European Delivery Trip for my BMW

Forgot to add - i am an avid semi pro nature photographer so scenic places are most interesting. History and church buff, like hiking without big elevation gains as secondary preferences. Avoiding big cities and for the most part prefer scenic winding roads or roads through scenic areas so I can detour. The romantic road doesn't sound like an appealing drive - it's the towns that are the attraction I gather. Through reading on this forum already, itinerary 1 will exchange 3 nights in a more central location like Gutach. That change only tacks a half hour or so onto the drive from Como and gains stability and flexibility of not changing hotels and staying close to the action.

"Also I want to get through my break in miles (~1,000) and experience top speed on the Autobahn before I turn the car back in in Munich." You won't get much chance to test the car's speed in southern Bavaria. The Autobahn network traffic here is generally pretty congested. And if you follow your proposed route, there would be several long stretches on secondary roads, where you can only drive 100 km/hr. If you want some speed, try to incorporate routes A93 or A9 north of Ingolstadt. The southern potion of A7 usually runs pretty swiftly as well. A8 is usually a series of Staus (you'll quickly learn the meaning of that word) throughout it's entire length.

May is not a great time of year for the Alps. It's in one of those transition periods where the weather tends to be overcast and rainy. If you want to see them, budget at least 3 nights in each Alpine location. With only two nights, you risk having your one full day be a wash-out. Therefore, I wouldn't bother driving all the way to the Berner Oberland for only two nights. If you're dead-set on the Swiss Alps, look at one of the mountainous cantons that fits better within your flow of travel better, like Graubunden, one of the Appenzels, or St. Galen.

"My question comes down to is the black forest worth the trouble after I have spent time in the big mountains," In my opinion, no. Southern and central Germany consists of dozens of similar low mountain ranges. The Schwarzwald is the most well known and the biggest, but probably only because the name translates so easily into English.

Sorry I don't have the links but ADAC (Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V.) has published many scenic driving routes in their magazine over the years. Have you asked BMW? They should be the experts for Bavarian drives! I have yet to push my Audi TTRS to the maximum speed (close though). Traffic and weather will limit how fast you can safely travel. Sunday mornings without trucks work well. The problem is while you are driving at 270+ kph you always have to watch for Oma and Opa 1k ahead of you pulling into the left lane at 90-100 kph. That will test your brakes... 130 kph is the recommended top speed on the Autobahns. 140 to 200 kph is more likely and the Staus will cramp your day. I agree with A93 and A9 as I am familiar with them. I like the Black Forest with lots of trees, picturesque houses and towns, smaller mountains and twists and turns, but I would prefer itinerary #2. You can also fly on A95 from Garmish to Munich in some places. Make sure you have all your kit; first aid kit, warning triangle, reflective vests for all passengers etc. You know about the German speed and aggressive driver cameras on the roads. Keep your distance and mind the speed limits. Italian Autostrada speed limit is 130 kph, but you would never know that the way some Italian drivers drive. 14 May and 25 May -5 Jun 15 are Bavarian school vacation times (a lot of weekend traffic) so 22-25 May you will see more traffic than normal.

Hello,

My husband did this trip to Munich a few years ago to pick up his new BMW and the most fun and memorable experience was driving the Nurburgring. If you want, you can PM me for more info. Have a good trip.

I've been on the Rossfeld Panoramic Road and drove parts of the German Alpine Road road before.
http://www.berchtesgadener-land.com/en/come-view/panoramic-roads
http://www.deutsche-alpenstrasse.de/de/startseite/

If you go here: http://www.deutsche-alpenstrasse.de/en/home/the-german-alpine-route/

At the bottom of the page you will see Download Roadbook. This will give you some directions for the Alpenstrasse. There is also a hotel list...

Thanks for all the tips already! Yes, I know what STAUS means and have experienced some very large ones! The difference in speeds between the left lane and the middle/right lanes is quite large - and when accidents happen that delta speed creates some pretty spectacular crashes.

While doing break in, the secondary roads are good to get different speeds and not cruise at a constant speed, keeping the revs down. Plus they create more opportunities to "Hey, that looks cool over there. Let's go check that out..."

I am intrigued by Tom's comment "In my opinion, no. Southern and central Germany consists of dozens of similar low mountain ranges. The Schwarzwald is the most well known and the biggest, but probably only because the name translates so easily into English. " do you have some recommendations for alternatives? Die Schwarzwald is stretching the Western edge of my itinerary and if I can get something similar elsewhere without that stretch I would be interested.

