Some kind of record?

Got a call from my sales guy that our car is at the dealership! That's 33 days from when we dropped it off in Nice. I think that might be some sort of record. We're going to go pick it up on Saturday.

I picked up a present today

Our painting came in today. Well, yesterday actually, but I had to pick it up at the post office today. It looks awesome except that the frame is a little damaged. I think that we'll probably just get a new frame for it.

Booked on a Boat!

Our little trucklet has been scheduled on the "Asian Chorus," departing Zeebrugge on the 10th; arriving in New York on the 20th. I think we'll have it back by the 4th of July.

Day 14, 31 May 2008, Back Home

It was a very nice surprise that our Sales Advisor picked us up from the airport. The flight home was thankfully uneventful; although the experience sucked thanks to the ancient plane on which we flew.

We did get through customs and baggage claim in record time back in ATL. I was quite shocked at the speed with which we moved through the arrivals process.

Hopefully we'll get our painting from Annecy soon. Oh, and the car, too.

Day 13, 30 May 2008, Nice

Route

Finally!!! The pilot says we are a go for our hot air balloon flight. Now, I have a moderate fear of heights that I discovered at the top of the Eiffel Tower back in 2000, so I was a little concerned that I might have issues in the basket once we got to altitude. Anyway, we were up before dawn and headed to the field where there were about 10 or so other folks who were all going flying with us. After signing all of the requisite release forms and so forth, we caravaned to a different field where the weather was to have been more amenable to sight seeing. I think this plan backfired, though, since it was pretty foggy at our final launch field. Watching the balloon fill up was pretty cool. When they lit off the actual burner to make the balloon stand up, it was like watching a jet engine on afterburner; the jet of flame was at least 10 feet long.

We crammed about 10 people into the basket and lifted off. It didn't feel like we were ascending, though, it felt more like the earth was descending away from us. It was very wierd and cool at the same time. We ascended through about 500 feet of fog before breaking free. Once we were at our "cruising" altitude, the visibility downward was poor, but outward the air was very clear. We could see rain showers all over. Awesome. There was almost no wind, and by the time the pilot started descending, we had only traversed over about 2km of ground. We landed in a very muddy field and everyone (especially the more girty among us) got pretty dirty. We had our requisite champagne toast; got our certificates; and went back to the mas to pack and load up.

On the drive back to Nice we experienced the hardest rain of the entire trip. It was coming down in torrents and we could realistically only see about 50 feet in front of the car. By the time we got to Nice, though, the weather was clear and the temps were awesome. We checked into a very no-frills place near the airport and the girls went over to the shopping center next door while Adam and I got the car cleaned up and dropped off at the shipping agent's office. The girl at the counter, while not pretty in the classical sense, exuded a sultry hotness like Linda Fiorentino in "Jade."

We all took the bus to the Promenade des Anglais; played in the rocks on the beach; and strolled through the "Vieux Nice" area; which was nothing really to write home about. Nice is a tourist town through and through and even the old quaint parts are blatantly touristy. We had dinner at a kebab stand (I had been jonesing for a kebap the whole trip) and was very disappointed. It was nothing like the kebaps I had last year up in Alsace. I was really hoping that with all of the North African and Mediterranean influence here that they would have been better. No such luck.

We have an early flight to Paris tomorrow, then across the pond back to the good old U.S. and A.

I have to say that this trip has been less than memorable; mainly because the weather was so influential in choosing our activities. It rained some part of every day that we were here and the weather kept us from doing some of the things that we were really looking forward to.

We do love travelling with our friends, though, and that part of the trip was very enjoyable.

Let's hope for a quick redelivery...

Day 12, 29 May 2008, St. Remy, Glanum, Les Baux

Route

We trekked back to St. Remy this morning to hit the shops. I think that Angela has been pretty disappointed so far this trip that she hasn't been able to really "get her shop on" but there's really nothing I can do about that. It's not like we haven't found a ton of shops.

