Just shy of six weeks before departure, my itinerary is set, hotels and apartments are booked. The vacation will be comprised of two loops, one to the north, one south and west. Our trip will be bookended with stays at our friends' home in Osnabrueck, as well as a short stay with them between the two loops.

We will fly into Duesseldorf where our friends will pick us up and bring us to their home.

As a side note, how cool it is to have made friends with a family from a foreign country, with a different culture. We have experienced everyday German life in their home, and they the opposite in ours. We've been to a German Confirmation in a Protestant Church, experienced German BBQs in a beautiful Schrebergarten, toured a school that some claim to be the oldest in the western world, and done many more things that there just isn't time to add. In return, they've done some things here that most Germans will probably never experience, like attend school concerts, visit home shows, and attend baseball games. All this the result of a chance meeting at a rental condo a couple of hours from our home about ten years ago. All very cool.

Back to the trip and itinerary. We will spend three nights with them, socializing and such, adjusting to the time change, before we hop on a high speed rail train to Stuttgart, the day before our delivery in Sindelfingen. On the next day when we pick up the car, we will likely do the factory tour, enjoy the provided lunch, and visit the Mercedes Benz Museum. That night we will stop in Hanover before driving to Copenhagen the next day.

We've booked an Apartment in Copenhagen for three nights. We plan on visiting the Viking Ship Museum, which is about 45 minutes away. We also would like to see the Trelleborg Viking Fortress, the National Museum, Nyhavn Harbor, Tivoli Gardens and more. Time permitting we may make a short excursion into Sweden.

Back to Osnabrueck for two nights, the first loop looks like this:



Next we are onto Strasbourg, France to begin our second loop. We've got an apartment there in the Old Town, very near the Cathedral. After Strasbourg, we will travel on to Annecy, France, with a possible stop in Geneva, Switzerland for lunch. On the way we want to visit the Gorges du Fier, which looks really cool.
http://www.gorgesdufier.com/en/gorges-du-fier.html

From photos Annecy looks quite beautiful, but we will only have late afternoon, evening, and part of the next morning there before driving on to Carcassonne. On the way there we hope to stop for lunch in Orange, France, and visit the Roman Theater of Orange, designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, considered the best preserved Roman theatre in the western world.

We've been to Carcassonne before, but our stay was too short. This time we will spend the night within those ancient walls and I am really looking forward to that.

We've booked three nights in Sarlat-la-Caneda. We've had lunch and dinner in this beautiful, small medieval town, but it was not enough time to really enjoy it. This time we have an apartment there for three nights. Not only is this old town quite beautiful, but the surrounding region is as well, and features some prehistoric caves with accompanying ancient paintings.

From there, a night in Beaune, before driving on to Sindelfingen to return the new car for its voyage across the sea, a night in Stuttgart, followed by a train ride to Osnabrueck the next morning. We will spend four nights with our friends there before making the return trip home. The second loop looks like this:



3500 miles puts about in line with our two previous EDs. Exited much? You bet!

 

Well done, mdsbuc. I'm a little jealous, as I don't have as much time to spend in Europe.
Here's what my trip looks like:



Picking up my 2017 C-coupe on April 05
Spending the night in Colmar, France. We are very much into wines, so this will be the place to drink Alsace riesling and Gewirtztraminer
Driving to Dijon (to eat mustard, of course )
Then pinot noire tastings in Cote d'Or between Dijon and Beaune
spending the night in Lyon,
Next day exloring the wines of Chateneuf de Pape, Avingnon and Provence
Spending the night in Antibes
Exploring Cot d'Azur
Spending the night in Genoa
Hiking Cinque Terre in La Spezia
Driving through the Alps to Zurich
Dropping off the car and catching the flight to Chicago on April 11.
Short trip

 

That trip sounds quite wonderful too! There never is enough time to do it all, but this itinerary sounds great! Enjoy your trip and your new Benz. I hope to hear all about it before we take off on ours!

 

Part of the trip from Zurich to Nimes exactly much our path in 2006 ED with 330i, only we drive down from Zurich.
We stop in Antibes and St.Tropez for 1/2 day after we leave Nice and spend night in Nimes before drive to Barcelona. We do not stop in Cinque Terre then, but we plan for this ED compensated that.

Edit: just looking at your route again:
1. Genoa is port city, not clean and nothing to see there.
2. I would highly recommended stop in Como spend few hrs there, before go to Zurich.
3. In Nice region stop in Villefranche-sur-Mer (movie Ronin - chase on Audi A8 was taped there)

St.Tropez and Nimes, Como and Villefranche-sur-Mer

 

Gary, Great photos from your previous ED!

 

Thank you, Gary. We've stayed in Como a few years ago, so we are looking for some new places. Maybe Parma.