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at the beginning of last week, my partner came home from work and announced that he had to do some work on the continent that w/end. i am down, as this would usually mean yet more time stuck by myself…until he says that i can go along, and his boss will pay!! freebie!!
. this would be my first trip ever out of the country, and i’ve certainly never been on a ferry b4! so, with tear in eye, we leave the pooch at the kennels on friday for the w/end (i worry-we’ve never left her more that a night b4)…
3am Saturday morning, we’re up-and by 3.45am, we’re on our way to Dover (via Northampton to pick up the van). 4 hrs later, i take my first look at the sea for that day.hmm..choppy…other half, thinking he’s funny, pretends to gag. soon we are on SEAFRANCE-RODIN. this ferry is only a month old, it’s all nice and posh-and big!! there was me, expecting something like a bus! once on our way, i find the movement a little difficult to get used to, other half laughs that i’m walking around like i’ve just crapped myself
about an hour later, we are in sight of Calais…
France…very flat. i wouldn’t say it wasn’t pretty, it just didn’t grab me. there was no scenery that stood out for me.
Belgium-our first stop. i would compare it to England (and that isn’t necessarily a compliment!). we have to make a delivery to a dive-shop in Ostende. i finally get to see a live haddock, in a fish tank-makes a change from battered!! coming away from there, i decide that i will never complain about UK roads again-Belgian roads are full of potholes & crack, and the surface was that bad at one point,i thought the vibration would shake my teeth out!!
Next, on to Germany-our ultimate destination. wow..for those of you in the UK that know it, all i can compare the scenery to is that which you might see on the drive down to Devon & Cornwall, by Bristol & Exeter..except there’s 10x more of it, and those deep valleys and the hills are covered in trees, as far as the eye can see- and if it wasn’t trees, it was grapevines. you’d see these little fairytale towns & villages nestling somewhere in amongst all the greenery. another major sight was the amount of wind turbines. apparently Germany have banned nuclear power, and this is an alternative. people in England seem to be resistant to them, complaining that they would be an eyesore. personally, i don’t think so-they certainly weren’t a blot on the German landscape-and they look a damn sight better than a power station, belching out fumes & vapour (the science bit-water vapor is a greenhouse gas!)
we end up in Ansbach. we are there to pick up some furniture for a friend of the boss’s.
virtually dumped in a hotel on the outskirts of town, we takes a walk into town to find beer (no bar in hotel!). we walks into an ‘Irish bar’, to find it playing rock music & filled with pool tables, flashing fruit machines and lots of quite poodled American military personnel (theres a big listening base nearby). other half doesn’t want to stop, as he’s had too many fights with drunken American soldiers whilst in the RAF. next bar over the road, a nice peaceful place. barmaid can’t speak english, fortunately other half knows how to order beer in German! nice atmosphere-if you can get used to being stared at…
after 2 beer we amble off to the next bar. it’s got live music on, & we have to pay to get in. a bit ropey…beer is ok, but the stuff by law (pilsner) has to take 7mins to pour!!in the meantime, i have 2 lesbians staring at my bum (good job i didn’t wear my leather trousers!). we try to leave after several drinks. the guy on the door says “you leaving??why you leaving??” by this point, we’d been up for 22hours. to keep him quiet, we stop for another one. we finish this, and make a run for it when his back’s turned. we stagger back to the hotel. there isn’t a footpath, so we walk along the cycle path up the side of the road. i have to pull the other half over and hang on to him to stop him staggering into the middle of it! bed time..but first i must go for a pee. surprised to see what the other half knows as a ‘thunderbox’-its a toilet with like a shelf in the bowl, so you can check your poo for parasites & worms b4 you flush it away..imagine that after a night on the curry![ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: snooklepie ]
the next day, after finishing loading the van with furniture, we make our way to Lorsch. this is quite a pretty town, and it’s all so clean! i’ve never seen the streets anywhere in England as clean as this.
we have a bit of a drive round the local area, just for a look-and to find shops!! but it’s Sunday, so virtually everywhere’s shut. damn, would have loved to have gone into that teddy bear shop in Lorsch…
reats up in our hotel. i keep myself amused by watching ST:TOS in German, and try to figure out what they are saying. we go out later that night, first to this cafe-bar. really nice here. what i find odd though (they don’t do this in the big towns & cities,or in the tourist areas) is the fact that you don’t pay for your drinks as you get them, the barmaid marks a beermat with the price and a mark for each drink you have, & you pay when you leave. somehow, i don’t think that would work in this country…just like the ciggy machines on the streets you have over there-put one on the wll outside our local, it’d be gone as soon as the fitter had left!
we end up in a Chinese restaurant. pointless being handed the menu-it’s all in German! fortunately the waiter can speak english, so he recommends something.
the next morning, i have my first ever continental breakfast. looks more like lunch, with the sliced cheese & meat. i tuck in, and it’s only afterwards…
other half:”did you like that first slice of meat?”