Before that, however, we went to the architectural site of the ancient city of Glanum. It was very impressive, but there really wasn't anything left intact with the exception of a couple columns. The two sort of marquee items of interest (a mausoleum and an arch) were covered in scaffolding and thus were not easily appreciated. After a not so subtle hint from the girls that they were "through with ruins," we headed back to St. Remy for some lunch and to see what sort of trinkets we could find. We had some yummy Croque Monsieurs for lunch, but Angela was noticeably disappointed at the relative lack of shopping.

The drive down to Les Baux was pretty easy. Les Baux is a very small, pedestrian-only, town that deserved way more time than we allowed it. There is a ruined castle towards which Adam and I went like moths to a flame, and the girls meandered through the small streets looking for ways to spend money. The castle ruins were very exensive, and we got there just in time to watch them shoot a trebuchet. Turns out that I volunteered Adam and me to help cock and load the weapon, so our tour of the castle ruins were really cut short. Good God it was hard work to get that thing ready to shoot! It took 4 pretty strapping guys to crank the armature down to put it in a position where the projectile could be loaded into the sling. The results were very rewarding, though, as we got to see the ball sail downrange about 300 yards before exploding on the rocks.

We left Les Baux just as the rain started. We committed to our hosts that we would join them for a sort of happy hour back at the mas, but traffic was so bad that we were about 30 minutes late. We still had a great time chatting it up with the other guests (a couple from Bruge, Belgium) and our hosts. We had dinner at a somewhat fancy place called L'Arome in the small town of Bonnieux. Hopefully tomorrow we will finally get to take our balloon ride. The pilot said to meet at 6am. Tomorrow is also our last full day in Europe. We will have to pack up and head back to Nice to drop the car off.

Day 11, 28 May 2008, Pont du Gard, Arles, St. Remy

Route

This morning was a disaster. We got to the balloon field at the appointed time (6:30am) and there was one other gentleman there. We waited for about 45 minutes wondering where the hell was the balloon. We got wise and called the balloon pilot and were informed that our flight this morning had been cancelled due to high winds. Awesome. Admittedly, the clouds were motoring across the sky, but the surface winds were actually quite calm, so I'm not real sure why they had to cancel. They had left a message on my cell phone, but I had turned my phone off overnight. Our french compatriot was very confused about the whole situation and I finally gave him our cell phone so he could get the word straight from the horse's mouth. He was understandably dejected, but what are you gonna do?

Heidi, our trusty steed, was way low on gas, so we plugged in the nearest gas station into the NAV system. It took us to the lovely town of Roussillon where the station was closed until 8:30am. We decided to park in one of the lots and while Adam and Carlisle tried to get a cat nap, Angela and I walked around taking pictures of the very colorful buildings. Roussillon is notable for the huge vein of Ochre that runs right underneath it and so all of the buildings were these beautiful rich shades of red, orange, and yellow. Of course, in the French tradition, opening times are just suggestions and not to be taken seriously. I was afraid of not having enough gas to get to the next closest station (in Apt), but we weren't really having any fun sitting in the truck waiting for this station to open. Turns out we did have enough to get to Apt (just barely) and were able to fill up. It was at this point that we all had the craving for an Egg McMuffin, and we had passed a McD's on the way to the gas station. Unfortunately, this particular McD's didn't open until 10:30, and didn't serve breakfast. Plan B was to pick up something from the LeClerc next door and eat brunch back at the mas. This turned out pretty well and we all retired for a quick nap.

Our afternoon was way more enjoyable. We trekked west to the Pont du Gard, a 2000 year old, almost completely in tact, Roman aqueduct spanning the Gard river. It was just spectacular; moreso than even the Collosseum in Rome. We had an awesome lunch of sweet and savory crepes. After having our fill of crepes, we headed to Arles, site of a very well preserved Roman ampitheater. Arles was really nice. The ampitheater is still used for bullfighting and concerts, which is pretty cool. It is remarkably well preserved and is undergoing an extensive cleaning and restoration process to return it to its classical glory. There were several very nice galleries and other shops, but Angela couldn't bring herself to buy anything.

