What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

Sunday morning - beautiful sunshine! Dropped our rental car at the airport first thing and walked over from the Airport to the bus station. No glitz and glimmer there... just brownish, empty land. By bus got back into "town" (The Strip) and explored casinos and hotels all day: On the pics are New York, New York; Caesar's Palace, Bellagio (Chihuly glass art) and the City Center complex.

Later in the afternoon we had tickets arranged for the new High Roller, a gigantic Ferris Wheel, which opened in 2014. The ride takes 30 minutes and it was fun - good views over Vegas! Being 550 ft. (168 m) tall and messuring 520 ft. (159 m) in diameter, it is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment. To date it is the largest observation wheel in the world, but I think, the new one on Staten Island/NY, which is under construction now, will surpass it once it's ready. The wheel is connected to the new LINQ Promenade, an outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment district, at a location where formerly rather cheap and kitschy shops and boothes were located.

Didn't want to head back to our hotel before dinner, so we burned some time, checking out the new LINQ Hotel (adjacent to the wheel), Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Casino, watching people and sports on TV.

It was quite a walk to the Hofbräuhaus, where we were invited for dinner. The meal was good: freshly baked pretzels with cheese dip (Obatzda), pork knuckle (Surhaxe) with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes, and, for Peter some "Bavarian Mardi Gras dish" which was pretty spicy. They had Hofbräu beer from draft, imported direct from the brewery in Munich, but we personally prefer a good American IPA to these beers ... It's more about the atmosphere anyway: a giant hall, servers in dirndl and lederhosen, live entertainment with oompah bands (yesterday the band was from Austria...), swiss Alphorns, and other "Bavarian traditions" like chicken dance (Ententanz) and "1, 2, 3, Gsuffa!" - lots of clichés and ideas mixed together, but certainly a ton of fun for Americans (and visitors from other places than Bavaria).

Sin City Las Vegas

What a difference to yesterday: Today we are sitting in a suite of the Venetian Hotel, 19th floor, with a bottle of champagne and fruit delivered to our room as a welcome present. Cozy warm beds, a bathroom the size of our livingroom at home, 3 TV sets, 3 phones, fridge and a view towards the strip. Sometimes our job can be fun, too!





After a fitfull sleep in our Motel 6 - caused by thin blankets, thin pillows and a hard matress – we left Beatty early (and probably never will be back), without breakfast. The drive was beautiful, through high desert landscape, I set the cruise control on 73 mph, no traffic, and sunshine. Could have driven forever. We had decided against Death Valley NP - it wouldn't have been worth the high entrance fee for just a couple of hours, especially since we know the park from previous visits. Instead, we drove into Las Vegas to arrive at the LV Premium Outlets North before noon to indulge in some shopping for a change. Good deals at Jockey, Under Armour and at Samsonite made us happy.

Back to business then: Drove to Fremont Street Experience - downtown LV - and checked things out there. Not too much has changed, with the exception of the new Container Park, a conglomeration of local businesses and restaurants in containers, stacked on each other, with a gathering space and playground in the center. We drove through the Arts District - not much change neither. In total, there are perhaps some more murals on the walls.

Drove to the Strip, parked the car in the huge garage and brought our luggage to The Venetian's lobby, the hotel which invited us for three nights. The Venetian has over 4.000 suites (only suites!), plus another 1.000 luxury suites in the Venezia Tower and 3000+ in the adjacent Palazzo Hotel. We got to know that we are "VIP guests" and can use the VIP Lounge (with little snacks and drinks and a separate reception) and, in addition, we got one of the large suites.

Being spoiled like that, we took the rest of our luggage out of the car (which took us more than 10 min. one way from the huge parking garage to the suite), then got some macarons and coffee in the lounge, took a bath and went out again to our dinner invitation in the "Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill", one of dozens of restaurants in the hotel. Boy, it was heavenly good there - expansive, too, but well worth the money!

The menu combines different influences on small plates, served for the table. The restaurant features three distinct kitchens – an open fire grill, a raw bar and traditional kitchen plus a bar with one of the largest rum collections in Las Vegas. In addition to the plates we ordered - salmon poké (pic above), duck & duck egg on a waffle with duck confit (pic above), lobster rolls and octopus (pic below, left), we got a couple of extra plates fom the GM: goat cheese croquettes, bacon-wrapped dates and - very unique and delicious: crispy pig's ears (pic below, right). Two deserts later, we were stuffed and happy and decided to explore the hotel a little to burn some calories.