I was unaware of the Bavarian school holiday on 14 May. The one starting 25 May I was aware of because that Monday is a national Holiday (Whitmonday).

Looking forward to some more thoughts! Thanks so much.

We did a very similar but somewhat longer drive in late June, 2011. We got snowed in at the top of Grossglockner, so have some alternative routes and plans in mind if the weather is bad. In fact, after our experience on Grossglockner, along with advice from people who drove Stelvio Pass twice because they couldn't see anything at or from the top, we decided to avoid Stelvio and took the low road from Merano to Lake Como. It was a great back roads drive through little Italian villages, farming areas and orchards.

In addition to the right emergency equipment for each country and each person in your car, you will need special stickers called "vignettes" to drive in Austria and Switzerland. If you don't have them, the cameras will catch you and you will get a big fine. You are also going to need insurance for driving in all those countries. The BMW dealer should help you with all that.

You say you have been to Germany a lot, but you don't say you have driven on those trips. You need to research driving in all 4 countries, and you and anyone else who might need to drive the car will need to have an International Driving Permit.

Living here in Tucson, if you are not used to twisty roads up and down mountains, you may need to do some YouTube research at home pretending to drive them. This is a link to my blog post about going over Grossglockner: http://travelswithtrout.blogspot.com/2011/10/europe-june-2011-grossglockner.html. And this is my link about taking the low road on to Lake Como: http://travelswithtrout.blogspot.com/2011/10/europe-2011-dolomite-road-merano-to.html. Those two postings will give you an idea of what to expect. If you click on the pictures, you can just see them in sequence and much larger than in the text. You are welcome to look at the rest of the postings for that trip which so closely parallels your plans.

It is about a 5 1/2 hour drive from Munich to the Nuerburgring if you should decide to do that.

My husband has also driven the Nuerburgring Nordschliefe (http://www.nuerburgring.de/en/fans-info/race-tracks/nordschleife.html). He did it in a specially prepared racing rental car on a "tourist" driving day. You can do the same thing in your own car.

You can read about the track in lots of places online. It is one-way with an entry gate. Every time you pass through the entry gate, you are charged for another lap. Each lap is about 21 km. My husband did 8 laps.

I stayed back near the toll gate. Tourist driving includes just about anything that has wheels and an engine. I saw super hot motorcycles, vintage Mercedes convertibles, a fire department van, hobbyist race cars, etc. There are no speed limits. You have to be very aware of other drivers and careful to stay on track and not crash. It was not called the Green Hell for nothing.

With all those warnings, for my husband it was one of the greatest experiences of his life. We enjoyed driving around Germany, in the Alps, etc., but there was nothing like driving that famous track for him. I should add that he is quite used to driving fast on curvy roads with elevation change. He has been racing a Formula Ford on road courses for almost 30 years. But he still did the YouTube thing sitting at his desk pretending to drive for months before our trip.

There is a forum at http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=25 that focuses on ED topics.

One suggestion I'd make is to arrive in Europe a few days prior to your pickup. Not sure from what you wrote if you will be in Europe before going to Munich, but if not a few days getting over the jetlag will make you a better driver.

I have driven in Germany (Fast) but want to do it again. Vignettes are on order, as are Swiss and Austrian toll passes. I have an IDL and safety vests ready to pack.

Thanks for the blog postings! I will check them out. Mountain driving - definitely need to drive Mt Lemmon and some other roads in the mountains near here in preparation. It is on my preparation list already (I have a packing list, a to do list, and the sightseeing plan). Having driven some, I know I want more and practice makes perfect.

I will have to revisit my thinking on the Nordschlieffe - I don't do much track driving and I don't want to wreck my new car for the thrill of it.....but I have watched 20-30 videos of folks who have done the tourist drive and it looks like a blast.........

I am an active participant in the bimmerfest ED forum which has been helpful in creating this itinerary - thanks for the pointer. Always interested in making sure I am maximizing the itinerary.

"do you have some recommendations for alternatives?"

Yes, but none of them are directly on either of your routes, although not as far away as the Schwarzwald (btw, it's der Schwarzwald, not die... nitpicking, I know...).

In NW Bavaria, north of Rothenburg, you have the Spessart, roughly between Aschaffenburg and Würzburg, and the Rhön a little further to the north. Farther to the east, roughly in the triangle between Bamberg, Nürnberg and Bayreuth is Fränkische Schweiz ("Franconian Switzerland"). Like several other areas in Germany that are named because someone thought it looks like Switzerland... it looks nothing like Switzerland, but the scenery is still pretty stunning. Lots of old towns built around eroded rock formations, castles, and an abundance of hiking, camping and kayaking. Further to the east is the Oberpfälzerwald, which is rather sparsely populated. The Erzgebirge stradle the border between the far northeast corner of Bavaria and Saxony, but most of the range lies in latter state. This region is particularly known for it's wood crafting, especially Christmas ornaments.

