[agambhandari]

Visit to Germany, its autobahns and of course the Green Hell i.e., Nürburgring has been on my bucket list for as long as I have known that there are no speed limits on many roads there: D

The Plan came together as we ended up choosing Europe and specifically France as our first destination for a vacation this year and tagging up Germany after that felt like a natural choice for me (Thanks to my wife for accepting it though)

Planning

Since our trip included France and Germany for almost equal number of days, we could apply for the Schengen Visa from either embassy depending on the way we designed our itinerary. We chose to apply via France because they seemed to be actually open v/s Germany which was so overloaded that the visa appointments were 3 months into the future. With France, I got a visa appointment around 25 days from my date of application, and to my surprise we received the Visa within 15 days from that appointment. This is despite being cautioned that it would take up to a month for the same. France Leg was an individual package from SOTC so they helped for the Visa but their support left a lot to be desired. Let’s just say that I was glad I didn’t have to deal with them for the planning for the Germany leg.
Since our France trip would be ending at Nice, the only logical next step would be to take a flight out of there (for convenience and time) this gave me a lot of freedom to choose the first destination in Germany.
My priorities for the Germany leg were:

1. Self-Driving between the cities as much as possible

2. Visit to the Nürburgring

3. Max out a high-performance car, if possible, on the derestricted sections of Autobahn

4. Visit to the major HQ and car museums (BMW, Merc, Porsche)

Thus, my route was planned.

Munich-Stuttgart-Nürburgring-Frankfurt


After my visa arrived and the pandemic situation definitely seemed in check, the first thing I did was book the slot for Driving at the ‘Ring with Apex. The slots fill up quick since these days are heavy with tourist rush but this is non-refundable, so kept that in mind. Then I proceeded to book hotels in each city, went through Booking.com and as much as possible chose hotels that allowed the bookings to be modified or cancelled until the day of stay (to maintain flexibility).

[agambhandari]

Day 1 (Munich)

We Fly from Nice to Munich (with a 1 hr layover in Paris -CDG). The first flight is delayed which led to mad rush for making the connection once we landed in CDG. We managed to make it but I was worried about our luggage making the transfer. With the regular Air France horror stories in past month and the news of issues at German Airport baggage handling, we planned for this by keeping an Airtag in each of the Check in luggage and keeping a good number of clothes with us in the Cabin baggage.

And as soon as we Land in Munich, we check the status of our bags in the iPhone and behold, just as we feared, the bags get pinged at Terminal 2F in CDG, Paris minutes ago. This saved us a lot of time and agony; we did not have to wait at the Luggage belt and we went straight for the Luggage handling counters. The counters are unmanned and absolute chaos with nobody to help, this was at 2:30 PM in the day. We reluctantly fill out an online form and talk to an Air France helpline agent who assured us that the luggage would reach on a subsequent flight. We carried our cabin luggage and instead of taking an Uber/Taxi I chose to use the Car Sharing App (Share NOW) which gave me a list of almost 100 cars to choose from (all of which were ready to drive from the airport), seeing the fine weather outside I went for the BMW 2 series convertible (it seemed like a fitting option with our light luggage and seeing as we were just taking it to get its bigger badder cousin).

It took us a good 10 minutes to find the car as we only got the Parking number and the floor on which it was parked on, so we had to walk to search the car on that floor. Used the app to unlock it and it just came to life, I never even saw the key as it was a keyless entry car. It had just enough boot space to fit our 2 small strolleys. This particular car was a 220d with 51k kms on the odo, the condition was above average but did have some cosmetic blemishes. Anyways, I put down the roof at the press of a button and set about driving to my destination around 30 mins/25 km away to…. MINI München to pick up a special car for 1 day. Found parking next to a very familiar car and dropped it off

Found it at the airport


Customary Photo


Hi there

Enter, G80 BMW M3

Getting to drive this car was the first reason I chose to start the trip from Munich. Munich is the capital city of Bavaria and also the HQ for BMW. And as a special service from the Welt, BMW offers direct rental of ALL their cars from this location (Yes, that includes M cars). So, I had reserved an M3 as soon as my visa was final.

The Welt rental location is undergoing some work so all those cars are currently offered from the location next door which is the main dealership for Mini in Munich. Visited the front desk, they confirmed my booking but remarked that I was late (I was only 10 min late, but it was Germany).

They checked my Driving License and also demanded my International Driver’s Permit. I had painstakingly gotten it after wasting a couple of days at my local RTO office in Ludhiana, and now I was glad that it came of some use. In fact, at the time of booking they had not mentioned IDP as a requirement if the original DL was in English, but they were quite stern about it and I was not able to add my wife as a second driver as she didn’t have an IDP ready. I was hoping to use my Forex Card to pay for the rental but they confirmed that they need a Credit Card, nothing else. I was given the contract to sign and seeing the odometer at 50k kms, I was worried that it might be a previous gen M3 (F80).


