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Wow- what a great experience and an awesome car! Almost 900 miles, 4 castles, 3 countries, 2 audi factories, 1 chocolate factory and a new personal land speed record!
Audi met my daughter and I at the Munich airport in an A8L and took us to the Ingolstadt hotel. The hotel was nothing special, but the food was good, staff friendly, and it set us up well for the morning trip to the factory. Staff at the factory treated us great. The driver got us started then handed us off to someone to do the paperwork. She gave us wristbands for the restaurant all day (we went back three time, I think) and gave us a few goodies. Very friendly. From there, we went on the factory tour, cruised the gift shop and spent a little time in the museum (we were there two years ago, so didn't need to spend much time there this time) before they called our name for delivery. The delivery person was really helpful and knew a lot about the cars. Answered all my questions and showed me a lot of stuff on the MMI unit. Gave us the sticker needed to go in the restricted pollution control zones of German cities and answered general questions we had about highway vignettes for the rest of our trip. We were definitely treated like VIPs all day. As advertised, the built-in Nav doesn't work in Europe, but Android Auto connected easily to my phone and worked great the whole trip - very convenient way to go if you have international data. I also used the GPS nav system Audi provided as it knew the speed limit at all times - so I just kept that on with the map so I could glance over when needed to see if I was in a 50, 100, 130, unlimited, or other zone. Then used Android Auto (central screen) for nav. All our luggage fit in the car (*phew*) and magically appeared there when we were ready for it.
I also copied my iTunes files to a couple SD cards before leaving home and loaded these in the slots in the glove-box unit. This worked and I had all my tunes (and a few CDs just in case) at my disposal for the few moments I wanted a change from that wonderful engine sound!
Took off from Ingolstadt to Anif Austria, near Salzburg. Basically we chose there so we could get to the eastern extent of the Alpenstrasse the next day for our real road trip. You can get a Vignette for Austrian highways at either of the last two stops on the Autobahn - the last one is right at the border and has a Shall station. Stayed at a great little country inn, with ample outdoor parking (and a view of the car from our room): A place to feel good! | Urlaub in der Mozartstadt Salzburg - Hotel Am Essigmanngut, Anif. Would have loved an extra day to see Salzburg or at least get some Nockerl, but we didn't have it in our schedule. Next ED.
Stayed on the Alpenstrasse that day to visit Schloss Linderhoff then travel on to our next hotel near the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles: another recommended hotel https://www.hotel-mueller.de/en/ - great location within walking distance to the castles, very friendly and accommodating staff; they even got our castle tickets for us so all we had to do the next morning was claim them and get on our carriage up to Neuschwanstein.
From there, we went to St. Gallen Switzerland for the night to tour the Maestrani chocolate factory in Fluwil the next day (Maestrani: Home). Stayed at the Radisson Blu, and while nice enough, it was the most disappointing hotel of the trip. No real character or other unique traits to recommend it. My daughter enjoyed the factory tour though, and we each got our fill of samples! On th way to Switzerland, I noticed some of the road signs had thin X's over them. Since everything otherwise seemed normal, I kept on going, and about an hour later, I discovered this meant the road was closed. Turns out there was some sort of classic car road rally and we got there right at the start, it appeared. So, we watched all the cars get started down the road (very cool), then backtracked for 30m or so to find another route to take.
Back into Germany the next day to the Burg Colmberg castle hotel: Rooms - Burg Colmberg. This was a great place and we enjoyed just wandering the hotel and exploring its nooks and crannies. I had intended to take the Romantikstrasse there, but my navigation system kept re-routing me to the autobahn, so I finally gave in and enjoyed some long stretches of unlimited speed instead. Learned that when you're cruising at 120+ (mph) and you come across a 120 (kph) speed limit sign, you probably need to do more than lift off the accelerator to slow down in time! No incidents, just an interesting frame of reference. I totally understand these cars after driving the autobahn for a while. Cruising at 110-120 mph seemed perfectly normal. It only started to seem fast when you get above 130, but even then you can get blown away by someone going an addition 30-40mph faster! Everyone stays in their lanes except to pass and only passes on the left. It's fast, but seems a lot safer overall, than an average US freeway. Country roads were beautiful and often fun to drive with curves, hills, and great views. Speed limits are typically 30mph in towns and 60mph outside, so you're constantly doubling and halving your speed. As a result, though, travel times on the smaller roads were much longer than on the autobahn, so my contingency for each day's plans was to do more or less autobahn driving. You win either way - pretty country twisties or ridiculous speeds and accelerations.
Next on to Neckarsulm where Audi arranged an additional factory tour for us. Again, we got the royal treatment, but alas, no free food pass this time. Our tour guide had been working at that factory for 40+ years - his first job, doing seats for 924s and 944s. He had a lot of pride in the Neckarsulm facility and Audi and seemed really excited to show everything to us. He was quite pleased to have a new RS* owner in the group as well - someone who "understood"!
From there, on to Frankfurt to wash and drop off the car. I searched online for a hand car wash and finally found this place that I think was near the old dropoff facility: Aqua car wash (50.10296, 8.61791). When I got there, all I saw was a machine wash, but getting out of the car and walking around, I found the next driveway over lead to some self-wash booths in the back. About 4 Euros later, and some google translation for the different options, we had a clean car - ready to go to BLG for dropoff. There again, we had great service and got out of there quickly. Cab back to the hotel (Moxy - a fun, unconventional hotel near the airport) for departure the next morning.
Now- I just have to wait for the car to get to Emden, then San Diego, then change boats to get to Honolulu. I have to pick it up at the dealer there, then put the car on one more boat to get it to my island.
+1 Excellent write up and wish I could have been there as well. I would LOVE to drive this beast on the Autobahn!! How much longer will it take to get to Hawaii?
+1 Excellent write up and wish I could have been there as well. I would LOVE to drive this beast on the Autobahn!! How much longer will it take to get to Hawaii?
2-3 months, so I'm hoping for a Christmas present; we'll see....
+1 Excellent write up and wish I could have been there as well. I would LOVE to drive this beast on the Autobahn!! How much longer will it take to get to Hawaii?
2-3 months, so I'm hoping for a Christmas present; we'll see....
Congratulations and I hope that you get your new car in time for Christmas. I did an ED last month as well for a Q7 and I need to get off my rear end and write it up for this forum! Hopefully my car will be here before Thanksgiving!
Congratulations and I hope that you get your new car in time for Christmas. I did an ED last month as well for a Q7 and I need to get off my rear end and write it up for this forum! Hopefully my car will be here before Thanksgiving!
CarSwami
Just remembered one thing I saw at the factory that I forgot to add. It appears many of the control computers are still running Windows XP ......!
Just curious, if we purchase something in Europe, can we just leave those items in the car?
Nice car... I love RS3. I used to have one before I moved to the States two years ago. Now I am thinking to buy a RS5.
10-16-2017, 10:36 PM
Back form my RS3 Euro Delivery