We ate dinner in St. Remy. By the time we got there, nothing was open but restaurants, so we didn't really do much more than eat. It really started raining hard during dinner, but even though we were eating outside, we stayed pretty much dry thanks to the awnings.

No Balloon flight tomorrow; but Friday is looking good.

Day 10, 27 May 2008, Gordes, Abbaye de Senanque

Route

We had an awesome breakfast of fresh croissants, fresh orange juice, homemade marmelades and jellies in the common room. After eating breakfast and getting cleaned up, we headed back over to Gordes to shop in their weekly market. The Provencal markets are one of the big draws here, and this one did not disappoint. I will say, however, that the market in Annecy was much better (of course, Annecy is a much bigger city, too). Angela was able to find an awesome table cloth, some local olive oil, and a nice scarf. We had lunch from a guy grilling sausages of all types. I have to be honest here; this might have been the best meal I've had to date on this vacation.

The weather was really threatening and very windy, but we didn't get any rain at all today. Vendors' stalls were blowing all over, and they were reall scrambling to chase their wares that were blowing away. It was actually kind of funny.

One place I had read about in preparing for this trip was the Abbaye de Senanque. It's a Cistercian abbey that dates back several hundred years. The grounds are lovely, but all of the lavender fields were still dormant. Apparently we missed the lavender blooming by a couple months. We took the guided tour of the abbey (the only way to actuall see the inside), but it was entirely in French. There were a couple of American kids one of which was translating in real time who earned the scorn of our guide on more than a few occasions. Towards the end of the tour, the tour group as a whole got a stern talking to from her on the meaning of following instructions.

Anyway, the abbey itself was pretty austere, as most monestaries are. The architecture was impressive and you could see the "signatures" of the different masons who were hired to help build the abbey.

After a couple hours, we decided to head back to the B&B (or "mas" or "gite" as they are called here). We made a quick stop in Goult, quickly decided that it was pretty sleepy and headed out, but not before picking up a bottle of local wine, some cheese and crackers, and some olives. They made for a wonderful afternoon snack back at the mas.

We went back to Gordes for dinner, since we had seen a couple other restaurants there this morning, and had a great dinner in what appeared to be a somewhat "locals" type place.

Tomorrow is our hot air balloon flight, and the pilot confirmed that the weather should be good tomorrow morning. We have to get up pretty damn early, but it should be well worth it.

Day 9, 26 May 2008, Juan-les-Pins to Menerbes

Route

Today was a pretty easy day. Adam and Carlisle had to pack and ship some of their colder clothes, so Angela and I strolled along the waterfront promenade with a breakfast of pastries from a supermarket close to our hotel. We got on the road around 11:30 or so and headed to Grasse, the perfume capital of the world. Angela had wanted to go to the Fragonard factory to do some perfume shopping, so Adam and I sat on the benches while the girls were like kids in a (very expensive) candy shop. Several bars of soap, bottles of lotion, and jars of perfume later, we were back on the highway en route to Provence.

The drive was generally uneventful, but finding our B&B proved fairly challenging. We got to Menerbes easily enough, but the website for the B&B really had no specific directions. I had to use an Internet Routing algorithm to find it. We pulled into a winery where I asked if they knew of the B&B. He said yes, and told me the road to take to get there. When I found that road, I found a woman walking her dog and asked if she knew. She gave me another set of more specific directions and I was on my way. Finally, we found a small house with some cars parked out front. I thought, "Aha! This has to be it!" I walked around back and quickly realized that this was not the place, but the man watching TV in his living room was able to get me to my final destination. Turns out the B&B was just a couple hundred more yards down the road. Angela laughed and laughed when I told her about the guy watching TV.

Our B&B is delightful. It's a 280 year old farmhouse that's been renovated with 3 guest rooms and a common room. Our room is two stories and has an awesome loft ceiling and huge fireplace. There is no TV, phone, radio, etc. here. It is wonderfully peaceful and quiet. The proprietors are the cutest retired couple. They speak very little English, but we made due.

