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).