Hey E92M3WestLA,
I don't know exactly how I ended up here, but I sure am glad I did.
Amazing write-up on what seems to have been a great ED - thanks for the enjoyable read. And obviously, congrats to your new car.
Being from Germany, and actually living in Munich since 2011, there are a few things in your report that I would like to comment on, whether it's clarifying something, stating my opinion, or just trying to discuss certain aspects.
First off, the
television control. That is something I have never heard of, that the remote doesn't turn on the TV when pressing the On/Off button. (Hence the name, obviously.) Do you recall what brand those TV's were? In general, TV's here can be turned on by either pressing the On/Off button, or by pressing one of the numbers on the remote - sometimes, other buttons will do the trick too, but generally it's those two possibilities. And if I remember correctly, that shouldn't be any different in the US.
Regarding your comment about
suits in the Munich underground - perhaps you were riding at the correct times, because usually there is quite a few people in suits using the metro. Then again, Munich has a much lower population density than NYC, and a much less congested city center, since the buildings aren't very high here (in contrast to Frankfurt e.g.). So, since everything is more spread out, traffic isn't as bad as in NYC, and therefore many people go to work by car.
As far as your
delivery goes, not much seems to have changed since 2011. (We picked up a X3 30d.) We enjoyed it a lot, and whoever came up with the idea to include this staircase from which you have the first view of your new car deserves an award.
Adding to that, as already posted below your YouTube video - that "second" victory lap outside of the building, passing by those standing cars, is not "part of the experience" - the just showcase some cars there, not intended as a second victory lap.
Regarding "
Englishchner Garden" - the correct name is: Englischer Garten - which simply means "English Garden". It's actually larger than NYC's central park, check
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Englischer_Garten for further info.
The cars you captured in the
Westin Grand parking garage were mostly Sixt rentals, distinguishable by their license plates. (M-S*, M-T*, + 4 digits) And
taxi rides in Germany (Europe) are naturally more expensive than say a cab ride in NYC - fuel prices here are (as you experienced) much higher, and that's is the largest component of taxi prices.
You said
wine in grocery stores is very cheap around here - that is true, but then again, it's only wine from a grocery store. Go to a real wine-trade, and you will be able to find tons of wine that skyrocket your taste buds as well as your shopping bill.
I'm not implying that wines from the grocery store aren't good, they just often aren't the top ones, and buying them there doesn't include the sensation of strolling through a large store with all kinds of wine from all over the world, being able to taste the ones that catch your eye, having vivid discussions about flavors and vineyard sites, and taking home the exact amount of bottles you want from the wines you liked. Always fun, and a great experience if you've never had it before.
You then said you visited Hall Mitte, and called it a Mint museum - that is not fully correct, since the museum is called
Münze Hall (or Hall Mint in English). Hall Mitte presumably refers to the city center of Hall. Similar thing with the "Nordkettenbahen" - it's
Nordkettenbahn (or Nordkettenbahnen in plural form), and that simply is the name of the railroad service that gets you to the top of the Nordkette <- that's the actual name of the mountain. ("Bahn" simply means train/railroad. So Nordketten
bahn gets you on top of the Nordkette - "Nord" is north, "kette" is chain - so it's the northern chain of mountains of the Inntalkette.. now we're drifting off.
) (As I said previously, I'm not trying to be a super smart one here, I just want to correct a few little mistakes, for example in case someone wants to do the same and ends up googling the wrong things.)
You later criticized the
Hotel Hirsch for being very basic, but I cannot really understand that criticism. The room has a nice bed, a large TV, a large closet, it was clean - what else would you have wanted, or better: needed? I mean, you only stayed in the room for like 12 hours, and most of that time you were sleeping!? Also the breakfast buffet doesn't look "basic" as you described it - it has a ton of things to choose from, it does not have anything warm, because as you probably have noticed during your trip, eating warm for breakfast isn't common here (coffee's warm enough^^) - so yeah. If you were the type of person that wants personal butlers at all times etc., I could understand that you weren't happy there, but you seem to be a down-to-earth guy (couple), so really - can't understand that one.
Shortly after, you talk about driving on
country roads and how they have no speed limits - that is not correct, there is a speed limit of 100 km/h on all country roads, if no signs indicate otherwise (80 or 70 or 50 km/h). It isn't indicated specifically, because that would simply mean thousands of road signs showing the exact same thing after each city limit in any direction. You will have come across this sign when entering into Germany:
As you can see: general speed limit of 50 inside cities, 100 outside, and a recommended speed of 130 on the Autobahn.
Then you had that awkward experience with the
kids collecting your money for the pictures - I have never heard of anything like that before.
Seems like they had a stupid idea and tried it with the American guy.. yeah, kids these days.
(Perhaps there was a deeper meaning to it, or they took the idea from grown-ups who do something similar (e.g. the Night Watchman) - i assume they were just messing around though.)
Afterwards, you spent the
night in an old castle - cool idea, seems like a fun thing to do. I have to say though, even if it was a bit scary walking around the castle in darkness, in a rural area like that, there is nothing going to happen to you. There are no deadly insects or animals around here, nobody will be sneaking up on you or shooting you or whatever. In general northern Europe is extremely safe, compared to the south, the US and elsewhere. And that there were hardly any lights even inside is hard to believe for me - not even hallway lights with motion sensors or anything like that? If not, that would really be surprising.
Then again though: what were you doing outside a
castle and outside of your room in a
castle after 10 pm, you foul-mouthed knave?
The next day, you experienced a German religious holiday called
fire tag - I am so sorry, but I laughed tears reading that.
The actual name of the holiday is
Feast of the Ascension, and the German word for holiday is - Feiertag.
(Feier = festivity/party, tag = day) No playing fire-tag or so that day.
In Würzburg, it's actually quite funny that you walked over that
crowded bridge (Alte Mainbrücke - Alte = old, Main = river Main, brücke = bridge), because they are having quite a conflict of interests there. Local vintners have discovered that bridge as a great location to set up small stands, where they sell their products - which poses a problem for the city, because the old bridge isn't capable of holding too many people on it. So they've had to set limitations to how many stands can be on the bridge, and how many glasses they're allowed to give out at the same time.. a lot of back and forth going on there.
Later you experienced the
Frankfurt area - I recently spent 3 months there as well, and Frankfurt simply is not a nice city. Even though there are some of Germany's most homes in the suburbs of the city and a little further out, and even though Frankfurt is home to "our" Wall Street and such, it just.. I also spent some time around the central train station, while waiting for a train.. just naah.
You obviously also went onto the
Nürburgring - haven't done that yet, but sounds like a great experience. Definitely on my to-do list - first I need some sort of racy car though.
Also, thanks for the picture with the current lap prices.. they are just ridiculous. With the whole theme park etc. going bankrupt, it seems like they upped the prices for the Nordschleife again - let's hope that Porsche or Volkswagen buys the track, and gets it working again like it used to.
And last and kind of least, I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that you bought
t-shirts of pretty much everything you did or visited - great idea actually, never thought about it, but if you make room for the added clothes, a great way to showcase where you've been and what you've done.
Yeah, this has gotten much longer by now than I intended, hehe.
Anyways, thanks for the great read, enjoy the time with your M3, and do come back for a new one in a couple of years.
Take care,
Max