Just the weather could have been a little better, cloudy and not very warm today ...

Farewell to Reno

30 deg. F in the morning, but sunshine and clear roads! We were awake early and after packing we took the hotel shuttle to the Airport at 8:30 am. Picked up the rental car - a pretty small Ford Fiesta (bad choice in regard to luggage, but fine for this short time) - and started our drive to Vegas. Our first stop was in Fallon, before we hit Hwy. 95, at a hardware store.
We wanted to check out the garden department and were surprised to see little chickens of different breeds and turkeys being sold out of big buckets (pic). In the local Walmart we bought breakfast then and some other provisions for the drive before we headed out on Hwy. 95 (two lanes only!) into the wide open Great Basin with the snow-covered Sierra to the West, following the coast, and different Great Basin mountain ranges inbetween.

Everybody we talked to, had told us that the trip to Las Vegas will be horribly boring, but this is only true in regard to infrastracture, not to landscape. Not many villages or towns are on the route, sometimes it's 100 mi. or more between gas stations. Landscape appears partly as a "moonscape", not much more than brownish sagebrush - the official "state flower"! -, some Cholla cacti inbetween, and, later it slowly merges into Mojave desert landscape with Joshua trees. The Great Basin is not very "desert-like", rather high (up to 6.500 ft., 2.100 m) in elevation and it didn't become very warm in the course of our trip.

First, the road went straight through the Walker River Paiute Reservation, along Walker Lake - with beaches! The Great Basin collects all the water from rivers as the Truckee, Walker or Humboldt River. None of them enter the ocean.

Hawthorne U.S. Army Ammunition Plant, which we passed next, is the largest ammunition plant in the world. Not much signage there, same is true for the mines. Just open pits or remains of equipment is to be seen in the landscape. Not too many active gold and silver mines are to be found in this area anymore. Therefore, also the towns are pretty "ghosty", e.g. Tonopah (Station) - 6000 ft. in elevation - an old silver mining town with the historic Mizpah Hotel from 1905 (pic). This hotel is famous for Whyatt Earp, who supposedly was a barkeeper here, and for the "Lady in Red", a famous ghost. The "Mining Park & Museum" showed remains of old mines and equipment, but, even better was the second-hand bookstore in town (pic below), where we spent some time.

Passing Nellis Airforce Range, famous for Area 51, the most secret military test area in the world, Goldfield was the next old gold mining town with many empty buildings. Going over Gold Field Summit we had reached the Mojave Desert and on we drove to Beatty - the "Gateway to Death Valley", where we stayed in a modest Motel 6 after about 330 driven miles (530 km) today.
Motel 6 has changed quite a bit in the last years: rooms are much smaller, though a little nicer furnished no free WiFi, no hairdryer, no Kleenex, no breakfast (as offered in motels like Comfort or Days Inn nowadays), same shabby thin blankets. But, scenery in front of the hotel was almost "tropical"...

Having no other options, we ended up in a funny place this evening: Happy Burro Chili & Beer. Before we could turn back, we were smack in the middle of a smoke-filled, tiny, crowded bar. It was cramped with memorabilia and Johnny Cash was singing for the local "characters", teeth missing old miners, ranchers and cowboys of all sorts. Had a bowl of excellent chili and a burger and a beer and were the talk of the bar.

Nevada's Old West

Thursday was "Go West Adventure Day" - participants of the conference were able to pick one of about half a dozen offered day trips. We chose the "Old West Tour" to Virginia and Carson City and had a very knowledgeable guide on the bus, dressed up in historic costume. First, the bus winded up the curvy, narrow road to historic Virginia City, passing a couple of Mustang herds on the way, very common in Nevada.

Virginia City sprang up as a boom town with the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first discovered major silver deposit in the U.S. Numerous more mines opened and the city florished in the mid-1870s and became "The Richest Place on Earth". Mark Twain's career as a writer started at the local Virginia City newspaper and the TV show "Bonanza", set around the 1860s with the wealthy Cartwright family, was set in the area of Virginia City. Bonanza also caused that the city became revived as a film set and that's how it appears today: a somehow touristy (at least, in summer) open-air museum with historic buildings: e.g. the Piper's Opera House, a couple of churches, old saloons and hotels and mine owner's fancy houses as the Mackey Mansion. Our group had a trolley city tour and an interesting underground mine tour - photos will be added once I've downloaded them (my Chinese friend Andrew, who downloaded them for me during the conference - for lack of my camera cable - is back to Hongkong now).