After getting settled, we set out to Menerbes for dinner. Unfortunately, Menerbes is a very sleepy town and nothing was open tonight. We decided to go to Gordes, which is a slightly larger town and was sure to have something open. We ate at an awesome place with an outdoor terrace. We finally got home around 10:30. There is a market in Gordes tomorrow, so we'll go back there, then visit the Abbaye de Senanque and play the rest of the day by ear.

Day 8, 25 May 2008, Monaco & Monaco GP

Whew! What a loooong and exhausting day. Of course, in keeping with the theme of the trip, it was raining when we woke up. I guess having a nice day for the Monaco GP would be too much to ask.

We were misled by the hotel desk clerk when he said that the strike had been called off. Crap! Our station was closed, there were no taxis to be called, and the closest station was a 20 minute walk in the rain. Not to be deterred, we hiked to the Antibes station where we found out that many trains had been cancelled, the ones that were running were packed, and that we wouldn't get to Monaco until just around noon (for a 2pm green flag).

During the train ride, we had a decent conversation with a Brit who was in town for the Cannes Film Festival and the GP. His company had a yacht in the Monaco harbor, but there was no invitation from him to join him after the event.

Monaco was crazy. It was packed with people of all types; blue collar to glamourous eurotrash. After asking one police officer after another, we finally found the will call window and got our tickets around 1pm (for a 2pm green flag). Fortunately, the rain stopped prior to getting of the train, so while it was wet, it at least wasn't raining. By the time we got some sandwiches for lunch and made our way to "Secteur Rocher," it became apparent that there was no chance at all of finding a mediocre, let alone good, vantage point from which to watch the race. Long story short, we "watched" about 2/3rds of the race in the race from behind an olive tree.

During that time, we became separated from Adam and Carlisle, but agreed to meet up at the will-call window after the race. I wound up watching the closing laps huddled around a TV set up in one of the restaurants in town while Angela strolled up the street looking for a souvenir or race tee-shirt.

Actually, the high point of the day for me was walking the track after they opened it up to pedestrians. I couldn't believe the elevation changes, since they are completely flattened by TV.

Fortunately, we didn't have to repeat our hike from Antibes to Juan-les-Pins upon our return as the train strike had ended (how convenient). Adam and Carlisle retired to their room, but Angela and I were much to hungry to call it a night so we went to another of my dad's recommended places (Restaurant La Bodega) and had some exceptional scallops.

Tomorrow we're driving over to the Luberon region of Provence where we will be staying for 4 nights at a small farmhouse "mas" near Menerbes.

Day 7, 24 May 2008, Aix-les-Bains to Juan-les-Pins

Route

Man, this was a long driving day. I knew it would be long, but I didn't expect it to be this long. We left Aix-les-Bains around 9:30 or so; stopped in Digne-les-Bains for a late-ish lunch at McDonalds (we really just didn't want to fool with parking anywhere and finding a sandwich shop); and got to St. Paul de Vence around 5:30 or so; just as the galleries were starting to close. St. Paul is a stunning little hill-village. Had the weather been better, I am sure that we would have been able to see the Med. We had to restrain ourselves from spending even more on artwork; since many of the galleries had stunning pieces.

We had a slight fuel scare on the way to St. Paul, in that we were in a very remote part of the Verdon National Park and were running very low on fuel. Thankfully we came down out of the mountains with about 50km of range to spare. You don't really appreciate how accessible stuff like gas stations or convenience stores or whatever is in the states until you almost get stranded.

From St. Paul, it was about 40 minutes to Juan-les-Pins and we checked into our hotel and promptly headed out for dinner. My dad had been here just a couple weeks ago, and had recommended some good restaurants (he's a bit of a gourmande, so I trust his opinions), so we found one of them and had a terrific Thai meal at "Pousse Pousse."

Upon our return to the hotel, we were informed about a train strike (a strike in France, no way!) that would cause our station to be closed tomorrow and that would affect the trains that actually run tomorrow. Awesome news, since we have to find the will-call window tomorrow to get our actual tickets for the race.

