Voyage 2024: Chapter 5

16 Sep 2024, Five Guys Visiting The Vatican and Rome (Italy), 41 53.75 N/ 012 28.10 E

Chris (my son) invited his Dad (me), Collin (his oldest son), Chris' best friend, Curtis, and Curt (his son) to accompany him on Europen vacation to Italy and Germany. We left IAD Dulles on 15 September on and arrived to our appartmentmt at mid day on the the 16th. Typical of commercial buildings converted to apartments, there were no elevators. For the first day or so, we were really huffing and puffing, but we all got more comfortable at the end. Next to our apartment, there was a quaint breakfast place where we ate most mornings. Collin had his favorite convenience store, and of course we liked the Italian 'Pubs'. On our first full day, we headed for the Vatacan with a tour with Oscar. He has been doing this fo a long time and he was great! He had a group of nearly 20 folks and never lost any of us in the Museum, Cistine Chapel, or St. Peter's Cathedral. It was long, crowded, rewarding, and glad we didn't go next year for the Jubilee.

Visiting the Colosseum and nearby Roman Ruins

Tour organizer Chris had another full day with us as we headed for the Colosseum. Bob (me) was tired but the 'youngsters' were doimg fine (I would have my revenge in Munich). There was a bit of confusion on how to get to where we supposed to be. But we got there. Chris signed up for the full tour and it was good: Colosseum, the underground (where Gladiators were deployed), and nearby Roman ruins. Our real tour guide was Elisa (?), a rather new but very dedicated guide. There was some confusion if we could get into the underground areas, but she made it happen. We saw all the available aspects of the Colosseum, plus the ruines of the Senate areas plus the Arch of Constantine. The old man was getting worn down but happy.

20 Sep 2024, On to Oktoberfest (Munich), 48 08.18 N/ 011 33.33 E

We arrived at Munich International Airport (MUC/EDDM) on 20 Sep '24 and arrived at our apartment that afternoon (very nice place but forgot to include pictures). Our first stop the next day was Stutgart where we had tours in the Mercedes and Porche museums. It was a long drive there and a really long drive back (rush hour) with Chris at the wheel. Mercedes Museum was great. I especially liked the original diesel gasoline engine 1878(?) (Grandfather Clock). Daimer-Benz seemed to be Germany's Ford (sorta).We also went to Porche. The gang loved it; not so much me. Porche had and has a much smaller scope in their product line. The next day, the gang went to the BMW facility. I was too pooped.

Oktoberfest 2024

Oktoberfest starts at 1200 today. So I left the gang to get a feel for the opening. It was not too crazy but that would change. Later on, I met up with the gang and we linked up with master tour guide (not) Harry. He got his gaggle of torists (us and 15 others), let us into the 'arena' and lost a few of us slow guys. Again Herr Collin came to the rescue. Harry was a disaster. He go our seats, waited for an hour for our first bier, he left, I waited another hour, then left hungry. I learned later that this is not the way it goes. Later on, I learned most of the gang got hammered. All but Chris and I were MIA the next day. The next day was much nicer. I went to church at Saint Pauls (picked the Croatian Mass Language), enjoyed the ceremony, met up with Chris (where's the gang?), and enjoyed a most wonderful tour and tent reservation by Sofia and Caro. They demonstrated how tent operations should function. They were wonderful.