Europe Visit

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Lots of Italy. If you think they drive fast in the USA, try Rome. One night was enough. Little cars and scooters, they hit the gas and ask questions later. We headed North to Tuscan, much more peaceful.

Rome ruins and Colosseum. Didn't get to go inside the Colosseum, but I saw where it's rim gave way at some point. Looked down and in a crack there was I piece of it. Concrete of sorts on small piece of river gravel, who knew. Pretty good for 2K years old. Didn't make it inside Vatican Basilica, but look that one up on youtube if never seen, I'm blown away mankind could do that.

Florence Uffizi. All I can say is wow. Right up until you reach the area for contemporary art, what a travesty. Statue of David pretty cool too.

Assisi St. Francis, tomb of St. Clare. And Francis, sort of.

My gal's dad has a Ferrari, and "says" he's interested in buying a yellow one. That gets you privy to the Ferrari factory. We saw how they're built, about 1300-ish of them annually, 5000 employees. Saw where they build cars for the track, big brains in that area. And where they store them for clients, perhaps 200 race cars. Apparently takes a team to run one. Saw their restorations in progress, bring money they might take interest.

Went to the track, and luck has it there were Ferraris running it, street rides. Ferrari Jr. has a house next to the track. But of all the cars I saw in Europe, somehow I liked a Volvo 1800ES just sitting on the road best. Beautiful black, like new. I sure like the new Ferrari in dark green though, with a V12 thanks. They build a lot of hybrids now. No pics. allowed.

Best of the best was train through Swiss Alps. We stayed in Neuchâtel a few nights. It's nice, but next time, if there ever is one, I'm staying in a small Village in the Alps. I don't travel much short this year, first time to Europe. I hate airports and the flights worse than that.

Few cities in Germany. Spent a day with my gals family in the Netherlands. I'm not sure where I'm moving either a small village in Netherlands or the same in the Alps I don't like big cities anymore The Netherland's matriarch recalls a German Soldier with a gun to his head as allied forces took over the sky. He asked "shall I pull the trigger 5 minutes before the war ends?". Nobody said a word, and he ran off.

Colmar France a few nights, and some very cool small villages. My gal's cousin's grandpa owned a nice house in a small village, the NAZI took it over WWII, allowed the family to live there, slavery other terms, but what they didn't know is grandpa, who was dad at the time lived in the attic, and had a radio. His son, this fellow's dad would read and deliver info. to his father. Anyway, old church across the way.

We saw lots of churches, cathedrals and such. One of the oldest was a tiny one in a small village, some of it dating back to Roman. Down the street from it I found a fossil that had fallen from embankment. About 7 lbs., I brought it home. Full of shell fossils, nowhere near the sea, which is much lower and 100ish miles away. Very cool little town, we spent about 10 days in the area of Tuscany.

Foreigners tended to ask what happened to our country, and that was even before Trump was shot. Unbelievable, don't get me started on that one. I was in security, not near what they're supposed to do. Better to have Boy Scouts or farmers plan and execute than our Homeland Security.

Europe is cleaner than USA, but cigarette butts everywhere. Folks don't get their panties in a bunch over smokers with courtesy. Oh my the Autobahns, geezuz.............Should have seen the HWY patrol taking part in the fun. They'll come after some anyways, it would seem. Things happen awfully fast. We nearly hit a large mammal entering the freeway, doing about 68.

What's real cool is the age of things, if you like old stuff then Europe is paradise. Some pics.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

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[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

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[Palf70Step]

Very cool. Spent all my time in the far east, but my daughter went to italy. She loved Venice and the Vatican

[Getter-Done]

Looks like a Fun trip.

They built stuff to last back then.

[CG]

Great pics, looks like it was a great time. Cant beat Europe if you have an interest in history. We've traveled in the NE section of the states several times and are amazed with the history back there. Nothing compared to European time lines though.

MY sister in law and her bf booked flights to Europe for September. Got Eurail rail passes and are thinking they will be gone for 6 weeks.

Its something I would like to try someday. Depending on how their trip turns out =)

[GOPAPA]

Nice time you had ,,thanks for sharing as I know I will never be overseas ever.. home body now ,, I like to look at what others see and do though

[old Rusty C10]

i went back in the seventies it is a very nice place to visit

[LS short box]

Europe and the UK were my sales areas for over 10 years in the 90's.
Many cool places.
October fest in Germany. Never seen so many drunk Germans in my life.
Driving the autobohn at 120 mph plus. Then getting passed like we were standing still.
Did the Eurostar high speed train from London to Paris a number of time. It was great. Much better than flying. Book first class. The food and wine was excellent.
Amsterdam is nice. Food and beer was great.
Found 99% people very nice. I would say 80% of the people speak some level of English.
Make sure you tell your cell service you going out of the country or you will pay thru the nose for calls or using your cell phone as hot spot.
If you are up for it I would rent a car and get away from the tourist places and just do some day trips. Tons of cool lunch and dinner places run by local families.
Oh and never drink and drive in the UK or Europe. They have very low limits if you are breath tested.

[71CHEVYSHORTBED402]

Originally Posted by LS short box

Europe and the UK were my sales areas for over 10 years in the 90's.
Many cool places.
October fest in Germany. Never seen so many drunk Germans in my life.
Driving the autobohn at 120 mph plus. Then getting passed like we were standing still.
Did the Eurostar high speed train from London to Paris a number of time. It was great. Much better than flying. Book first class. The food and wine was excellent.
Amsterdam is nice. Food and beer was great.
Found 99% people very nice. I would say 80% of the people speak some level of English.
Make sure you tell your cell service you going out of the country or you will pay thru the nose for calls or using your cell phone as hot spot.
If you are up for it I would rent a car and get away from the tourist places and just do some day trips. Tons of cool lunch and dinner places run by local families.
Oh and never drink and drive in the UK or Europe. They have very low limits if you are breath tested.

I wonder if that what was the patrol man was looking for on the Autobahn. He was like a cartoon, here, there everywhere. Last I saw him he followed a car into the offramp, after it had passed us going, heck I don't know, FAST.

My girlfriend paid extra for the phone service, but it didn't work. We rented cars for about 15 days. I haven't got my half of that bill yet, but a week runs too close to 1K for a small one. Trains are pretty cool, but man, I really hate airplanes now. Even our stewardess on the way home hates them Yikes.

One thing I've learned is Airport staff overseas and Hawaii are nasty my taste. In Munich security pulled my bag aside, asked if it was mine, I said yeah, and started walking toward i when another said, "stop, he didn't say walk toward it". I said, "didn't say not to either", followed by crickets.

Then they went through my stuff, and limited bottles and such to fit into their little plastic bag. They're strict, yet failed to ship our check-ins. We arrived in Sacramento, our things still in Munich.

[LS short box]

Yeah the security can be a bit much. Police walking around with automatic weapons. I never had much trouble since I was a top tier customer for KLM and Northwest. Special check in spots.
It was pretty typical to have a security check right at the gate in Amsterdam.
It's because I believe the 60's? There were some terror attacks at some of the airports in Europe.

[Rich84]

Last year we rented a car and drove all around Umbria, Italy. We took day trips to small towns all over the region. It was an amazing time driving through the countryside.
We had so much fun we are going again this year to a different region. We did Florence & Rome the first time we went, extensively. We will fly into Venice and out of Rome. Venice is an interesting place. No where else in the world quite like it. Water taxi from airport to your hotel.

[LS short box]

I had a number of business trips to Parma Italy. It's a cool place to do day trips out of. Not nearly as many tourists.
Also go from mid Sept-Oct. Weather is still good typically.