It's taken a little time to get to this, and we don't have much time to write now but thought these pictures might be of interest.
We had a great pick-up experience last Friday on a beautiful sunny day. The weather subsequently was not so great up north, but we had a wonderful time in and around Munich with local friends and a great drive south to Florence yesterday. The weather today was good and we did much sight seeing.
Saturday picked up wheel locks (23 euros) and had them installed, plus a binder for the manual etc (6 +/- euros) from the dealer close to Freimann.
Thanks so much to all on this site for the invaluable wealth of information and advice that have added so much to this experience.
Will add more detail later.
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| Reply » 3/18/05 Pick-up - A little late |
Quote: | .......and we don't have much time to write now but thought these pictures might be of interest.... | What pictures??!! 
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| Reply » 3/18/05 Pick-up - A little late |
Yes Please post some pictures. Especially if you have some Florence pics.
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| Reply » 3/18/05 Pick-up - A little late |
Had problems putting pictures on the site. It said they were too large and no matter what we did to them it did not seem to help. Any advice?
We´ve been unable to get on line since Florence - in Cinque Terre and on the road. Now in Barcelona after a brief stop in France on the way here.
One very important point for ED people to know (which I´ve seen discussed a little, but I was warned about by Gunther at the Euro Delivery Center, by our friends in Munich and have now witnessed first hand) it seems that car crime (break ins and theft) are at epidemic proportions in Italy, France and Spain (forget about former Eastern European countries - I am told you might as well go donate your car if you go there!). I think it gets worse from Italy to France to Spain.
We stopped at about 1am at a high end motel with so called ´secure parking´ (high fence and electric gate) in Montpellier (I think) and parked under a light, near the main entrance, next to a German 525T. After looking more closely at the my neighbor I realized that it had been broken into and the hotel staff seemed little surprised. I refused to stay, and subsequently saw that all motel/hotels along they way had high fences and electric gates. Secure indoor parking seems to be then only way to go in these parts - hoping to make it to my Madrid drop-off unscathed. My advice would be to stay in Germany, Austria, Switzerland - beautiful and much more secure.
Otherwise, driving the car has been fantastic. You really get the opportunity to appreciate the car here. I haven´t been much over the prescribed break-in max of 100mph - maybe on the last leg to Madrid if conditions allow since we just reached 1200mile/2000km - but the car is so stable and comfortable at speed for long stretches I think it will seem a bit underused back in the States.
Sorry to have rambled on a bit here. I hope this is useful and will post pics soon. I have two great hotel recommedations - with truly secure parking - in Florence, which I will post when I have the info with me.
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| Reply » 3/18/05 Pick-up - A little late |
"Had problems putting pictures on the site. It said they were too large and no matter what we did to them it did not seem to help. Any advice?"
If you take 5MP pictures in RAW or minimally compressed form each picture will occupy several megabytes. For computer viewing you only need 640 X 480 with moderate compression, a file of about 50kB per picture.
I was confronted with the large-file problem when trying to upload from a hotel in Garmisch and solved it with a program I use at home. Look for a program called LViewPro on the web and install it on whatever computer you're using. Open your picture files in LView, click Edit, then Resize. If you're working directly from your camera or memory card you should save the smaller file under a different name than the original, so that you keep the high-resolution original.
LView will also let you adjust contrast, color, etc. if you want; but don't do it on your original file because LView seems to always save pictures in high-compression JPEG.
The following site appears to have a downloadable version of LView along with some instructions on its use:
http://www.steinbroner.com/lviewpro.html
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| Reply » 3/18/05 Pick-up - A little late |
I appreciate your view on the car theft situation, but I will respectfully disagree. I had worse experiences in NJ than in Europe (and this is including Poland and Czech Rep). Just don't leave any visible bags etc in the car when you leave it.
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3/18/05 Pick-up - A little late