Apparently there's a 12 hour rule - so I'll rush this.

Arrived Munich late Jan 22. British Air "forgot" my bag in London - even though my layover there from LAX was 4+ hours. Showed up early morning on Jan 23, so no big deal.

Staying at Le Meridien. Very nice. Very well run, efficient staff. Close to downtown, and across the street from the train station. Sumptuous breaksfast this morning.

Took S-Bahn to Marienplatz where I transferred to U-Bahn U6 to Friemann. Entire trip took maybe 15 minutes. 5 minute walk - maybe less - to the delivery center. Rang bell at gate - which produced audible feedback, but not results. Tried that a couple of more times - then got tired of standing around in the cold (21 degress F) and figured out how to go around the side to the left. Rang bell there got right in.

Inside, they collected my passport and invited me to wait 45 minutes upstairs in the bistro. Met a couple from Florida/Spain (Wayne & Maria) while waiting - they were collecting a 325iX and driving it back to Spain. About 30 minutes later, Bernhard came upstairs to do my paperwork. All very efficient. 10 minutes later I go meet my car.

You all know about the cars - so won't go into great detail - but suffice to say the 550i is killer with a manual tranny! And what a great idea it was to bring a Euro Nav CD with me ... drive back through downtown Munich at lunch time was plenty busy - but easy with the Nav.

Now pretty whipped from 24 hours travel & little sleep - off to Dingolfing tour tomorrow morning - then on to Zurich.

Oh - weather here is amenable to my sport package summer timers. Very cold, but clear blue skies and dry roads. Hope it stays this way for the next 3 days!

On the summer tires topic - I asked Bernhard if the German law required all-season tires in winter. No. The "new" part of the law is that they can now ticket you *if* you get stuck, or block other traffic because you have summer tires. But driving around with summer tires is perfectly legal.

Will try to attach a couple of pix. Must say - after all the stress, this was very very simple. If anybody is worried about it - stop worrying.