2020 BMW M2C SO DCT no options
July 31st
reached Munich using United(Lufthansa) which was the most uncomfortable (and empty) flight I was in. the airport pickup was late. I had to call them and they made the pickup chauffeur call me. other than that the drop off at ANA hotel nearby BMW welt seamless. dropped off luggage and headed down to old town. most shops close by 7:30-8. had difficulty placing order for a beer at the Hofbräuhaus as I was the only sorry ass drinking alone.
Aug 1st
Got lost trying to exit the hotel complex. Tried to exit the building but turned out I was trying to break into a apartment complex which was above the hotel. Finally followed the stream of people walking in a direction and was able to exit and walk to the BMW welt. 8 am appointment. Dropped off luggage at the front desk and took the elevator up to the premium lounge. Had orientation where they handed me the docs including the green munich registration pamphlet and told me to carry it everywhere I go (and that whoever has it owns the car ??). I pig on the breakfast. Comment the pretzels are salty. Think about going into the kids zone and riding on those push cars. Spot my car from above. Grin solidifies for a while.
I meet the lady doing my orientation. The orientation itself was pretty cool where they explain the car features. Walk down to stairway of heaven. I stand around spaced out while the lady starts the sequence which makes the car spin like batmobile in bat cave. The regular orientation and appreciation and quirks and features. I drive around one lap but its not as fun as I thought as there are people on the pathway taking pics of their families with their new rides. Exit building, drop off car with valet and then head back in around 10:30 am.
Visited the BMW museum with the card they give you. No terribly interesting unless you are a mechanical nut. Well laid out and maintained. Visited the gift shop, nothing of much interest. Factory tour starts at 12:00 pm. Pretty interesting watching 3/4 series getting built. Regular robots, people, assembly lines you would expect in a manufacturing facility (I have been on the Tesla factory tour and its kinda similar but smaller scale). Ends at 2:00 PM.
Drive to fussen. The drive took us through some backroads, the car felt planted, the scenery was very very pretty that I had hard time keeping eyes on the road. One thing I noticed was the usb maps started to glitch and it wouldn't reset if we park the car and switch it off. I had to run away in the rain and lock it from a distance to force the maps to reset every time. Reached Fussen ahead of time, parked car, toured castle, ate some pho, found hotel, day complete
Aug 2nd
Curbed the rear left wheel first thing in morning on a roundabout. Got stuck in fussen old town while trying to get to breakfast place (bmw maps). Local people helped me get out and directed to a parking lot outside the center. Drive to the Dolomiti. Got held up by German polizei for an hour before entering Austria. The green booklet to the rescue here as well as my passport, driving license and international driving license. One polizie comes running from inside their van and says this is BMW M2 to the guy who was stopping the cars. Anyways wait for a while while the cop inside the van goes through my documents. He goes through my e-ITA.org international driving permit that I paid for online and printed out. He says u need to have a AAA booklet. I show him my AAA card and say I had one the last time I was in Italy but this time I got it online as I was in a hurry. He debates a bit and then lets me go after a while. I see him cursing the heavens in my review mirror. Drive to reifenstein castle in Vipiteno. Wait an hour for the tour. They have tours only in German or Italian. I just aimlessly ponder behind the group. Its raining cats and dogs. I worry about the gravel drive and like a idiot spin up the wheels while driving out. Reach Chiusa. Wander the streets. pretty little town. Good parking. Reach Ortisei. Try to find parking for Jakob's church hike. Find parking infront of a restaurant. The parking is like a table top. Tried to get car up, but car sides got stuck as the embankment is too high. Curse myself and then scrape it back out. Find parking a bit way down on side of the road. Hike complete, my hotel landlady makes me some sandwiches, day complete
Aug 3rd
Drive to Grand Cir Via Ferrata. The road to there was a surprise. Very nice, flowing curves, lots of motorcyclists. Hike the Via Ferrata, reach top, take picture with the cross. Drive to stelvio. Here things start to go out of plan. Running low on gas, but couple of gas stations we stopped en route, the card reader/pay station was not working. A BMW Z4 club took over all the spots in the first station and it took a while standing in line to realize the pay station was not working. It was getting dark as we approached stelvio and we voted to continue to St. Moritz and think about stelvio the next day. We cross into Switzerland at Mustair, its 6pm all stores are closed. Now the gps glitches are getting worse and worse. It asks to take an exit which has been barricaded and we do two three u-turns trying to find the way. Then just proceed on the road and it turns out that road does not exist on the maps but its the right one. Its getting darker, and then all of a sudden the road disappears on our side. Its still intact on the other side but our side its has been demo'ed and its basically a gravel trap and the drop to it is not pretty. Debate if to drive on the opposite direction, but we are not sure how long is this construction stretch, its a blind curve and there could be traffic coming from the other side. Stop on the side thinking what to do and then a ford suv comes by and just barrels through the dirt and other cars do the same. Now with no choice, I curse myself for hurting my baby so soon and then slowly drive through it. Its about 1/4 mile long and we make it out of the quagmire and on our way to St.Moritz when we get stopped by Swiss police around 10:30 pm in the night.
