Okay I know this is a tease, because everyone wants to see pics (I should get them posted by Wed or Thurs) but wanted to share some quick experience from my trip last week...

First, let me say I LOVE my car. But I'll go into more 'car' detail on the e90 forum page on a separate thread.

I picked my car up on Tuesday the 13th. Got to the delivery center around 9:00 - it would have been earlier, but I messed up on the subway and had to backtrack a couple of stops to get back to the blue line. Markus was my ED associate - I was initially a little disappointed because Bernard was nowhere to be found - but Markus ended up spending some good quality time going over the vehicle and nav system with me, so thumbs up to Markus!

Drove (in the rain) from Delivery Center to Drop Off to do paperwork for my Saturday drop off. Herr Behrends was friendly and spoke excellent English and he arranged for a taxi to meet me at Harms on Saturday morning.

Went from Harms to Neuschwanstein, spent night in Hohenschwangau (sp). Beautiful alpine scenery and cool crisp mountain air - Excellent!

Wednesday, left for Venice. Got stuck (dead stop) on autostrada in Italy for 1 1/2 hours. Most everybody got out of their cars; we were literally sitting on the highway in groups. What a funny sight. Despite the traffic issues, I did get the opportunity to experiment with acceleration, handling, etc on the highway. I'm a self-proclaimed chicken since the fastest I drove was 100 MPH (sorry to disappoint). Did I say I love Nav and IDrive? Navigation was a God send (Thanks Beewang), and what's the big deal about iDrive anyway? I found it to be very intuitive, but more about that on the my 'car' post.

Venice was great, and proved to be a great change of pace from Munich and the Bavarian Alps. I spent a day and a half there and easily could have spent several more days. As my time was limited I focused on walking through the city (extensively) rather than on museums and churches. Consequently, I felt like I got a good sampling of the flavor of Venice.

Friday, I left Venice at 8:30 for my return to Germany, but ultimately cut it too short and missed my 2PM Dingolfing factory tour. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. As I then had some time to kill upon returning to Munich, I went to Olympiapark and meandered around for an hour or so, and went up in the observation tower, which commands a very impressive view of the city, including the next door BMW headquarters.

I left Saturday morning back for the States. A word of warning to those travelling light: resist the temptation to carry your bag on the plane with you. I simply wasn't thinking, so my tools (and almost my first aid kit and warning triangle) were confiscated by security. Make sure if you're carrying on bags, that you put the car accessories in your CHECKED luggage. Hopefully my dealer can do something about the tools...

All said, it was a great trip, no huge disasters, and seeing my car for the first time in the delivery center made the stress, excitement, frustration, and waiting all completely worthwhile. I'm already looking forward to my next ED!

PIC's to follow...