The car was finally brought out of the parking and it was impeccable. Looked brand new and shining in Black Sapphire. Took a walkaround to check any damages, there were non except for a couple of wheels kerbed. Drove out of the dealership and was searching for lunch options when we chanced upon a Pizza hut right opposite the Welt. Parking there proved to be a big challenge but finally settled on parking right outside so that I could observe the car while being seated on the table.

With the body fueled up, we set Google maps a destination of Garmisch-Partenkirchen simply because it was around 1 hour away and the roads to it consisted of good sections of derestricted autobahn and the hilly sections at the end seemed like a nice place to be. And boy, were we right. After spending the 10 minutes to exit the jams in Munich, the roads opened up, limits increased gradually until I saw this sign


I shifted to the fast lane, hit M1 on the steering wheel and gunned the car. Life was perfect! Roads were straight at first, then there were winding sections leading to tunnels making for a great experience combined with this Twin-Turbo Straight 6 S58 engine. Power was never lacking and I was hitting 200 Kmph in a jiffy. But I guess that’s okay, roads were vacant and it is legal to do so. In some straight sections, I was able to hit the gentleman’s agreement-electronically limited speed of 250 Kmph. The speedo showed 256 kmph though. So, the car doesn’t have the M driver’s Package. Oh, shucks then.

Blasting Punjabi music (what else do you expect from a couple of North Indians) and enjoying the road we reached a quaint little café in our destination town. The parking was perfect, against the backdrop of Austrian Alps made for a great scene. A few kids were quite struck with the car which was surprising for me as I thought it looked just like a 3 series for most part. Had a hot chocolate and some snacks, strolled around in some nearby areas and it was Picturesque all throughout. Going through the area, all we really found were a few houses, some cafes and of course car dealerships of all the major Germans. What a place!!







Left from there around 9:30pm and meanwhile, our Airtag showed that our luggage had indeed arrived at Munich airport. With nobody to answer the phone at the helpline we thought (or rather I thought) of taking matters into my own hands by driving back to the Airport and looking for our luggage. Of course, this had nothing to do with the fact that this would add around 60 kms of drive both ways in the M3. We reach there by 11, the airport is almost empty, the terminal seems deserted and after wasting a good 30 mins, we find that we need somebody from the airline to issue us a “boarding” pass to enter the arrival area but that’s not possible now since Munich airport terminal 1 has absolutely no flights after 10pm. A bit bummed at that but alright, at least I have the M3 till the next day!

Cruise back was relaxed, checked out the semi-autonomous driving features like Adaptive cruise, Lane Centring and even Traffic Jam Assist briefly. All worked well. Night driving was sorted thanks to the Optional Laser Lights installed in my particular car. I was surprised to see derestricted sections even on the way to the Airport, so had some fun on those.

Checked into the hotel Maritim, München at almost midnight, sadly the paid parking garage was full but was told that the street parking is in fact free till 9AM in the morning. Got a big thumbs up from a few locals for the car, and parked it on the street.

[agambhandari]

Day 2

Next day right after breakfast, we went to the airport and an hour later we successfully retrieved our luggage. On the other hand, Air France is still asking me for more details so they track my bag. Sounds Fun!

With the Trunk loaded, we headed back into town to see English gardens. Views that you get in there are breath taking, even more so when you consider that it is located right in the heart of the city.



After a pitstop at McD’s for us and the adjoining Fuel pump for the car, we dropped our luggage in the hotel.

After that, sadly had to return the M3 back to the dealership as the time was up. It was a bit dirty but there were no damages and the return went smoothly. We walked 3 mins from the dealership right to the BMW Museum and Welt.



My drive stats over 24 hours


Another one

It was a dream come true for a BMW enthusiast to visit the home to the brand and now more so, because this year marks the 50-year anniversary for their ///M division. So, there were special exhibits in addition to the usual suspects. Take a look.














These are two of the rare 1/1 prototypes, a V12 X5 and an E46 M3 Wagon

After museum, proceeded to the Welt, which is right across the road.






In the evening took an uber back to the hotel, caught up on some sleep and went out for dinner in Marienplatz, the heart of Munich.

[agambhandari]

Day 3

After breakfast, went to the main train station (Hauptbahnhof), Munich to pick up my car for the rest of the trip. I had originally booked a 3 series sedan but thanks to Jam packed bookings, enterprise (the car rental provider) could only manage to provide a BMW X2. I was a bit reluctant at first, owing mainly to the lesser luggage space but there was no other option frankly. Their pricing was much better than what other companies were offering for even smaller vehicles.

