Europe 2019 - Frankfurt and Stuttgart

Our Europe trip 2019 started out on Monday night, June 17th, at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. We had a direct flight from Phoenix to Frankfurt on Condor Airlines. 

This was taken from the Airtrain - both the international planes getting prepped for the overnight flights across the Atlantic.

My first flight with Condor.

We left Phoenix at about 9pm local time and landed in Frankfurt at about 5pm local time. With a nine hour time change, that equals about an 11-hour flight.

Other than landing and renting the car, we did not spend any time in Frankfurt. Once we got the rental car, Dave had fun driving for the first time on the Autobahn and we headed to Stuttgart. With jet lag, we were up early on Wednesday morning. We took a walk to find some coffee shops that I had researched before leaving Phoenix, but neither of them were open (and didn't open until too late in the morning for our schedule for the day).

Mercedes-Benz HQ are in Stuttgart (hence the reason this city was on our itinerary) and the Mercedes logo was flying high above the city.

Our Airbnb building in Stuttgart - this was a short one-night stay.

Our first stop was the Mercedes-Benz museum. This (as well as the next picture) was one of the first motorized vehicles.

This was Princess Diana's 1991 500 SL. She was the first member of the British royal family to drive a foreign car, and gave it back in 1992 due to criticism from the government, trade unions and industry.

I took this picture for my mom - this was the engine in Al Unser, Jr.'s Indy Car for the 1994 Indy 500 that he won.

The outside of the museum - it was actually a pretty cool design.

The Mercedes campus.

We finished with the museum and walked these streets to find lunch.

Our next stop after lunch was the Porsche factory tour and museum (their HQ is also in Stuttgart). They had Porsches flying high in the roundabout which was surrounded by their campus.

There were no cameras allowed in the factory, but the neatest thing were all the ATVs driving around. They were carrying supplies (some even carried engines) to the various stations and there was no one actually driving these vehicles. We then went to the museum - Dave really wanted to bring home a car :)

We finished at Porsche and then were on the road to Munich.

Indianapolis, IN

We spent Memorial Day Weekend 2019 in Indianapolis, IN to see the 103rd Running of the Indianapolis 500. Until a couple of years ago, I never knew that my mom is a big Indy fan. When I was trying to figure out a Christmas gift for them, we decided on this trip as Indy was also a bucket list item for Dave.

We arrived early Saturday morning (about 2am local time). This was the airport greeting.

Saturday I thought we were sleeping in, but Dave was up early to go get the rental car and he said my parents were down eating breakfast and I was the only one still in bed. I got up and got ready and we made it to the Indy Parade in downtown Indianapolis.

Pippa Mann - the only female driver in the race this year.

Leave It to Beaver (I never watched that show so I don't really know who he is).

I was too late in taking this picture but I do remember Marc Summers from Double Dare.

We didn't know it then, but this is the race winner.

After the parade we went and checked into the Airbnb. Since we arrived so late/early Friday/Saturday we just stayed in a hotel near the airport. Our Airbnb was on the canal walk, so after we checked in Dave and I went to check it out.

Our Airbnb building.

Sunday morning we were up before 5am to get on the road and get to IMS. The gates opened at 6am, with festivities starting about 9am and since this may be a once in a lifetime event for us we wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything. We were one of the first to arrive but we found a great parking spot for pretty cheap and didn't have to walk too far. We had read we may sit in traffic for 2 hours+, but that was not the case either.

Mom having one of the best days of her life! Notice her checkered flag party nail too :)

One of the first people in our seats.

Once we got settled, Dave and I decided to take a walk and see the sights. We walked across the track so were able to see some things a bit closer up. Simon Pagenaud pit.

We walked across Gasoline Alley and saw some of the race cars being taken to the track. We headed back to our seats about an hour before the track closed but by the time we left there were so many people.

Balloons released during the singing of Back Home Again in Indiana.

This was our view for 500 miles of racing. The forecast called for thunderstorms, but it ended up being a perfect overcast day for racing with no rain.

Hard to see the #22 is at the top of the pole.

Simon doing his victory lap around the track.

After the race we went to Bru Burger for dinner and everyone went to bed early.

Monday we stopped at Coat Check for coffee. This was not a coffee shop that I had researched before the trip, but one we just happened to find when we were looking for coffee before the parade. It was so good...my favorite coffee shop in Indy.

We decided on the Zoo for Monday...

...saw Lionfish...

...bears...

...orangutans...

...meerkats...

...giraffes...

...rhinos (Dave's favorite animal)...

...and elephants.

Dinner Monday night was at Hedge Row in downtown Indy.

Tuesday morning we went to Bee Coffee, which is one of the top rated coffee shops, but I was not too impressed. 

We then went on a tour of the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site.

We then drove to TradersPoint Creamery for lunch. This is a working farm and they serve lunch and dinner.

We took a tour of the farm, which was about a 1 mile walk.

After the walk we had some ice cream from the farm.

From here we were on our way to the airport to fly back to Phoenix. A fun time and a successful trip.