I'm not a Rick Steves viewer, though my mother is.  I've seen it a few times, and while not nearly as good, I think my trips to Europe have been pretty good.  

That said, I decided to merge a travelogue of my two trips this fall, one to Europe, and another to Florida.  Here goes nothing....

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Trip #1: Italy / France / Germany:  Another fun trip to Europe learning new things all the time.  

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The cities we visited were: 

Rome, Rotenburg, Colmar, Strassbourg, Munich

Some things I learned:

Did you know that a large section of France really looks like Germany?  I know I didn't. 

Bike lanes are dangerous!  We were meeting tour buses in Munich, and it turned out the buses pick up the riders right next to bike lanes that you need to cross to get to the buses.  Well let me tell ya... those bicyclists do not slow down!  Even the tour guide came over to people waiting and warned them to be careful crossing over to get into the bus.  Yikes.

Road speed limits are often variable.  I drove one day in Germany.  Every couple miles on the autobahns there was across and over the road a number of lighted signs that would indicate if there was a speed limit ahead, and if so, what it was.  These changed due to traffic or weather conditions.  And crazily enough, the car we were in was actually getting some type of signal from these signs, so it was constantly showing what the current limit (or no limit) was at that point.  It was a very efficient German type of thing.  

German autobahns don't indicate the road direction.  For people from North America the highways here always indicate a direction (North/South/East/or West).  Even lesser road often do.  This helps with getting on the correct direction. Well not in Germany!  I drove a rental car one day and that was an adventure.  We were headed to one of these and the road signs showed two entrances both with the highway number along with a city you would go towards.  But no other directions.  We weren't going to any of the towns listed, so what to do?  Just pick one and wait for the phone application our group leader was using to indicate if we needed to turn around (yeah, we were going the wrong way!).  

As for the trip:

It was nice going to Rome again.  Going somewhere a second time you aren't so lost, you can take time to investigate side streets, small vendors, just stuff you rush past on a few day visit to a city like Rome.  We visited Galleria Colonna, the place where the final scene of the movie Roman Holiday was filmed.  Very beautiful.  (Intersting note: There is WWII damage to one step in the middle of that scene, and throughout they had people placed so you never would see that damage.)   We had a class on pasta making one evening.  That was another wild time.  We toured the main Roman Synagogue a day before the attack anniversary, so lets just say the security about that place was beefing up while we were there!  For one day we went to Pompeii.  Of all the things we did, that is the one I wish we had spent more time at.  It was a two hour trip each way, and we only spent two hours there on a guided tour and saw maybe 20%.  That's something I hope to get to again, this time with a day to see it slowly and fully.

Then we went to France and stayed in Colmar.  A picturesque mid sized town, home to the person that designed the Statue of Liberty.  In fact there is a small (1/3 sized?) replica of the statue outside of town.  While there we took a day tour through small towns in the area which were very beautiful.   One of the towns was used as the basis for the village in the movie Beauty and the Beast. 

And then a day in Strassbourg.  My mother's favorite day I think as we walked about and she took a number of pictures that looked like classic paintings.  The light, the clouds, everything was perfect.  We had a boat tour there which was something to see.  It went through some locks and saw a number of centuries old areas.

From there onto Germany and Munich.  Our driver had a hard time getting to our hotel as a marathon was being run through town as we got there.  While there we did trips to Rotenburg (I drove there), and to the Neuschwanstein castle, the castle that Walt Disney based his castles on.  That place is on the side of a moutain, and you need to walk up a steep road to get to.  Whew, that day was a workout.  The drive to Rotenburg was mostly in the rain and lots of construction, so lets say that was a challenge with the wild German drivers... yeah that ummmmm.... tested my driving abilities.  But I survived with no scratches amazingly.  Oh, and the rental had us pick up the car a couple floors below ground level.  No problem right?  Well here I am driving an unfamiliar car with very tight turns between floors and I was afraid I wouldn't make it out of the garage!  Lets just say I was going really slowly getting out of there!  Even coming back was a challenge in Munich as we couldn't find a gas station for some time.  Finally found one, but they are soooooo few and far between.

Even the drive to the airport coming back home was exhilirating.   The car almost felt light, and I looked over at the driver and could see the speedometer was hitting 160 KPH (or 100 MPH!).  It was 5 AM and the road was mostly empty, but still... if we had an accident we probably wouldn't survive that!

As for the overall weather it was cool and occasionally rainy.  A  hurricane remant was hitting Europe while we were there, so it never got hot (except for Pompeii), but it really didn't put a damper on things to be honest.

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Trip #2: Orlando:  Just a week there enjoying the timeshare and the parks

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The trip was just me, my mom, and a friend of my mother (though they drove down seperately from me).  While they are both old (both 80+), they certainly kept up well enough each day, though my mother did rent a scooter which they shared.  

Welp, no free timeshare week for me.  Ah, reminiscing about the good 'ole days is fun, but those great freebees are gone for now.  And in fact with my mother there I wasn't even offered the timeshare presentation, she was the only one to get that.  Oh well.  For listening to their spiel she got resort "money" to use on the resort, with which she got two nice blouses and I got a new gym bag.  The resort stuff isn't cheap, but whatevah.  

Universal Studios was our park to visit this trip.  It was nice with moderate to low (for Florida!) crowds.  We didn't even get rained on - the only rainy day was a day we already planned to stay at the resort anyway, otherwise it only rained overnight.  They made good meals for the week along with two pies, and I did all the driving and playing tour guide.   So it all worked out great for everyone.  

One day my mother's friend and I went to a flea market while my mother visited a friend of her's that was maybe a half hour drive away - which was nice for all involved.

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So a good but busy two months for me.  Now I do have a timeshare week certificate I bought last year and I need to make a reservation with it by Thanksgiving.  I will probably use it the week before Christmas as that looks to be when all the free weeks are available.  And then the Danube river cruise comes along next May.   This retirement is hard 😊