The Car was in great condition, and best part it even had a new car smell!! On firing it up, I came to know it had just 919 Kms on the odo and later on seeing the documents in the car, it was registered just 5 days earlier. I couldn’t have asked for a fresher car. Drove it back to the hotel, and I was worried about fitting the luggage since the same luggage did not fit in the back of my X1 back home and the X2 is basically a smaller X1.

Years of watching carwow reviews finally paid off and I remembered that there is a good underfloor storage in the X1/X2 which in the Indian market houses the space-saver wheel. And as expected, it just had a tyre repair kit in this German Market X2. So folded it up and the trunk gobbled up all the bags and the Electronic Tailgate was an icing on the cake (C’mon BMW India just offer that on the X1 as well).

We set about for Stuttgart, the home of 2 big German carmakers (Porsche and Mercedes-Benz). On the way, we stopped at Lichenstein Castle which was good place to view the countryside and get some nice clicks.


Reached the Porsche Museum (located in aptly named Porschplatz) just before 3 pm and had lunch in their café. Noodles that are named Cayman! Germans do have a sense of humor, I guess. The exhibit was great and the rarest of the cars are kept well preserved at the museum.













What? A Merc in this Museum?






I was not very much interested in visiting the Mercedes-Benz Museum since it was getting late, but my wife convinced me and also showed me the message on our Porsche Museum ticket.


Okay then, but thanks to countless roadworks all over Stuttgart Zentrum, we reached the Mercedes Museum too late. We shopped around in a nearby mall for some essentials and checked into our hotel. Keeping it budget, we again found some free street parking for overnight.

[agambhandari]

Day 4

In the morning, packed our bags into the X2 and headed straight for the Mercedes-Benz Museum. As mentioned, we did get discount on presenting the Porsche Museum tickets and the what was also impressive is that everyone got a complementary audio guide device as well. The museum spans 7 floors and was undoubtedly the most impressive museum of all 3 that I visited in Germany. The exhibits are all special and at least this one had a RHD car on display.
















The cafe is also built like a backseat, I hope every petrolhead that visits this place notices this.

We head out to the open road and the X2 shines, with its nimble handling and flat ride I was doing 150-160 kmph through all derestricted sections easily. Stopped at an Autohoff (Truck stop) for a hearty KFC meal and then proceeded to our destination for the day, The Green Hell!!

The Road to Nürburgring was boring at first but the last 50 or so km are all hills with great curves and troughs as if to train you for the Track! I made it a point to reach well in time because last thing I wanted to do was drive on the track tired. Reached Apex, Nürburgring by 4:30pm and filled out the paper work and got the briefing. Since we had some time to kill, was able to fuel up the X2 as it was on reserve.






Reached back Apex and got my helmet and attire ready. Got familiar with the car. I had chosen the Golf Mk7.5 GTI simply because it seemed like a safe car to tackle the ring first time and was an Automatic. I love a slick manual but a LHD and first time on the ‘Ring, no thanks. The instructor was ready by 5:20 pm and we left for the track to enter in the first session itself. The track experience was mesmerising, I was pretty cautious and probably took the corners a good 20-30kmph slower than I could have but better safe than sorry. Because this is a public session (Touristenfahrten), rules of the road apply and slower traffic has to stay on the right. There is no “Racing Line” when there is traffic so best to keep your excitement and expertise under check for everybody’s safety. ‘Ring was a tricky place and was glad I opted for an instructor so I could be told where to keep pushing and where to slow down. After 1 instructor’s lap, I went for another lap, this time with my wife riding passenger and very much acting like the instructor I went slower than the previous lap for obvious lack of instructor and my ‘Ring experience of Grand Total of One lap but it was mad fun despite that.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BBHWJuDv65o?feature=share

Returned the Golf back to Apex, took some photos and luckily bumped into Misha Charoudin (Apex employee and a Youtuber with good ‘Ring content). Then asked around for the giant Nürburgring sign so that I could get the customary photo!




Rooms at Apex were all sold out for that day so checked into my reserved room nearby which had some interesting guests in the parking.

Views from the room were also pretty good. In the evening, we looked at our itinerary and Frankfurt didn’t have a lot of sights to keep us interested for almost 3 days there. We explored other smaller German cities nearby but found nothing exciting and then we hit gold! We don’t need to limit ourselves to Germany! Amsterdam looks far away on the map but was only 360 Kms. The drive time was just under 4 hours, gotta love the Autobahns! With that decided, I had to ring up enterprise car rental to confirm that I indeed had unlimited Kms on my rental and I opted to add on the Cross-border fee which was needed.

