend our last day in Germany. It was something that we will never forget.

Day 6- we dropped my brother off at the airport for his early flight back home and then headed back to the hotel to pack up and check out. We drove around the city a bit and went to the BMW 4-cylinder building so that I can take some pictures of it. Then we headed to Harms and dropped off the car. Rolf was already waiting to take us to the airport. The flight back home was quicker than the flight over mainly because I was able to sleep more on this one. They showed Music and Lyrics and The Holiday for the in-flight movies. I didn’t get to see the first because I felt asleep at the start of it but did catch the latter. When we got home, I unpacked, ate some dinner and slept for 16 hours with ETA (estimated time of awakening of 3:45 PM). LOL

Last thoughts: with the exception of Italy, it was a wonderful experience overall. I just wish we had more time to spend there. With my brother having presentations and projects due this week and finals the next, we couldn’t extend the trip any longer than those few days. They were the only dates that fit within our timeframe. I highly recommend European Delivery to anyone who is purchasing a BMW. It’s not just so that you could save money (which in this case actually cost us more –lol), it’s the experience that will last a lifetime.

PS_ got up to 150 MPH on the Autobahn. I only went over the 4500 RPM break-in limit twice- once at 4600 RPM and once at about 5300 RPM. Put a total of 1430 miles on the car.

 

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