[continued]
The policeman asked for license and registration. I said I speak English. He starts counting the languages he speaks with his fingers. English is not one of them. He makes me open the trunk, asks if we are smuggling any meat or cigarettes and then lets us go. Finally reach St.Moritz. I collect my room keys from the lockbox outside as the check in closes at 8 pm and had called ahead to tell them I'm coming. Park next to a Ferrari 488 and a Merc G550 and finally call it a day.
Aug 4th
Day starts early. Get lost in St.Moritz looking for a coffee shop. Its Sunday and nothing is open. I did manage to buy some Swiss chocolates to take back home. Decide to do stelvio and drive back to Mustair. The streets are all cogged up now. No surprise cause its supposed to be a popular entry from Italy to Swiss and the town streets can barely fit one car. We take the umbrail pass up. Lot of motorcyclists. I wave everyone by using my turn signal to show not all BMWs drivers are jerks
. Reach top of stevlio. Buy some souvenirs. Great ambience. Spend some time there. Take the route down. It was MAJOR FUN. not much traffic even for a sunny august Sunday afternoon. Was able to rip it in some sections. The car goes like lightning. It just needs the turbo to kick in and then holy smokes !! The exhaust sounds a bit fake from inside but ya ASD. We reach the bottom and realize we took the wrong way down. We are supposed to go back to the "Swiss" side. Drive back up. MOAR FUN !! the photographers are not interested in snapping 4 weeks. See three m2. Waves happen. Go down the other side. Its a bit muted but still fun. Start making way to Andermatt to go up Furka. Traffic. Its like 3 pm by the time we reach Tirano and stop for lunch. Surpised and disappointed its not where Tiramisu is from (apparently its from Venice). Lot of traffic. Decided to stop in Lake Como for Coffe. Domaso was a nice town. Had some coffee at a cafe and explored the back alleys a bit. Amazing weather at the lake. Humidy is perfect. We get along to Andermatt. Now our map shows us to take A2, but we don't have the toll stickers and all the stores are closed since it's Sunday. Drive around a bit and finally find a gas station which is open. The m2 gas cap got misaligned so that was a minor worry till I was able to fix it and put it in. Thats cause previous day I had forgotten to put the cap back in after refilling and it was dangling for 10-20 miles before we noticed and put it back in (my current cars don't have fuel cap so I forgot that habit of screwing the cap back in after refueling). Make it back to A2. Now we are running late. We vote to skip Gothard pass and Furka pass and make it too Lucern. Bad choice. We should have just taken the mountain pass. The approach to Gothard tunnel and the tunnel itself is fully blocked and we wait for 6 hours. Its blocked all the way till Lucerne. We are hungry. We take some exits but all resturants are closed. Make do with some energy bars and reach Lucerne around 12. The night porter ticks off a list of do's and do'nts (no flooding the bathroom, no jumping up and down in the bed, no noise or the neighbors will call the police and you will go to jail, no parking in front of the hotel we have a police station right in front) it sounded pretty offensive but at the end he gives me a tiny pebble with a smiley face on it and says its for you to keep. I still carry it around in my pocket for some reason. I park in a supermarket parking lot few blocks away and walk back. long day complete.
Aug 5th
last real day of the trip. we decide to go up mt pilatus. ended up spending most of the day there. left to the black forest at 3 pm. More traffic. Did manage to drive some Black Forest roads and had dinner at one of the sleepy little towns. While entering schewiz back from Germany was the only time where they checked my Swiss toll sticker. Drove to Zurich Airport Hotel and tucked in. Got it washed at a gas station at the Black Forest as I was not sure if I will have time next day morning.
Aug 5th
Its raining cats and dogs. Drove to the drop off location and park in the underground garage. Meet the guy and he goes over damage. I don't say anything until he notices the curb rash and points it out. He asks me not to worry and the insurance will fix it. I point out other paint scratches and he says he's not sure if they will fix something that small. I forget to show the large paint offs at bottom of the bumper and the rocker panels. The booklet BMW gave me at the beginning has all the documents the guy needs. He calls me a cab to the airport. United flight system sucks. They send me email saying the flight is full and I can potentially volunteer to get onto a direct flight to SFO but the airport staff are not helpful and I let go. Uncomfortable flight back but reliving memories of a lifetime.
Overall verdict:
ED was fun. 5 days was too short but on hindsight maybe it was the right amount. I still kick myself for missing out on the Volvo ED couple of years ago so was glad I could get this done. Swiss traffic and roads were a surprise. So much construction and stop lights for no reason. Loved the German roads. Stelvio is must do if you are going on ED. North Italy was great, castle tops around every corner. The experience felt special and I am happy I took it.