Day 6, 23 May 2008, Annecy to Aix-les-Bains

Route

Finally some blue sky! For most of the day, we had the best weather of the trip to date. Today is market day in Annecy, and the whole of the old town is filled with produce stands, butchers, cheese merchants, bakers, etc. We spent a good while perusing all of the vendors; sampling the local sausages, cheeses, and breads.

During our meandering, we happened upon an artist's small gallery where we bought another painting. It took a while, but we finally convinced him that, yes, we definitely wanted him to ship the painting to our house back home. Adam and Carlisle got into the action, too, and I'm sure we made him very happy this morning.

We had a very simple lunch in the lakefront park consisting of some sandwiches that we bought from a small deli. Adam had to restrain Carlisle from buying out the entire collection of an artist who had set out his work in a very high-traffic location on the main canal. Of course, we had to get some gelato, too.

Our lake cruise was super. It lasted about an hour and went almost all the way to the far end of the lake. We were all stunned by how many paragliders we could see riding the thermals. It was like a huge flock of very colorful birds.

Unfortunately, our hotel in Aix-les-Bains is prepaid, so we had to leave Annecy and make the 30 minute drive to Aix-les-Bains. It's nothing compared to Annecy, but our hotel is nice, and we had a great dinner at a restaurant in the pedestrian old-town. Of course, not wanting to break the chain of consecutive days with rain, it was raining by the time we went to bed.

I think tomorrow will be a long day as we drive down to Juan-les-Pins. It should be a pretty drive, though.

Day 5, 22 May 2008, Zermatt to Annecy

Route

"Have you looked outside? It's worse than yesterday." Those were the words of the Air Zermatt guy at the heliport when I called this morning. No helicopter tours today and we've pretty much exhausted our list of things to do in Zermatt when the weather is shitty. At breakfast, Angela and I proposed calling an audible and getting out of here and heading down the road to Annecy, France. Adam and Carlisle have raved about it, so I checked online and found a hotel and we decided to kiss Zermatt and her clouds goodbye.

Not to be deterred, we (Adam, Carlisle, and I) took the cable cars all the way to the "Matterhorn Glacier Paradise," a 12,700ft. panoramic viewing deck and "glacier palace." Aside from climbing the stairs to the highest elevation I have ever been to (12,736ft ASL), this was a completely useless expenditure of time and money. There was absolutely nothing to see; it was cold; and it was snowing.

Back down in town, we hooked up with Angela (who had been unsuccessful in her shopping efforts), had some yummy sausages for lunch, and got the hell out of there. The drive to Annecy took about 3 hours and went along the shores of Lake Geneva before heading south to Annecy.

This was an excellent decision. Annecy is an absolutely lovely town on the shores of a 9 mile long glacial lake that empties through the town by way of several man-made canals. The weather this afternoon was perfect as we strolled along the lakefront promenade, down the canals, and past the gelato stands (twice). Annecy is called the Venice of the Alps, and I can see why. We had dinner at a place right on the canal and strolled back to the hotel. Assuming the weather is OK tomorrow, we're going to take a lake cruise and then head down the road to Aix-les-Bains.

Day 4, 21 May 2008, Zermatt

Not much better weather this morning. The clouds hung very low and we couldn't see any peaks all day long. We hung out in the hotel breakfast room in the morning talking to our hotelier trying to figure out something to do with such crappy weather.

Our day unfolded basically like this: we reconvened out front after a few minutes and decided to walk down to the heliport to get the straight skinny from the Air Zermatt folks. During our walk down there, we walked past the "Gornergratbahn" station and decided to say "F" it and take the cograil up to "Gornergrat;" fog, rain, and snow be damned. Anyway, we got to the heliport and were told that there would be no flights today and to call back tomorrow morning to see if the weather improves enough to fly. We took the "scenic" route back into town, getting moderately waylaid by a herd of sheep, and got some sandwich stuff from the Coop supermarket.

