Audi-X2

I'm departing on 8/10 for my European Delivery program (just got my confirmation papers today!) and will pick up a fully loaded A7 on 8/13.

I did the European Delivery program back in 2009, and it was a blast. Has anyone done the program recently? Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions or recommendations?

I have my itinerary all set -- down to Telfs Austria (near Innsbruck) the first day, then past the Neuschwanstein Castle and to the Bodensee (Lake Constance). Will follow the shoreline and into the Black Forst, then on into the Alsace and Champagne regions of France (visiting Nancy and Colmar along the way). Then, on to Versailles and into Paris.

Looking forward to a terrific visit with the wonderful Audi folks in Ingolstadt once again, and then to a great itinerary for the next week.

TIME89

Have a great trip! bone voyage!

kgall

Make sure to do the Audi Forum Factory Tour--that was what I thought was coolest about picking up the car there. If you've done it already, you may still want to do it to see the latest advances in robotics. I was amazed at how up close they let you get.

If you are anywhere near Garmisch-Partenkirschen, take the cable car up the Zugspitz. The German Alpine Road (or its called something like that) would be fun to drive in your new car.

In the Black Forest area, the Cuckoo Clock road should also be fun if it isn't to crowded with tourists. Also the very bizarre rocks of the Swabian Alb not far from the Black Forest.

Weikirche (aka Church in the Meadow) is fantastically Baroque. My wife noted that its decoration is much more about the life and work of Jesus than the crucifixion and Passion--something we liked even though neither of us are Catholic. It's not far from Neuschwanstein (which unfortunately may still have the scaffolding on it that we saw this May--try Linderhof as an alternate King Ludwig site).

In Alsace, Colmar is a great place to sit out and eat and drink in the old city and watch storks fly from the top of the cathedral.
There's also a really interesting nunnery on top of a mountain founded about 900 AD within an hour or so of Colmar, but I don't remember its name. Does anyone remember it from that description? Or you may be able to find it in a tourist guide covering Alsace.

We lived in Freiburg this spring--you will probably pass by there on your trip. The cathedral there is interesting, and its a great place for music if you are passing through at the right time.

Have fun.

kgall

X-2:

I just noticed your question in another thread about license plates.

I'm pretty sure today's plates are legal. Here's how I know:
When my wife came back to the US a few weeks before I did, she got a German speeding ticket with my picture on it, and the license plate we got from Audi listed. So the plate was linked to our home address, and had it been illegal, you can bet that we would have been ticketed for that as well.


What we got was a smallish plate with two lines of characters on a white background:

IN x
xxx A

where x is a number--I don't remember them all.
The IN is presumably for INgolstadt, and there was also a "seal" of Bavaria on the top line.

Then in the upper right corner embossed in the plate on a blue field, in three lines, was
03
06
12
the plate expiration date (3 June 2012).

All the new cars we saw at Audi Forum that we could identify as going to foreigners had this form. We also saw it on non-Audis when we dropped off the car in Frankfurt to be shipped to the US.

This plate got us through Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden, no problem with police.

Audi-X2

Many thanks for your many great tips.

I'm looking forward to the Audi factory tour -- I did it 3 years ago and would like to see what's new. Also, I will have with me my nephew who's into engineering -- he's really going to enjoy that tour (and may even teach me a few things!).

We will be traveling near Garmisch-Partenkirschen, so I'll add the cable car to Zugspitz side trip to the itinerary.

My nephew wants to see Neuschwanstein, even though it will likely be in scaffolding, so that's on the agenda. I had routed this trip through Colmar because I had heard many good things about it -- great to see you've confirmed them.

As for the license plates, the ones you were given sound a lot like the ones I received on my last trip. When I did the European Delivery program through a different German car maker about 6 years ago, they gave me the full-sized export plates (that company still does). But Audi gave me what are effectively motorcycle plates, and given that at the time the car was going to a state that required only a rear plate, there was no front plate on the car. So, in Reims, France one fine Friday afternoon, the gendarmes pulled me over and hassled me for about an hour (though it was more out of their boredom and for their entertainment). They didn't like the missing front plate nor the fact that my Audi S5 was wearing what they called a motorcycle plate rather than a proper full-sized export plate. Oh, well, I'll avoid Reims on this trip.

I'll be sure to take a lot of pics and post some here upon my return. Can't wait -- departure is just a week from Friday!

kgall

Yeah, our state only has rear license plates, too, but the Audi folks put both front and rear plates on in Ingolstadt.
A lot of ordinary people looked at them like they couldn't figure out what they were.

I'm not sure where you are going to cross in and out of Austria, but if you are near Berchtesgaten you might want to check out the Koenigsee and the boat ride between the mountains there, and the road up toward Hitler's infamous Eagle's Nest. That road only takes an hour or so and is beautiful and fun to drive. To get to the Eagle's Nest you have to take a bus--we didn't go up there.

04A4cab

Agree. The factory tour is pretty awesome since it's a close-up view of many parts of the metal stamping and assembly process using state-of-the-art technology.

The Wieskirche (correct spelling) is indeed a good suggestion if you like churches. The exterior is ok (together with the background of the Alps, it is great), but it's really the interior that is so fantastic. If you're lucky, you may even have someone playing the organ. See www.wieskirche.de/eframset.htm for details.

Osicom

Congrats! I will be picking mine up 8/16 Audi S4. Maybe we'll bump into each other in the Black Forest =)

kgall

Hey X-2!
Hope you had fun at the pick-up yesterday, and that you like the new car!