Day 2

Day2

Arrived in Amsterdam around 9:30am local time, had about an hour and a half to make it to the next concourse, seemingly a quick journey, however it was quite a hike across the Amsterdam airport. Speaking of which, this airport was very cool, a ton of shops and it was spotless clean, even the restrooms we went into were amazingly pristine and I had my first run in with the oft noted urinal fly here, although I was a bit timid to be taking pics in the men’s bathroom, so no shots…

Made it to our final plane leg to Munich, the plane took off a few minutes late and accordingly arrived about 15 minutes late to Munich, no big deal, but Rolf was waiting for us so I wanted to get a move on. Deplaned and went to the baggage claim, first bag off was one of ours, unfortunately our second bag never showed up. Getting a bit antsy, we rushed to the Lufthansa baggage claim area to file a report (BTW this is the reason this report is late, our voltage converter was in the lost bag J…do I get a pass on the 12 hour rule??). Tried to give Rolf a call on his mobile, but no one answered, quite frankly I was unsure if I was even calling the number correctly as there was no voice mail. We were just about finished up with the paperwork with Rolf called, evidently he had left his mobile in the car and had been waiting patiently.

By the way, if anyone doing ED is wondering whether they should use Rolf, wonder no longer he is worth every penny, especially after getting in from a long flight with no sleep. Rolf brought a luggage carrier and a scooter for our eldest to traverse the airport with…pretty cool.

We arrived at Rolf’s new de-badged 3er diesel wagon, I think he said we were the first customers to ride in his new ride. Rolf took us directly to the delivery center, passing by the famous Allianz which looked like a big blow up circular raft, which can change colors depending on who is playing. All the while during the trip to the delivery center Rolf was giving us hints and tips on where and how to get to places, he was truly great.

Arrived at the delivery center around 2pm, although at this point things began to get a bit fuzzy coming up on no sleep for 24 hours. Handed my passport to Jody (I believe) and went upstairs for some meatballs and drinks (BTW I highly recommend the meatballs). Also, wanted to let everyone know that they DID ask me for my meal voucher card first thing, I am pretty sure that they would have let you skate without it, but it was definitely something that he seemed to need.

Not more than 15 minutes later our delivery expert came up to tell us the car was ready and to sign the final paperwork. It kind of took me off guard, as I thought it would take at least 45 minutes, but we were one of the only ones waiting, so maybe this sped things up. Finalized the paper work and reviewed what we needed for the Police if stopped, then it was time to go see the prize….

Went thru the slick glass doors and there she was, my specialty built 335, it was really a cool moment. After planning this thing for more than a year I was kind of wondering if it would be anti-climatic, but it was certainly not, if anything it was better than I thought. My delivery expert went thru the features of the car, her English was a bit poor, but she was super nice and I already had most of the information down from the hours of bimmerfest lurking. Meanwhile my kids began to show the signs of dementia after the long flights and began to go stir crazy racing around the delivery garage. I was about to go nuts, but then realized that they had been thru quite a bit and this was the first sign of kid crazies, which was pretty damn good. My wife was able to corral them soon enough and we were off, driving the new car In Germany. I must say this was a crazy feeling and thank god for the Nav or we would have been going in circles for hours.

We made our way directly to our hotel, the Uhland, and checked in. Unpacked our things and had a bit of a snack, mine consisted of an Augustine-Brau Pilsner from the honor bar, which hit the spot perfectly. All of a sudden a fog came over me, the next thing I know is it is 2am local time and I had basically passed out at 6PM, my family had done the same and awoke for a late night snack… again mine consisted of another Pilsner, and then back to sleep.