On to Carson City, less "historic", but the capital of Nevada since statehood in 1864. We visited the NV State Museum in the Old Mint and the Capitol and got to know about the extensive mural and arts programs in town. The city with about 56,000 population is one of the smallest capitals in the U.S. and originated as a stopover for California bound gold seekers, but developed into a city with the Comstock Lode and the silver discovered. "Red's 395", where we had lunch, is a unique restaurant with lots of memorabilia and great "down-to-earth food" like beef brisket or pulled pork. Wished we would have had a little more time to explore the city and the museums and galleries.

Back to Reno in the early evening, we decided to call it a day, and walked to the Great Basin Brew Pub in the Southern outskirts of town. Nevada’s oldest brewery from 1993 was well worth the 20-min. walk in the cold along the highway: First, it was Happy Hour and we got pints of excellent beer for only $ 3, and, second, we met the brewmaster, who introduced his new Maerzen, which we highly praised. Had good conversation with him and with another local couple at the bar before we walked back to the Atlantis Hotel in the dark. Beer unites people.

Go West 2017

Go West 2017, the travel trade show we attended, is a very well organized and effective travel trade show which takes place at another place of the Western U.S. each year. 15 states participate, about 500 suppliers and buyers, among them around 20 journalists from all over the world. Monday was "Education Day", with interesting lectures of all kinds and site inspection tours for tour ops and travel agents. Business appointments started on Tuesday and continued until Wednesday evening: pre-scheduled meetings of 12 minutes each. We, as media, are considered "buyers" and sat at our designated tables. The "suppliers" ran around and stopped by to introduce their destination/hotel/tour/museum/region and to get to know how they can be helpful. It's strenuous to talk to so many different people, but in the course of time - it's our 4th Go West Summit - it got really "concentrated" and just the people, which could be helpful and/or interesting to us are showing up.

Monday evening the official Opening Party took place at the Automobile Museum (which we already knew from our pre-fam trip), on Tuesday we were invited for a dinner of four to a fantastic restaurant by name "Bricks" and we not only enjoyed good food and wine, but also great conversation. Tuesday - surprise! - it was snowing all day and many highways, even interstates were shut down. It looked beautiful on Wednesday morning, like "winter wonderland", but wouldn't have wanted to drive over the mountains that day and was sweating quite a bit about road conditions on Friday.

Wednesday evening the closing event at the Reno National Bowling Stadium was a lot of fun. This is the only stadium of its kind in the entire world, with 78 state-of-the-art championship lanes, fully computerized and highly professional. The dinner buffet was delicious, too - I indulged in great burrata, olives and hummus, but there was also chicken in different preparations, great cold cuts and cheeses, sliders and roastbeef and ham and a lot more. Also, talking of meals, we have to admit that the lunches in the conference center (or, rather, in the Atlantis Hotel, were we stayed, and which is directly connected to the conference center) were great. We had basque beef stew, filled chicken breast and steak for lunch and a great hot breakfast on Wednesday, sponsored by the next host city, Salt Lake City. All was VERY good, especially, considering the amount of meals they had to prepare.

Well, back to bowling. First we both didn't want to bowl, Peter because of his back problems, me because I didn't want to make a fool of myself. So, we watched first and chatted and took pictures with our Japanese friend Hiro (pic). But then, rather randomly, we met members of our fam-tour-group - a Malaysian and two Chinese guys. Well, they convinced us to take part, and, to save the German reputation, I got me bowling shoes and - though I never had bowled before - did pretty well. Cleared all the pins four times and the Asian guys (and Peter and me) were pretty surprised. We had a couple of beers and though we were more gesticulating than talking, we had a lot of fun this evening. When I split my thumb nail horizonatally in half, I wasn't that good anymore ... but, perhaps the other boys were glad about it. Just being pretentious!

The Loneliest Road in America: Highway 50

Nevada Highway 50, which we took from Ely, is considered The Loneliest Road in America. It streches from West Sacramento/CA to Ocean City/ Maryland, on the East coast. The Nevada portion was named "The Loneliest Road in America" because of the large desolate areas traversed by the route, with few or no civilization. The highway crosses large desert valleys separated by snow-covered mountain ranges, it goes up and down, endlessly. The route was first used for the Pony Express and Central Overland Route (both mail services) and later for the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental connection in the U.S.