If you wanted to drive a really long route to Salzburg, you could drive northeast from Munich towards Passau, and take a side excursion through the Bayerischer Wald (Bavarian Forest). As long as you don't get stuck behind slow traffic, you can really test your car's ability to manage curves here.

The only other range of the Mittelgebirge (the collective name for all these mountains) that sort of lies along your route is the Schwäbische Alb, which is to the east and south of Stuttgart. Two of Germany's best known castles outside of Füssen are located here, but you would have to go quite a bit out of your way along Germany's most congested Autobahn (A8) to reach the area.

I lived practically on the western foot of the Odenwald (near Mannheim, Heidelberg and Darmstadt) for several years and some of my best memories of Germany are driving and hiking through this beautiful region. But it isn't convenient to your trip.

Picking up a new BMW at BMW Welt is definitely on my "things to do" list. Someday soon, I hope.

I would join in the suggestion of at least one full "buffer" day in Munich before delivery day at BMW Welt. It would alleviate any stress if flights are delayed, and would contribute to clarity of brain as they shove paperwork in front of you to sign, and as you start to navigate out of BMW Welt into Munich traffic in a new, unfamiliar car.

BMW Welt photos from August 2014 here:

I will be in Europe for a full week before the pickup on business to take care of that jet lag problem! =8^) It makes European Delivery even better since I don't have to pay much in airfare to get there.

Thanks for all the comments and thoughts so far - Keep 'em coming! I am thinking I will be conducting a major restructure of the back half of the itinerary, which, because I am a map kinda guy, is ALMOST as fun as actually doing the trip.

Picking up a new BMW at BMW Welt is definitely on my "things to do" list. Someday soon, I hope.

In case you aren't already a member, join the BMW CCA immediately! If you've been a member for 1 year before buying or leasing a BMW then you can get $500 or $1000 back on most models. This is for either US or ED purchase.

Version 3 - I am thinking closer to final. One question - has anyone been at Rothenburb obT at the time of Der Meistertrunk festival? It coincides with the last day and a half of my visit. I extended my planned itinerary an extra day.

• 14 May - Arrive Munich stay night
• 15 May - Car delivery day; explore BMW Welt and drive a scenic route to Berchtesgaden (3 Nights Berchtesgaden)
• 16 May - Berchtesgaden - Explore Berchtesgaden
• 17 May - Explore Salzburg (stay Berchesgaden)
• 18 May - Drive Grossglockner pass, over the great dolomite road to Bolzano (1 night Bolzano)
• 19 May - Drive to Lake Como (2 Nights), arrive mid afternoon (2 nights Tremezzo))
• 20 May - explore Lake Como area (stay Tremezzo)
• 21 May - Explore Lake Como (AM) Drive to Lindau on Bodensee (1 night Lindau)
• 22 May - Drive to Fussen or Reutte, via Alpenstrasse, arrive mid afternoon (Neuschwanstein) (2 nights in Fussen or Reutte)
• 23 May - Explore castles/mountains/hiking, drive some of the alpenstrasse to the West (Stay Fussen)
• 24 May - Finish Fussen area exploration (AM) drive via Autobahn to Rothenburg ob de Tauber (2 nights) - Der Meistertrunk
• 25 May - Explore Rothenburg obT and drive up in the woods of Prozenteler Wald - Der Meistertrunk ends
• 26 May - Drive to Munich via Nuremberg, clean the car, stay in airport hotel for car drop off in the morning and trip home.
• 27 May - Fly home

Thoughts?

on our trip to Rothenburg we also visited Dinkelsbühl. Similar town and yet quite enjoyable.

For your last night, if you want the finest in the German thermal bath experience, stay in Erding and pay a visit to the fantastic Therme Erding.

And Reutte... don't bother. Most of us don't understand why Mr. Steves zeros in on this very ordinary town, especially with all the fantastic towns in the area that he doesn't mention.

I have posted this before... if you want to get away a little, the Tauber river valley (north) is nice for a drive. About 10-15 km north of Rothenburg across the Tauber from Tauberzell is the Keltisches Oppidum Finsterlohr (Celtic Iron Age settlement). The small town of Burgstall is right in the middle. Not a lot there to see, but some of the wall has been rebuilt and it is a 2000 year old site. Quiet after the tourists in Rothenburg.