The cograil up to the Gornergrat was amazing. The grade that that train had to go up was just relentless. It was pretty clear most of the way up so that we could get views of Zermatt and the valley in which it is located. Once up there, we were solidly in the soup and could see a maximum of about 100 yards. I was able to get a glimpse of the glacier (the first real glacier I've ever seen), but the fog quickly enveloped us and that was that. Women being women (and my friend Adam being like a woman), there was a bit of shopping at the "highest mall in the world" (which basically amounted to a Swiss Army Knife store, a watch/jewelry store, and a trinket store). By the time we were ready to come back down, it was snowing pretty heavily up there.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We ate dinner at a pretty good bar and went to bed with fingers crossed for flying weather tomorrow.

Day 3, 20 May 2008, Davos to Zermatt

Route

The morning started out rain free, so that's a good thing. We had a nice breakfast, bought some trinkets (a ceramic jam jar made by Mrs. Keller herself), and headed out. We got on the road by 10:30 or so. The drive was OK and by and large the weather held up. We crossed another high pass only recently opened called the Oberalppass. It was more otherworldly than the Fluelapass yesterday. There was tons of snow and once we crested the pass, we hit a very thick fog bank. We stopped in Andermatt for some lunch and to get some laundry detergent, since we needed to do laundry tonight. The one other high pass that we could have driven was closed, the Furkapass. Instead of driving, we loaded onto a car-carrying train for the journey under the Furkatunnel to the other side of the mountain. When we emerged on the other side, the sun was shining, there was blue sky, and we thought we had turned a weather corner. It was fairly smooth sailing to Tasch, except for some afternoon traffic issues in Tasch, where we parked the trucklet and boarded the shuttle train to Zermatt.

Zermatt is totally and completely tourist focused. There is really nothing of note here historically except for the stories of all the folks that have died trying to climb the Matterhorn and the other peaks around here. As if following us, the clouds obscured the visibility of any of the peaks around here and there is an on and off drizzle falling. Awesome. Maybe tomorrow will be better, although our hotelier says the forecast is for more of the same. I am afraid that maybe the cloud layer might be a little too low for our helicopter tour. Angela (and I, but mostly Angela) will be seriously bummed out if we can't fly because of the weather. Weather has been more than an inconvenience for almost every day of our last 2 vacations.

We ate an excellent, albeit very expensive, Italian dinner tonight. Like Davos, Zermatt is mostly closed now between the high winter season and the upcoming summer season. Tons of renovation work going on, with construction cranes everywhere. Zermatt is largely a pedestrian town, with neat looking electric taxis and delivery trucks. Only rarely do you hear the sound of a diesel motor.

Let's hope for some better weather tomorrow. If the clouds don't blow out (or at least lift higher), than this portion of our trip will have been a complete waste of time and money. I would have just rather gone back to Rapallo and the Italian Riviera, honestly.

Day 2, 19 May 2008, Munich to Davos

Route

Today was a busy day. We met Adam and Carlisle down in the lobby around 8:40, checked out of the hotel and mosied over to the Welt to get checked in and start the delivery process. The part of the Welt dedicated to customer deliveries completely and utterly outclasses the old facility in Freimann. The waiting lounge (called the "Premium Lounge") is very richly decorated with modern furniture and supplied with a self-service food bar with various beverages, pastries, small sandwiches, etc. You wait here until your name is called to fill out the insurance paperwork and plan the rest of your delivery day.

We chose to skip the detailed car "briefing" and go straight to the delivery, followed by a tour of the Munich production facility. We had a little while prior to the actual delivery, so we bought some BMW trinkets in the gift shop. Since we are just replacing one X3 with another, there really wasn't anything new to learn, and we were driving down the ramp to the valet parking area within 20 minutes. The plant tour was very entertaining for me and Adam, while I think it took a little while for the girls to warm up to it.

The plant tour set us back getting on the road by a couple hours, and we finally left Munich behind around 3:45, following a nice lunch back in the Premium Lounge. We drove down to Garmische-Partenkirchen, into Austria, then into Switzerland. We crossed the Fluelapass at Susch (they just opened the pass last weekend, so it was awesome to drive over one of the higher Alpine passes). There was still a good bit of snow on the ground at the very top of the pass; and you could tell there was some fresh snow, too. The other end of the pass dumped us right into Davos.

