8/31/18 Stuttgart, Germany to Munich, Germany
As I previously mentioned we decided to get our new car through the Mercedes Benz European Delivery program. I highly recommend this to anyone buying a Mercedes. The savings more than pays for your trip to Germany. Due to lack of more vacation days we added an extra day onto our already planned cruise vacation. It would have been great to have driven the car around more in Europe and made it to a vacation itself.
We woke up early and were very excited. Neither my DH or I had ever bought a new car before, yet alone from the factory it was made in.
We stated the day with an elaborate buffet breakfast at the hotel that was included in the program. There were meats, cheeses, fresh squeezed juice and smoothies, breads, cooked to order eggs, and pretzels (my favorite). It was delicious!
We then took a taxi out to the factory. The cost of the taxi was also included.
We checked in, got some free coffee at the cafe, and browsed the gift shop. Then it was time to get our car!
A Mercedes Benz employee was very knowledgeable about the car and showed us every feature. All with a german accent!
It did start to rain at this point but luckily we weren't planning on doing much outside.
We went back and got a few things from the gift shop. My DH bought an umbrella! My MIL bought some glasses, bag, umbrella, and pen for her aunt that has a Mercedes.
We then got to go on a factory tour. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures. It started with a video and then we had to wear safety gear including a vest, headphones, and safety glasses.
We boarded a bus that went to different buildings where we got off and went inside. Our guide was excellent. He knew ever aspect of the factory complex which is a small city. He also knew how all the cars were made in detail. We really got to see the factory in action. They were making sedans the day we were there. There is a lot more work done by hand than I realized. The cars move through huge conveyor belts. Interestingly they make different models and cars with left and right steering wheels all at the same time. They said they only made two identical cars all year because there are so many options. After the car assembly is complete they get a test drive. It is just like Test Track at Epcot with bumpy roads, water, and a long outside track. We then went to a building in the factory which made the body of the car. This was all animated with huge robots doing welding.
After the tour we went back and had lunch at cafe. Then we were off in our new car! We got on the autobahn and my DH went 90 mph! It was too fast for me. It is crazy that there is not a speed limit.
We drove through Bavaria and stopped at a German rest area for coffee. We then drove by "Cinderella Castle", Neuschwanstein Castle. It was in a stereotypic German village. So cute! We didn't get out and walk around because it was rainy and foggy but still could see the castle and had an even better view of the other castle in town.
We then drove though the German countryside on to Munich. We stopped downtown and walked through a pedestrian street to the
Disney store.
No purchases for us today but they did have a German Mickey plush which was cool. The most exciting thing about our stop was our car parallel parked itself with our park assist package. After that we dropped our luggage off at our hotel, Hilton Munich Airport which we got free on points. We had connecting rooms with a king and two twins. We then dropped our car off at the shipping company across the street. The lady working there didn't chat much but seemed to know what she was doing. We couldn't leave anything in the car for it's transport and it had to have specific insurance which was set up by the program.
Back at the hotel we got dinner.
We ate at the lobby bar where we had german sausages, a meet and cheese tray, (which had pretzels too!), and an apple strudel.
