And oh what a day. Our alarm was set for 07:00 and like a small child waking up for a trip to Disney Land, we weren’t bothered much by the obnoxious buzzing. It was time for my first trip to the Welt, and Horatiu’s third. Clearly, this is an experience that never gets old, and Horatiu did not complain of repetition.

Every moment in the Welt is impressive and meaningful in the context of your day; one earmarked as the day you bring home your new ‘baby.’ And today, we drove away in the new ‘baby M’ as some have coined it.

Think about it as a baby with very big, sharp teeth, a knarly growl and slanted, focused eyes. Oh – and about 340 pounds of muscle; a baby Great White shark of sorts. Well, ours wasn’t white – it was Valencia Orange, sparkling in the sunlight even from within the Welt’s towering glass walls.

However, there was a baby Great White with us, owned by Justin, a friend of a friend who decided to join us for his 1M pickup. Having the two cars delivered together was very special, and not just for photographic reasons. There was a certain intensity in the air. It was present the entire day. Double trouble? Nah, double the fun.

The day went well in every respect, following the normal BMW Welt delivery procedures: plenty of signatures upon arrival, followed by time in the hospitality lounge where we could enjoy good food , quality German beer (is there a German beer not of good quality?) coffee and deserts. You really begin to feel a bit spoiled during the delivery, and I believe that was BMW’s intention.

Finally, it’s time to meet your brand spanking new BMW. The odometer reads something in the realm of 1 mile. The paint is glossy and sparkling such that you nearly need your sunglasses to look at it. And when you open the door, a wonderful aroma of ‘new car smell’ envelops your nose and pleasures your senses. This… is going to be good. And so it was, setting off from the Welt to begin our European journey.

Our first destination was to Tirol, Austria where I’m writing our first installment from my Hotel room. The drive here, from the Welt, was truly one of the best I’ve ever had. There were many ‘firsts’ and ‘bucket list’ checkmarks completed along the way, starting with my first drive on an unrestricted Autobahn. While I held back in the interests of break-in, we still achieved triple digit speeds that would have had our car towed and license pulled had we been in North America. But that wasn’t even the best part. Pacing our friend in the Alpine White 1M, we happened upon a terrific Alpine road leading to our Hotel. Twisty in all the right ways, it served up the Cole’s Notes version of driving ecstasy. The narrow road was shiny from the fresh rain fall, and covered by a canopy of trees stretching out in front of us like a rustling green tunnel. The brawny and naked exhaust notes rang out into the mountains with every blip of the throttle and heel-and-toe downshift. Only now do I fully appreciate why it’s said that, “Life is in the journey, not the destination.”

Thus concludes day one of our European Delivery adventure. Join us tomorrow for our second, blissful day behind the wheel of the new 1M.

Special thanks to Manny Antunes at JMK BMW for setting us up with the 1M.