My Travels to Swizerland, Germany, Austria and Hungary. October 2017

[HKS]

Another 9PM snack (Pretzels were already being devoured) on the eve of my departure at my friends fathers and mothers house at the the country, a farm family.

I went to bed at 10PM and woke up a 2:30AM. Then you add many hours of daytime travel time to Chicago, including a 4 hour layover on my way to Lincoln NE. I arrived in Lincoln. Sleep at 11PM or later.

[HKS]

9PM Snack Again.jpg

[HKS]

One more picture with story to tell then we are done.OktFest3LastDay.jpg

HKS Found one more miscellaneous pix. Had a chance to go to Oktoberfest one more time. Decided not to go.

Finale is next.

[HKS]

Explanation for the last pix. On my night-time flight from Chicago to Munich, I paid $500 for Premier Access, which means a couple inches more leg room.

The Boeing 777 has three rows of tree seats. Makes a total of nine seats across with two isles.

As I found my seat, I noticed an older gentleman using all three seats as a bed. The stewardesses favored him by giving him blankets for his 3-seat bed. He may have even paid someone to find another seat. I thought "What a great idea".

You will now see what happened to me on my Daytime return flight (no sleep).
See next post.
P.S.
I was close to one engine. I was worried about sitting too close to the WC but engine noise overcame all other noise. I highly recommend ear protection or noise cancelling headphones.

[HKS]

3 Seats. Needed777Sleeper.jpg more pillows.

[HKS]

ENDE

[AZTB]

What a great journey...thank you SO much for including all of us in it. I just came from the kitchen where I had to make myself a homemade grilled cheese/tomato sandwich after viewing all your latest culinary renderings. WELL DONE!!

[HKS]

What a great journey...thank you SO much for including all of us in it. I just came from the kitchen where I had to make myself a homemade grilled cheese/tomato sandwich after viewing all your latest culinary renderings. WELL DONE!!

Thanks Jim.
By now I have better idea on how to post pictures. Making separate narrative posts before posting pix in the next post, seems to be a good way to go.
I always find typos days later after the post. Going to fix a few.
Hermann

[2K2BIRD]

Looks like you did a good job of eating your way around central Europe. I, and possibly others, would like to see more pictures of the some of the sites you visited or saw along the way.

[HKS]

Looks like you did a good job of eating your way around central Europe. I, and possibly others, would like to see more pictures of the some of the sites you visited or saw along the way.

Ok I have other interesting pictures and a couple more videos.

I will tell about our nighttime adventure (Abenteuer) on the Austrian Autobahn.
Screws make bigger holes in tires than nails. Moral of the story will be "Always carry a spare screw".

I should start a new string of posts tiled Chapter 2

[AZTB]

...I will tell about our nighttime adventure (Abenteuer) on the Austrian Autobahn.
Screws make bigger holes in tires than nails. Moral of the story will be "Always carry a spare screw"...

Well, this is gonna make for a great story! Can hardly wait to hear it.

[HKS]

My Travels to Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Hungary. October 2017 Chapter 2

[HKS]

AAA
Austrian Autobahn Adventure
I thought Austrians are weird when I saw an Autobahn sign alerting drivers about the Winsock ahead.
It was night time and we were heading to our hotel in Purbach Austria where we had reservations for the next three days.
We stopped at an unattended rest stop. All three of us had a need to stretch our legs and more. There were two carloads of unsavory characters that stopped there at the same time. Hindsight told me, one of us should have stayed with the car at all times.
We took off again. A few Kilometers down the road a dash light came on, warning, low tire pressure. My engineer friend said all should be OK and the tire looked OK. Earlier, I heard my friend mention that Audi will have self sealing tires in the future and no spare donut tire. My WHATIF theories included someone using an ice-pick and then robbing you down the road when the tire went flat. But self sealing would not work if there was a big hole.

We stopped at a gas station to put more air in the tire, but the hole was bigger than a nail hole and 40 psi only lasted for 2 minutes.
To our right, up the hill, was another gas station with a garage, but it was closing time. My friend made arrangements to have the tire repaired at the earliest time next day. My friend also called the European version of AAA for help but they would not help until tomorrow during daylight.

There happened to be a motel very close by. We drove the car nearer to the motel and emptied the luggage so there would be no reason for someone to break in. The car was not in the motel parking lot and three people sleeping in the car overnight was not a good option.
The new motel had no attendant, only a Kiosk where you inserted your credit card. The Kiosk printed two room keys. Cost was 58 Euros for three people. It was the last room available and it was for three people. The room was modern and very nice.
You will need to see the picture to figure out where my friend’s good looking wife slept. There is a lot more humor involved in this adventure but it could be misinterpreted.

In the morning we had two places within walking distance for breakfast. My friend paid extra to have the tire fixed ASAP. It was decided that the hole in the tire was made by a screw that came off of some transport truck. My theory is, the screw held tight until the head was worn off and then, at 200KPH, the remainder of the screw was ejected and air leaked rapidly.
If this happened in the middle of nowhere and the wrong person stopped to help, it could have been a different story. If a person carried similar screw, and a small wrench to plug the hole, it may have gotten him to a proper rest stop. One of those small compressors would also be good if the leak was temporarily slowed down by the screw.
A happy ending included a no-charge for the missed (reserved) night by the hotel in Purbach Austria.

[HKS]

IMG_1197.jpg

[HKS]

I have more interesting pictures. Later