INTRODUCTION
As a member of this forum for many months, I have read the many posts about individual’s ED experiences, all the while becoming increasingly excited about my trip in November. This trip would be my second ED experience (my first in Nov 1999 to p/u a MY2000 540i) and, based in large part on the adventures of this forum, much different than my first, which was a very short 3 day trip and a total of 8 miles of driving to EH Harms.

THE ORDER
I placed the ordered my car on July 31st, specifying ED and completed the paperwork on Sep 24th, within the 60-day window required ED (I think this may have been recently reduced to 30 days). One curveball with the financing for ED: most lenders require the title or Certificate of Origin before funding the loan and given that the C of O does not arrive to the dealer until a few days prior to car (at least a few weeks AFTER ED), they are not options for consideration for financing. Hence, BMWFS is most likely your only option. I learned this as I was completing my paperwork and, as it turned out, the rate with BMWFS was only 0.6% higher than my chosen lender, not significantly higher.

DEPARTURE TO MUNICH
Wednesday, Nov 10th, my wife and I flew on Delta from Atlanta in BusinessElite which made it easy to rest before arrival. After clearing immigration we looked to obtain Euros. On previous international trips, I merely swapped Dollars for local currency and thought nothing of the unfavorable exchange rates or fees charged by tellers at TravelEx or similar. This trip, I chose to withdraw Euros from an ATM machine (on the Plus network) at the airport. My bank is affiliated with the Plus network and advised me that I would only pay the non-bank ATM fee of $1.50 but that I would get my bank’s exchange rate on the day of the transaction. So, during the trip, I made three withdrawals, received the current exchange rate and paid only $6.00 in non-bank ATM fees. I would highly recommend this method for obtaining Euros!!

MUNICH
We had reservations at the Tulip Inn Concorde (Herrnstrasse 38-40) in Munich. So we took the Lufthansa airport bus (#2) to Hauptbahnhof (the main rail station in the center of town) and then a short cab ride from there. The bus is €9 and the taxi about the same.
The hotel was relatively new, clean, and reasonably priced at €237 per night. We checked in around 10:30am Thursday AM, unpacked and then ventured out toward the Marienplatz. Noontime at the Marienplatz is interesting as many people congregate in the square to observe the midday ritual of the Glockenspiel chiming at noon followed by statuettes in the clock tower depicting a medieval dance at the wedding of Duke William V and Renata von Lothringen.