We stopped at Eureka's Historic Opera House - a beautiful theater from 1880 (see pics) -, and for a tunnel tour. Eureka is one of the best-preserved mining cities (silver) in the American West. 50 mines produced lead, silver, gold, and zinc for the smelters and the town was known as the "Pittsburgh of the West" in the second half of the 19th century. There were dozens of saloons, gambling houses and brothels, three opera houses, two breweries, and many other businesses. End of the century the major mines had been shut down, and many of the buildings stood empty. The Opera House (1880) was one of the first to be restored, now there are more historic buildings in good shape, like the 1877 Jackson House, the Eureka County Court House or the Eureka Sentinel Building.

The tunnel system underneith town either was constructed to connect Eureka's breweries on opposite ends of town in the heavy winters or to give the many Chinese workers a place to hide. We got a chance to see part of the tunnel system in the basement of a former saloon/bar, which was recently bought by a wealthy businessman from the Silicon Valley and which is in progress to be renovated and re-opened.

On to Austin to pick up a box lunch for the group and to stroll along historic main street with a nice shop, selling turquoise jewelry (there are several turquoise mines in NV!) and a crazy antique store (see pics). This area was home to the Western Shoshone people, then silvermining began and in 1863, Austin and the surrounding Reese River Mining District had a population of more than 10,000! Today, Austin is sort of Nevada Turquoise mecca and a "living ghost town" at the same time, a well-preserved example of an early Nevada mining town.

There is not much street signage along Hwy. 50, but in Austin there is one of the few signs (pic). Fallon, the next bigger town, is considered the "Oasis of Nevada" - a very fertile growing region, especially for grain. Also, it is home of a shooting (bombing) range of NAS (Naval Air Station Fallon), and the surrounding area contains bombing and electronic warfare ranges. In addition, there is Sand Mountain, a unique sand dune which is 2 mi long and 600 ft (180 m) high. Unfortunately, didn't have time to stop.

The Shoe Tree in Middlegate/NV - our next stop - is the place, where hundreds of discarded sneakers and other footwear had been tossed. It was cut down by vandals in 2010, but new shoes quickly sprouted from a "sister tree" nearby and, of course, our group had to throw a pair of shoes to be remembered forever.

Left Nevada's gold (and back-) country - which was a great new experience! – and arrived to Reno at about 5 pm. We had a quick stop at the Atlantis Hotel to check in, before we headed out again for the buyers' reception at the Whitney Hotel - the only non-smoking, non-casino, boutique hotel in downtown Reno, sponsored by the Colorado.

Ely - railroad and prison cells

Saturday morning we left Elko and traveled east to the old railroad town of Wells to visit the teeny tiny little Trail of the 49ers Interpretive Center, where two locals, a cowboy and a Shoshone lady, were awaiting us for a tour. On to Ely, founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express route and prospering as a copper mining town in 1906. We got a fantastic tour at the East Ely Railroad Depot museum, home of the Nevada Northern Railway, also known as the "Ghost Train".

In 1990 the Depot Building and the Freight Barn were given to the State of Nevada and nowadays visitors can learn a lot about the historical industrial development of Nevada here, especially about mining and transportation. The old workshops with all its tools were implying that the workers have just left for a little break and the cars and engines are all in prestine condition and all from one railroad company. The flagship is Nevada’s Official State Locomotive Engine #40 from around 1910, which we were able to see in full operation thanks to a photo shooting taking place on that day. After the tour we had a short ride ourselves on a train with three old cars and a diesel engine (pics below), and thoroughly enjoyed it!


We got off the train at the Renaissance Village, a conglomeration of historic buildings, which are supposed to show the lifestyles of different immigrant groups, which mostly came for the railroad construction and for mining. Twelve shotgun houses and a barn are there, set up as an open-air village and dedicated to different immigrant groups in the area. It must be fun in summer, when living history presentations and markets are beeing held, but today it rained hard and the museum was still on winter operation.

The weather was not really pleasant on this day, sleet and pretty cool - no wonder on an elevation of about 6,500 ft. – and we were glad when we got into the warmth. After check-in in the La Quinta Hotel we drove to the Cell Block Steakhouse, Ely's only fine dining establishment. Dinner - great steaks! - is served in a really unique atmosphere: prison cells with bars, but tables and chairs instead of bunkbeds. The whole town of Ely (see pic showing main street below) seemed to have shown up and Ed, the Tourism Director, a real cowboy, quite a character and an excellent ambassador for tourism, did a great job in entertaining and feeding the group and show us the best his town has to offer. We had delicious steaks, great local beer from a little ranch brewery,Ruby Mountain Brewing, and enjoyed good conversation, also talking about politics, with the county commissioner.