Mike981S

The plan of the new day was to drive the Silvretta Hochstrasse, or at least as far as we could, given that the road looked still closed. The ultimate goal was to drive via the Alberg and Lichtenstein to Zurich to stay at my family's place again for a couple of days before we had to drop off the car for having it shipped home.



After another large and delicious breakfast, we packed the car and left Bavaria. We had another chance of driving over the Fernpass before crossing into Austria. After hitting the A12 highway for a bit and then getting off onto L188, we drove towards Ischgl, an Austrian ski resort famous for its ski areas and après ski concerts and parties. However, when we arrive around lunch time, the village was empty except for some construction workers. A stark contrast to the bustling party atmosphere during high season. Unfortunately, we could not find a single, open restaurant for lunch, so we continued our drive up the valley having hit 5000km


In an empty Ischgl

Almost 5000km! Another 1000km to play with!

As we left Ischgl, a band of heavy rain hit us, making it hard to see the road well even with the otherwise great wipers. Fortunately, it was just a band of rain, so 5 minutes later, the visibility was back to normal. Shortly after Galtuer, the road unfortunately was closed for traffic due to construction, so we did not get to drive the more fun parts of Silvretta Hochstrasse and had to turn back towards A12.



Another closed road

So we headed to Alberg, the home of the famous Hahnenkamm ski race. The tunnel is currently closed due to renovations. We didn't want to take the tunnel anyway, but the closure means that all the traffic is driving over the pass, including the slow large trucks.

Before heading up the pass, we needed something for lunch, so we stopped at a bakery and got fresh squeeze orange juice and some berry tartes.




Even though there was more traffic than hoped for, the drive up the Arlberg was still a fun drive. Once we drove over the pass, we got stuck in a conga line behind a truck, so we decided to head up towards the Flexenpass, enjoying the narrow tunnel's reverberation of the GT4RS's exhaust.


We tried to avoid being stuck behind traffic for these turns, ...

... so we turned towards the tunnels

Flexenpass

Heading back down...

... into...

... and ...

... through...

... the tunnel.

After cross over the pass, we rejoined the highway (E60/S16) until we reached Feldkirch. In Feldkirch we turned left and headed towards Lichtenstein. The goal was to drive the road up to Malbun, Lichtenstein's ski area. The road was pretty empty, since it was raining heavily,
and the drive was twisty and fun. Climbing up the hill offers a lovely view over the Rhine valley before one drives into the mountain valley.


Malbun ski area





The ski resort was also closed for the season, so we decided to head down again and cross into Switzerland. Instead of joining the highway and drive straight to Zurich, we first filled up our tank and then took the twisty side roads up to Grabs and Grabserberg, rejoining the main road to Wildhaus only after we exhausted all the small roads on the hill. At times the roads were just wide enough for one car. Some of the farmers must have thought we were crazy.



Wildhaus



Once we arrived in Wildhaus, it was time for dinner: Zuerich-Geschnetzeltes and Asparagus with veal. Finally, after about 10 hours and 400km (250 miles) of driving, we reached Zurich where we planned to stay for a few days, catching up with family, organizing our luggage for our trip home and planning on how to spend the last 700 km before we hit the 6000km limit.

The next day, the weather was gray and raining, so we relaxed at home and went through some of my uncle's papers he had left us after his passing. Funnily enough, we found some pictures of him and my great-grandmother next to a early 1970 Porsche 911 Targa. I wonder where the car is now.

Mike981S

After arriving in Zurich 2 days earlier, we were at about 5300km and thus had about 600 to 700km left to play. Since we were having about 300km to drive back to Sindelfingen, we thus had about 300km still to drive in Switzerland. Fortunately, the weather was perfect, so we decided to drive to Arosa, a place that holds some importance for my family and has a great road leading up to it.



Details Chur-Arosa.

The initial drive to Chur we just stayed on the direct way via the highway since we wanted to use our miles for fun roads. The run up from Chur to Arosa was a lot of fun. The road is quite narrow in places, especially right out of Chur and through some of the villages. Even though it was Sunday, the road was fairly empty, and we often found a spot to overtake if there was a slower car in front of us. Around Langwies, some bikes caught up to us and chased up for a bit until we felt it was safe to let them pass.


Narrow lower part



View from the road


Getting up to Arosa

Arriving...

Once we arrived in Arosa, we took a shot in front of the Hundertwasser-Architecture before heading up to the old Bergchirchli (mountain chappel) to take some pictures and visit the graves of some of my ancestors.







The museum was still closed for the season

We had lunch near the lake and then headed up to Maran for a short hike along the Eichhoernliweg (squirrel way), where squirrels and birds have been fed by the hikers for decades, so they have become quite tame.


Obersee, Arosa




Wooden...

... and real squirrel


The drive down from Arosa to Chur again was lots of fun. After that we took the highway back to Rapperswil and then decided to drive along the shore of Lake Zurich, enjoying the sunset.

On Monday, we finished our shopping and packing in Zurich and prepared for our final drive to Sindelfingen, still having about 380km on the odometer available. We also called ahead to arrange the drop off in Sindelfingen. The paperwork you get from Porsche recommends to call/email about a week or two ahead, but it looks like doing it 2 days in advance worked well.

Mike981S

Tuesday was the last full day with the car. We were driving from Zurich to Sindelfingen, but aimed to avoid highways and instead enjoy more roads in the Black Forest.



Some Black Forest details

As you can see on the map, we crossed the Swiss-German border several times. That area can be confusing, we saw a truck approach the border and do a U-turn, ripping parts of his body work off... weird and crazy.

The weather was lovely and sunny. We did drive some of the same roads we drove in the beginning of our trip. The main difference was that it was now full spring, no more snow! Once we hit Triberg, we decided to take a different route towards Freudenstadt than we did on the way down. This allowed us to stop at the largest Cuckoo clock and enjoy some new to us twisty roads.