We got into Davos around 7:15 or so and were met by the lovely inn-keeper, Heike Keller. After getting checked in, and being a little hungry, we set off to find a place to eat dinner. We quickly realized that Davos is a veritable ghost town in between the winter and summer seasons and there just weren't too many choices available. We settled on a horrifically overpriced steak dinner at a "wild west" themed steakhouse. At least the food tasted good, I guess.

We're just going to get on the road tomorrow after breakfast in the hotel, since we have to get to Zermatt; and I think it's a pretty good drive to get there.

Day 1, 18 May 2008, Munich

Our plane landed just a few minutes late to a heavy drizzle. Awesome. The flight was OK, but the departure was anything but smooth, since Delta changed planes on the gate crew with no notice, leaving several seats oversold and the very overwhelmed gate agent trying in vain to pronounce names in languages she's probably never seen.

A very nice gentleman named Rolf Raffelsieper, who provides a sort of private limousine service for certain European Delivery clients met us at the airport with his bimmerfest tee shirt on and drove us straight to the Sheraton Four Points at the Olympic park within sight of the BMW HQ building and the new BMW Welt, where we would be picking up the new car tomorrow. We spent a few minutes with him while he explained a little about what to do in downtown Munich, then he left and we tried to check in to our room. Thankfully, they had our room ready already, so we were able to get somewhat settled and take a nap, since we got zero sleep on the plane.

After a good nap, we headed over to the Welt to see what it had to offer. Unfortunately, the weather had not improved appreciably since we arrived, so it was still drizzling. My first impression of the place was very good. It was packed with people; full of highly interactive exhibits; friendly BMW representatives; and lots and lots of BMW's. Angela and I think we spotted her white X3 on the delivery platform, but couldn't be sure. It did have a Euro Delivery tag on it, though.

After having our fill of the Welt, and the time having arrived for us to meet our friends from L.A. who were coming over to travel with us, we headed back to the hotel. Adam and Carlisle were waiting for us in the hotel lobby at the appointed time, so we exchanged hugs and handshakes and were off to see what we could see downtown. I wanted to go to the Augustiner Keller, so once we got down to the Marienplatz, we set out to find it and have some good, authentic Bavarian cuisine. We all had some Radlers, Adam and I had pork knuckles, and Angela and Carlisle had wiener schnitzel. We came away very full and ready to hit the rack in preparation for the delivery experience tomorrow and the drive to Davos, Switzerland. Oh, and it's still raining.

Day 0, 17 May 2008, Departure

We are all packed up, e-checked in, and ready to head down to the airport. Got some final paperwork to sign at the dealership and that's all that stands in our way of a super vacation.

We are really going "light" this year. Only one bag and one carry-on each. It was tough for Angela, but I'm very proud of her for foregoing all of her shoes and whatnot.

T-12 Days

For 2008, we're going to pick up an X3 for Angela and drive it down to Provence via Zermatt and the Swiss Alps. We're traveling with our friends Adam and Carlisle with whom we have travelled before (Spain, 2006). We had a terrific time on that trip and we thought we'd invite them along again this year. It will be especially fun to have them along since they've moved to California in the past year and we've hardly seen them since they left.

This year, our European Delivery experience will be enhanced by the recently opened BMW Welt. By all accounts it will be a wholly different experience than the delivery center at Freimann, which, let's face it, was pretty embarrassing.

We're not leaving until May 17, but Angela has already laid out most of her clothes for the whole trip.

Tentative itinerary:
17 May: depart USA
18 May: arrive Munich, meet Adam and Carlisle
19 May: delivery day, drive to Davos, CH
20-22 May: Zermatt, CH
23 May: Aix-les-Bains, FR
24-25 May: Juan-les-Pins, FR (25 May, Monaco F1 GP)
26-29 May: Menerbes, FR
30 May: Nice, FR
31 May: reuturn to USA

Angela's got all sorts of stuff planned, like helicopter rides around the Matterhorn, hot air ballooning over the Luberon, perfume tours in Grasse, you name it.