“yes, why?”
“it had horse in it..”
ack! ack! ack!
our final stop in Germany is the main factory of the company for which the other half works, just outside Lorsch. we were hoping to get away from there early, so i would have time to have a look round some shops, and take some pictures. as it was, we didn’t leave until 12.30pm, & we had to catch the ferry home at 8.45pm (continental time). i ended up trying to take pictures from the van on the move, so God knows if they’ll turn out…
one thing i will definitely remember from Germany is the food at the motorway services. it’s a damn site better that the kak you get here, it’s bloody lovely in fact!! just wish i didn’t look so much like a rabbit stuck in the headlights of a fast approaching car when the serving staff are talking..me no understand!!!
after finally getting to Calais in one piece(try drivin a tall van for 7hr with the wind straight from hell trying to blow you over!) i have a quick nip into one or to of the booze emporiums (!) cheap beer- i’ll have some of that!!, and board the ferry. we’re on SEAFRANCE-CEZANNE for the trip back- an older, smaller boat. Now that was a rough crossing -anyone in the UK should appreciate this, as they’ll know how bad the weather was all that w/end. took longer to get back..(tip-when on a rough ferry trip, don’t drink pints,drink shorts or wine-less stomach contents to slosh about!!!) raided the shop, of course
.we finally arrive in Dover. much to our amusement, as we are being loaded off, this VW camper van, in his excitement, tries to drive straight underneath the upper car deck. seeing as he had a sofa on his roof rack, this was a really bad idea…rips the whole lot off with a load crash! talk about peeing ourselves…
and home. picks the dog up from my mum & dad’s, who picked her up from the kennels earlier on. she’d been fine. i’d been worried she’d be upset that we’d left her, but she wasn’t. finally gets into bed 3.30am our time Tuesday morning. needless to say, i didn’t go to work that day..
and there you have it!! ok, it was all simple things that happened really-but it was a whole new experience for me. i can’t help but be excited by it. i just wish i could do it all again this w/end. one thing’s for sure, the next time i’m over there, i want more time to explore. Germany is a lovely country, and the taster i had last w/end has made me hungry fo more
[ 02-05-2002: Message edited by: snooklepie ]
Well, sounds like you had fun over the weekend! Been to that part of Germany, it is beautiful; I’m always surprised when the scenery is just like the postcards. The local brew is good,but I go for the wine, –check that out next time, lots of fun to do too.
elmey
i’ll remember that about the wine!! normally i only drink brown beer,but i found the local beer in Germany, for lager, was very easy to drink- probably doesn’t have the additives in it that in this country make it taste like last night’s dishwater!!
another thing that amazed me was the lack of old cars on the road. i think it’s got something to do with their laws, but i only counted about 4 that definitely looked over 10yrs old while i was over there. If we had the same regs in this country, 90% of the cars on the road would suddenly become scrap! ialso only saw 1 roundabout on the entire drive on the continent. apparently they just can’t get their heads around the concept…that was odd, too-going to the right arround it, instead of left!ialso only saw 1 roundabout on the entire drive on the continent. apparently they just can’t get their heads around the concept…that was odd, too-going to the right arround it, instead of left!
What is that thing you guys have with roundabouts anyway? I ALWAYS end up in the wrong exit, the wrong lane, whatever. You don’t see them much in the States either. There’s one in one of the State Parks here; I usually just close my eyes,ignore the honking horns and hope for the best. Works as well as anyting else I’ve tried.
elmey
we can make ’em look pretty, plus we can have a damn good laugh at people that make mistakes at them! e.g. a friend of ours, forgetting about one that has recently appeared, came bombing down the road one morning and ended up driving straight over the middle of it! he was ok, but i don’t think it did his car much good!!
nearly forgot-we got pulled over by the German police on the Saturday night. Other half got asked for his driving license, documents, etc….apparently they can just stop you over there for no particular reason, which is something they wouldn’t be allowed to do here. for example, you’d have to have a light out or something. Imagine that?? first trip ever to a foriegn country, you’re minding your own business-then you get pulled over!! talk about making you nervous…
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