Triberg

Largest Cuckoo clock

Largest Cuckoo clock

We stopped for an early dinner at the Hotel Waldblick in Schenkenzell. I recommend them not only for the great food, but also for the fun watching their service robot messing things up .




After the delicious dinner, we decided to take the smaller, more twisty road towards Freudenstadt. And it definitely was the right decision. With very little traffic, it was a lot of fun. Here is a short video and audio clip of driving some of the turns:



Once we reached Boeblingen/Sindelfingen, the sun was already setting, so we only took a quick look and picture at the Motorworld complex that night, deciding to stop by the next day after dropping off the car.



We stayed at the local Marriot (the underground garage had quite a number of Porsches 911s and SUVs parked) and had an appointment with Simovic Car Service at around 11am for Wednesday. Next morning, our plan looked like the following:

1. Have breakfast at the hotel
2. Wash the car at a self-service wash station (the one next to the Ikea)
3. Meet up with Jan, a local photographer (student who has done some internships with Porsche) for some pictures around Motorworld
4. Drop of the car at S.C.S.
5. I will take a taxi to the Stuttgart airport to pick up a rental car (was a Toyota C-HR hybrid) and then pick up my wife and luggage from the Marriot.
6. Have lunch and explore the Motorworld in Boeblingen
7. Drive to my sister-in-law's place near Frankfurt
8. Spend Thursday with family and head to the Frankfurt airport Marriot for the last night before flying home on Friday morning.

We were not sure if we could get this all done without timing issues. But thanks to the Mariott allowing us a late checkout and the nice folks at S.C.S., it all worked out well.

The car wash was helping us clean up the car nicely for the subsequent photoshoot and prepping it for shipping the car.


Washing the car


Jan taking some pictures

This V8 Hotel does unfortunately not have rooms with a built-in garage.


We then drove to S.C.S.. Waze was not aware of a road closure so we had to do some detours due to one-way streets to get there. When we arrived, there were two other cars also getting dropped off. A PTS dark-olive Spyder RS that the owner picked up, drove for a day in the Black Forest, and then dropped off without making an appointment (not recommended). It was pretty dirty, showing that the car at least got driven hard for a day! The second car was a sharkblue 911 Turbo S that basically did a 2 weeks whirlwind tour Bavaria-Prague-Austria-Dolomites-Swiss Alps-Black Forest. S.C.S. was also busy since they are managing the T-mobile car fleet and a lot of cars were being delivered and picked up that day.
.



You need to leave one plate and can take the other one home (as you can see, the front plate is attached with velcro)

Even a bee came to say good bye

Oh, and if you wonder if we made it below 6000km? Yes we did, we could even have done a little bit more


5933km of adventure and fun!

It took a while to get the paperwork completed due to the busy day. We were told that it will take 2 to 3 months for the car to arrive in the US, which we already knew from our earlier Euro deliveries, but it seems that some customers are not very patient and expect the car to arrive within a week or two!

After we got the rental car and luggage, we went for lunch at the Italian Restaurant da Signora at the Motorworld. It was another delicious meal.




After that, we already started to miss the car, so we explored the Motorworld associated car dealers and storage area to take our minds off a bit. Motorworld Boeblingen, while not as extreme as the one in Munich, is definitely worth a visit before or after you drop off the car! Here are a few Paganis (Zonda, Utopia, Hyuara) and Lambos including the new Revuelto. There are tons of other cool cars: Porsche has a dealership and some cool Porsches including a Carrera GT are stored, same with McLarens, Mercedes, even a F-104 Starfighter. Unfortunately, the rain came back hard, so we decided to face the traffic mess on the highways around Stuttgart to head to my sister-in-law's place.


Hyuara BC

Zonda

Utopia

Utopia


Utopia's luggage


Revuelto

Huracan Tecnica


Chromaflaire color on a Lamborghini

Aventator

Huracan STO

Special edition 24 hours of LeMans


Thus, the trip came to an end: The weather was not always perfect, but the car was great in any conditions (well, not with snow on the road)! We made new friends, tons of cool experiences, bonded with the car, and managed - barely - to stay below the 6000km mark.

If you get the chance to do a European Delivery, take it! You will not regret it.

ScottRich

What a trip, and great storytelling! Thanks Mike!

Mike981S

Indeed it was. Thanks for following along!

De Jeeper

Im kinda sad its over. Thx for sharing your adventure....i will be in germany next spring (in a rental) and may use some of your itenerary.

Mike981S

I am sad that the trip is over too . I hope you will have a great time in Germany and feel free to reuse as much as you like (and feel free to reach out with questions).

Mike981S

After dropping off the car in Sindelfingen on May 29, it made its way to Emden, where it was loaded onto the Crystal Ray car carrier. On its way to my dealer, it enjoyed the Carribean Sea, avoided a hurricane, crossed the Panama Canal and the equator twice (the ship docked in Ecuador) and finally arrived in Benicia on July 19.


The west coast itineraries

Entering the Panama Canal

Stop in Ecuador

Unloading in Benicia

In Benicia, it will take a couple of days for the port inspection (fortunately, there were no recalls or stop delivery advisories on the Caymans!), attaching the Monroney sticker, and finding a place on a truck to come up to the Pacific Northwest.

A week later on Friday I got the following text from my SA:



Since I was just heading to a two day Autocross event in Packwood, I had to postpone a quick visit to the car until Sunday night when we picked up the license plate (it seems they have become a target of a certain kind of "collectors") and welcome the car to the US.

It will still be a few days for the dealer to do the delivery inspection and detail the car (it was a bit dirtier than I remember dropping it off) until I can pick up the car and bring it for the PPF installation.