July 15 - Heading Home

Time to go home.  After a marvelous (and complementary) buffet breakfast at the hotel (Virtuoso perk), we headed to the train station to catch the subway to the airport.  All that was pretty uneventful.  We found our check-in, took the train to our terminal, went through two security and passport controls, found our gate, got lunch (one last serving of crispy pork and potato dumplings), and waited.  About the time we boarded the plane, a monsoon covered the airport and operations were suspended. Finally, after an hour, we left the gate and headed home to America.  In a rare occurrence, Rambler Hance could not sleep on the plane so he made up for two weeks of no English language media by binge-watching a whole series on Wild America, a Ferrari documentary, and a documentary on Connor McGregor, plus he listened to 2+ hours of podcasts.  In honor of Rambler Jane's other travel buddy Ann,  she watched "Always at the Carlyle", a documentary about the legendary hotel in NYC. We got to Washington safe and sound but a little late, and made our way through customs and baggage claim, and started the drive back to Richmond. We were very tired but content. It was a great trip and 30th wedding anniversary adventure.

Munich Train Station Exit

Remember kids Hbf means the central train station.  Munchen = Munich.

Haupbahnhof...say it with me friends.

Nice Airport

In honor of Ann

Monsoon in progress

Our river

Rambler Hance is so Euro, he is watching the World Cup and listening to Tour de France podcasts simultaneously.

Thus endeth our 2018 Ramble. It was our longest one yet and a great time was had by all. 

Until our next time, keep on rambling.

Sincerely,

Rambler Hance and Rambler Jane

July 14 - Munich

July 14th (Bastille Day) found your Ramblers on the way to Munich via train.  Now that we had conquered the train system, the country was our auster (oyster in German).  Like our arrival in Stuttgart, the first task was find, and check into, our hotel. Again, Agent Dale found us a great spot just a block from the train station (the Sofitel).  They are very nice in our experience.  We also got some perks by using the Virtuoso Travel Program courtesy of Agent Dale.  After check-in we got the lowdown from the front desk folk and set out to find a real German beer garden.  After a relatively short walk we found a great one. Lots of trees, big tables, and lots of large heavy steins of golden love.  Tables for six were common but we found an empty one only to be told by "Fritz" the semi-obnoxious waiter that we had to sit somewhere else because a two person party could not take up a six top table. Almost immediately a nearby couple said "come sit with us" and we realized they were Americans like us. We had a great time hanging out.

We had to stop at McDonald's again in Stuttgart. Muffins were nice, as is the McCafe setup in Europe.

Our train lane

Sofitel

What they called a cake on the train (it's a cookie)

Mad SIDEWALK cleaner that almost ran us down on the way to the beer garden

Mmmmmm

Our new Wichita friends Katie and Kyle 

Inside the beer garden beast

Another beastly view

After a liter of beer and afraid that a second would make us permanent garden residents, we set off to walk the city and find the Rathaus Glockenspiel. I would describe it as a very large musical clock with a large number of moving people.

Rathaus-Glockenspiel

 On our way to the 'Spiel we ran into huge crowds celebrating Pride Day.  Mostly lots of rainbow stuff but we finally made it just in time to hear it play.  Here is a video.

Here is a better sounding version.  The Real Spiel

Cruising any major city feels so relatively familiar it is somewhat depressing. The same stores are everywhere.

Same Disney stuff in Germany as in Florida....or New York.....or London.....or Richmond

Pretty building

Pride

More Pride

Glockenspiel

Another Glockenspiel view

American muscle

 After we sauntered back to our hotel, we had dinner in the hotel's French restaurant. It was nice.

Tomorrow, we head home and sadly our Cruisin' the Rhine adventures will come to an end.

Until then, mach weiter (keep on rambling).

July 13 - Stuttgart Day 2

After our unexpected hike we (aka Rambler Jane) researched the subway/train system and had it all figured out for our trip to the Porsche Museum.  First, we headed across the street to the train station to grab some breakfast.  After a week and a half of ship and German Food, this was a welcome sight.

'Murica

                                     Open air train stations invite unusual dining guests.

McDonald's Pigeon

Good gig for a bird.  Probably has high cholesterol.

Germany has its quirks.  No one checks your ticket to get on subway trains, just a fine if caught without a ticket. You fill you gas tank and then go pay. But if you want to pee, it costs 0.50 euros.

Pee toll booth

Subway map. Much easier to read

For future reference this means Central Train Station abv. hbf

Much like Mercedes, the Porsche Museum was very new and modern.

Museum

Tasty cars

It was smaller than Mercedes, but Rambler Hance liked the Porsche Museum better.

Very first Porsche the 356/1

Original Bug

First Race Car 

American version of 356

It fits her.

Very cool

2019 E Car

After our tour and a quick bite in the cafe, it was time for our rental. Lets say it was the best 300 euros spent on the entire trip.  We got a 911 Carrera 4 GTS Cabriolet. A mere 450hp, 0-60 3.9 second machine.

With that intro, it was time to head out for our three hour tour. Porsche kindly had a perfect route built into the NAV system and included three stop points and a variety of road types.  First up, the Autobahn.

Speed limit and other restrictions. Big fan of the trucks can't pass cars rule (second from the right).

Contrary to perception, the Autobahn has traffic, in some areas at least. Booooooo.

It did not take much driving of this engineering marvel to determine it was far more car than your Ramblers were drivers.

When Rambler Jane says "Alright", that's when we entered the "no speed limit" zone.

                                             Here are pics from our first stopping point.

Nice View

Nicer View

Street View

Another Beauty

A second beauty

                     After the first stop, much of the rest of the trip was winding country roads.

Shameless selfie

Country Roads, Take Me Home...

New Pilot

Nice countryside

Finally, made our way back to the Autobahn for the trip home. While we did not get a picture or video, the highlight of the trip came when we paired Rambler Jane's phone to the stereo and found the sound system was equal to the rest of the car.  Hammering down the Autobahn with the top down, sitting beside the love of my life, and blasting Van Halen's " Standing on Top of the World" near full blast was definitely a Rambler Hance peak life moment.  Like I said, best 300 euros (ok, 331 with gas) I have EVER spent.

After all this excitement, we headed back on the train, did some window shopping and grabbed a bite or two to eat.

Tomorrow we head to Munich.

Until then, mach weiter (keep on rambling).