Sunday, May 15, 2011

arrival in Rome

Well blogger.com went down and then out too late one night and then no internet in Paris.... wow!
So an eleven hour overnight train from Paris to Rome turned into an 18 hour ordeal! We started out an
hour behind schedule and then three late night arrivals to our compartment meant for a near sleepless night.
But we are hear at the Hotel Trevi in Rome getting cleaned up and going to the Vatican hopefully. I will
post later hopefully with pics. So far I have taken over 1,200 pictures!!!

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tuesday may 10th

Today we had lunch in the wine country at a beautiful restaurant on top of a hill overlooking the farm fields and vinyards. The view was amazing as well as the food. We had a multi coures meal with the main dish
a veal and steak combo and au gratin potatoes. There was a choice of two local wines a red and a white.
After lunch we took the bus to the AMG production factory where we were able to see and sit in a couple
of AMG products, SLS coupe and a  CLS 63 biturbo V/8. There was the new C-class coupe 63. We toured  the" one man one engine" production facility. We were then taken to a display building were they showed us some new products yet to come. One is the upcoming SLS roadster and the SLK 55. There was
no picture taking allowed inside the facility unfortunetly. We then returned to the hotel for a lite evening meal and then to the "springfest" or (octoberfest). All in all  another great day!!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Monday May 9th

Today we visited the city of Heidelberg. What a beautiful old city! There is a Castle there that today is in ruins from a war with the french.Heidelberg has one of the oldeset universities in Germany. We rode  a cable car up the hill to the castle, toured the castle, and then had a traditional german lunch in one of the older
student pubs called Spengel's Zum Roten Ochsen , or Red Ox Inn. For lunchwe had Ragout of deer with mushrooms,cranberries,red cabbage,buttered spatzle, and croquettes.
 After luch we had some time to shop and then had a journey by boat up the Neckar river. We could just sit back relax enjoy the ride and view and treat ourselves to german beer,wine, coke, or water. we stopped half way to let dinner be brought on board. For dinner we had another German meal which was schnitzel.







Sunday, May 8, 2011

Sunday May 8th

Today started very early at 4:05 am with a wake up call. The bus left at 5:45 for Switzerland. We drove on a section of the autobauhn, through Zurich. on into Lucerne. From Lucerne we saw the oldest and longest still
standing, in Europe. We boarded a steam paddle wheel boat and ate lunch  on the way to Vitzanau were we
took a cog driven train nearly straight up the mountain. At the summit of MT Rigi it is over 6,000 feet. The
views were breath taking going up the mountain and from the summit.We then took the bus to Rheinfall to view the water falls. I talked to one of the locals and found out that Sig Sauer firearms are produced right
there at Rheinfall. Absolutely a beautifull day.




Saturday, May 7, 2011

Welcome dinner

We had a wonderfull dinner tonight at a local resteraunt about 20km outside Stuttgart. MBUSA and
MBAG were present to congradulate us on our achievements. Dinner was served in courses from salad,soup, to dessert. Here are some pictures from the dinner and the surrounding town.








Arrival in Stuttgart

We touched down at 8:45 am local time (2:45 EST). Very little sleep on the plane. The plane flight was very smooth 600mph at 35,000 feet. I am staying at the Best western in stuttgart. a light day today with a small informal lunch and then free time untill the welcome dinner tonight at 5:20pm. Here are some pictures I took while walking the cobblestone streets of the "Old Stuttgart".





Friday, May 6, 2011