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Hello World!

The Boy. The Ride. The Castle. The...me.

Here's a couple of pics taken from “the spot” recommended on Bimmerfest with Neuschwanstein Castle in the background. This just happens to be a private road but we got there pretty early in the morning so there was no one around. Worked out well. One guy came riding by on a bicycle – I think to check up on us, making sure we weren't doing anything weird – but other than that, it went pretty smoothly. I worked fast, hehe.

The car actually had a bunch of dew on it since it was parked outside the previous night and some birds decided to use it for target practice so I was a little worried about how the pic might come out. But for the most part, you can't really see any of the “flaws” (except for that reflection of the dork in the bumper of the second pic).

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Posted August 7, 2009
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Day 4: Driving was half fun. Two detours and traffic took some of the thrill away.

     
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Day_4_Driving_was_half_fun._Tw.zip (545 KB)

The boy sure looks small in that first pic, doesn't he? These pictures were taken when we went by Walchensee.
 
The hilight of today's drive was Kesselbergstrasse. It's a super-windy mountain road, but unfortunately, there was a speed limit and a decent number of cars so we didn't exactly get the FULL experience...but it was fun anyway. We had also planned on driving Wallbergstrasse as well, but I missed the turn so we just skipped it.
 
The lowlight was definitely the extra traffic and 2 detours we ended up taking. I tried to map the original and new drive out here.
 
Original:

Revised:

The two don't look THAT dis-similar, but it definitely felt longer than it should have. Both times, a road I needed was closed, and the second time, I actually got pretty far down the road before the closure came up, so I had to backtrack all the way. That was a bit annoying.
 
Needlesstosay, the drive today was pretty anti-climactic. However, it was fun to test out the M Mode :D

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Posted August 6, 2009
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The boy wanted shots of his new die cast M3 so I took a few in the hotel.

       
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The_boy_wanted_shots_of_his_ne.zip (674 KB)

These are very detailed models. He keeps saying he thinks German toys are better than Japanese toys, LOL.

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Posted August 6, 2009
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The boy demonstrates how to lock/unlock my M3.

 My car is equipped with Comfort Access. A convenient time-saving feature.

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Posted August 5, 2009
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Day 3: Driving through Sudelfeld-Bergstrasse.

         
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Day_3_Driving_through_Sudelfel.zip (1951 KB)

Today was our first real driving day, and let me just say it was an absolute treat! The part from Münich to Brannenburg was pretty anti-climactic since we were just getting out of the city and there was some traffic, but once with hit the outskirts, it was awesome.

I never did get the Navi to import the routes I set up on BMW-Routes.com so I had to manually enter them. Wasn't too much of a hassle, but it would have been much better if the import simply would have worked. We stopped at Milbing which is where we took the first two pics. The other three are at a spot along the way somewhere on or near the Sudelfeldstrasse. It's a beautiful mountain roads with lots of great twisties and amazing scenery on both sides. Lots of trees, open fields and mountains. That was a ton of fun. Kyle took some video using the Flip Mino which I'll try to see if they are small enough to upload later.

The map of today's route is below:

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Posted August 5, 2009
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Day 2: The M3 is mine mine mine, all mine!

           
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Day_2_The_M3_is_mine_mine_mine.zip (1376 KB)

My plan was to take a bunch of really cool pics during delivery since the Welt has such a nice backdrop. However, I was too pre-occupied looking at and getting to know the car. I didn't realize I didn't really take very many pics until I got back to the hotel and uploaded the photos. Oh well...lost opportunity.

I'm loving the Fox Red interior. The pictures really don't do it justice. It's hard to capture the color with any sort of accuracy. It's definitely a dark brownish red. Looks really nice with the Space Gray exterior.

The boy did a great job being patient while the delivery specialist went over a bunch of the features. I thought for sure he would get antsy, but he didn't. The last pic shows him hanging out in the back seat looking at one of his souvenirs. That helped, I'm sure. He also took some Flip Mino video during the process which kept him pretty occupied.

Super stoked to have the car right now, but there were two tiny bits of disappointment during this delivery process:

  1. We could not do a Factory Tour because it's closed. Everyone is on vacation. Booooo!! I was really looking forward to that. :(
  2. Before we left for the trip, the video we watched from the BMW website seemed to indicate there was a lot more interactive demonstrations for the actual delivery of my car (customized with specific information about the M3). They either skipped that whole part of the delivery or, the demos were sprinkled throughout the downstairs area and no one walked us through them. The boy really wanted to do the driving simulator we saw on the video, but that didn't happen.

Overall, it was a great experience though. Boy is sleeping right now since he didn't get much sleep at all last night. Hope this doesn't mess with his sleeping schedule for tonight >__<

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Posted August 4, 2009
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Day 2: Misc Shots from the BMW Welt

                                                     
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Misc_Shots_from_the_BMW_Welt_t.zip (5450 KB)

Just a few random shots from around the Welt. 

Noteworthy (in no particular order):

  • They put out quite a spread for customers waiting in the delivery lounge. Light fare, but very well put together. Finger foods, drinks, desserts. Nicely appointed.
  • Of course, the boy found his souvenir quickly. Little (and not so little) die cast cars. I think he's known this is what he was looking for since before we left on the trip. He was a little disappointed they did not have the big one in Alpine White or Space Gray, but at least he got some little ones in those colors.
  • Architecturally, this place is amazing. Everything is so well designed, even down to the bathrooms. The entire building is flawless.
  • The Z4 actually looks way better in person than it does in pictures. I wasn't really all that impressed watching videos or looking at photos, but seeing it in real life made me think I could actually see myself driving one of those.

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Posted August 4, 2009
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Day 2: A few snapshots from the BMW Museum.

                           
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A_few_snapshots_from_the_BMW_M.zip (2938 KB)

We sort of rushed through the museum since we only had 45 minutes until our delivery...plus, the boy was getting tired of walking. We had planned on going back to see the rest afterward, but we got a little too excited after taking delivery of the car so we just took off to go back to the hotel and mess with the M3.

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Posted August 4, 2009
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My M3 is built! It’s now “Awaiting Transport”

This is exciting. T-minus 6 days until I leave for my trip!! My CA told me she was still unable to connect BMW Assist to my car, but perhaps this status change will finally allow it to happen. Even though it’s really late since I stayed up working I think I'm going to have a tough time sleeping tonight...

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Posted July 28, 2009
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More parts for my M3

I'm about a week away from my trip and am still collecting some odds and ends. In the photo above are:

  • Smoked Reflectors
  • iPod Connection Cable
  • iPhone Snap-In Adapter

The Snap-In Adapter will charge and hold my phone securely in the center console, route music from my iPhone through the iDrive system, as well as boost the phone signal through the car antenna. The iPhone also connects to the car via Bluetooth so my contacts will be accessible through iDrive.

The iPod Connection Cable won't be used very much since I'll mostly be using the ease and convenience of snapping the phone in and out of the adapter, but in the event someone else wants to connect their iPod (like the boy on our ED trip), it's available. It's a prerequisite for the Snap-In Adapter otherwise I might not have gotten it.

The Smoked Reflectors will replace the OEM orange ones and add another 5HP to my 414HP V8.

{ Sent from my iPhone }

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Posted July 25, 2009
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