[agambhandari]

Day 5

After a homely breakfast, I picked up a couple of (well deserved, I hope) ‘Ring stickers from a Gas Station and we set off for the impromptu trip to Netherlands! We tanked up within Germany because I couldn’t find prices online for petrol in Netherlands. We found a relatively cheaper pump, about 3 mins off the autobahn and it paid off. The price we filled up at (1.64 EUR) was much cheaper than the price in Netherlands (Around 1.98 EUR). The German autobahns were impressive as we had gotten used to, the border was hardly noticeable where we crossed into the Netherland but the roads and the speed limits were the only distinguishing features. The roads were almost as good as Germany but the (*cough* Indian *cough*) speed limits of 80/100 kmph played spoilsport. We reached our hotel by 2 pm and checked in. Took the tram to the city centre and happily explored the city on Tram/Metro and even ferry. It is a unique place indeed.

[agambhandari]

Day 6

We left Amsterdam early to make sure we cover the almost 450 kms of that day in time. Breakfast was on the way at a rest stop and then another stop near to Frankfurt for lunch. Initial half had roads in Netherlands (Boring!) and an unreal number of congestions and roadworks on autobahn until Cologne. Do note that congestions and road works in Germany means traffic slows down to 60-80 Kmph (i.e., regular Indian highway speeds) so you are still able to make decent ground. The final sections of the drive were on PERFECT roads with fantastic views. I took the opportunity on derestricted sections to hit 200 Kmph, but after the M3 this car just felt lethargic at those speeds.
Found the build sheet of X2




After spirited autobahn driving

https://youtu.be/oSlkrkDJnu0

We reached Frankfurt by 4 pm, found our hotel and the underground parking. Was excited to see it shared parking with Polestar showroom. Went out to see the city, took the trip up the Main tower to capture some amazing views.


The weather was near perfect and we were wondering that wouldn’t it be great if we could get a convertible to drive around. My mind started to click and right after dinner we headed to pickup a Mini cooper convertible to drive around the Frankfurt city centre and the along the river. Share NOW app is a must have! Was a great experience though the speed limits within city centre are crazy (30/50Kmph).

https://youtu.be/xAd7JhN-Riw

[agambhandari]

Day 7

Did a bit of sightseeing and got some usual souvenirs for family back home. Visited the famous footbridge Eiserner Steg and had some ice cream. Was surprised to see that EVERYTHING was closed. Malls, shops everything was closed except for eateries. We checked out of the hotel and packed the luggage into the car one final time.
Interesting neighbour




Thanks to the car with us, we could still see some sights nearby and then headed back to the Airport. On the way, tanked up the X2 final time and then handed over the keys at Frankfurt airport. It was a really smooth process and the inspection agent completed the process in under a minute and we were good to go.




We drove over 1500 Kms and more than doubled the cars odo within 5 days!

The whole airport area is designed with Rental cars and the process in mind. We reached 4 hours before the take-off time and turned out it was the correct time because it took us almost an hour to check in (Thank you Air India!) The trip ended with us landing back at IGI airport on the morning of the 76th Independence Day of India. But I just missed the M3….

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[RaceCyborg]

Whoa!! you've covered a quite extensive "things to do list" a car guy would dream of, for a driving holiday . It's very well written too.

Got me absolutely glued to the screen for the better part of almost an hour.

If I am being honest you got me quite envious of what you managed to experience there . Although there's one thing I would have done that differs from your approach and that is to rent out a Porsche 911 instead of the M3. Nothing against the M3 (other than the front fascia) though just my personal thoughts.

PS: Love those sunglasses.

[acestormtrooper]

agambhandari I want to go too now!!! Dream to drive on the autobahn!!!

[Phantom 510]

That was quite a trip. Someone had really good fun. I'm green with envy for sure (pun intended).

[ajayc123]

That was a true theme holiday, and a very different and interesting read.

While in theory, no speed limits is a good watercooler conversation, but to push the pedal and drive at 200 plus requires a lot of guts and concentration. Can you tell us a bit more about what was going on in your mind when you were driving at limits of the machine?

[Swaminathan]

15 years back - I did road trip in Europe

Best Scenic route - Stuttgart to Bologna (through the Alps in Austria and Italy).

Enjoyed the autobahn between Salzburg and Munich (did my fastest 230kmph in a Lancia Delta )

[razor_crest]

That was a well-documented travelogue and you have sure put this itch to cover these places into a lot many of us now!

Really loved the views of the cars. The baggage handling was a mess in Europe this summer and good that you got yours with minimum hassle.��