This is our opening blog entry for the 2017 Munich to Venice tour. The tour doesn’t start for a couple of days yet (14 September to be exact). However the troops are starting to gather here in Munich. The riders for this tour are: Daniel Carey, Charlene Dorward, Ray Duggan, Bill Eberlein, Charlotte Eberlein, Delores Franz Los, Andrew Hind, Robin Howe, David Kolic, Barbara Mathias, Rick Mathias, Richard Morris, Bob Myrick, Allen Olsen, Larry Wilson, Trish Wilson, and Max McClanahan (your author).

The flight over was the usual ordeal. One of my tools was confiscated because it had a 3 cm. serrated blade. I’ve flown with that tool a number of times before, but not this time. Fortunately I was able to break the set apart and save the other tools – some of which are essential for assembling the bike. Later in the flight when dinner was served I could only laugh when I was presented with a metal knife with a serrated blade at least 3 times larger and sharper than the one that had been confiscated before I could board. Obviously there are some subtleties of the security business that I just don’t grasp. But all in all it has to be classified as a good trip since the bike actually arrived on the same plane that I did!  Waahoo!

I arrived in the early afternoon to intermittent rain. I took the train from the airport to within a few hundred meters of my hotel. They seem to have a very nice mass transit system here.  I didn’t get to see much  of the city yet, but they do have some beautiful architecture.  Below is a quick shot of the downtown market square.