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.