Grandpa lives to tell the tale
by Rach, who thought it rude to offer to drive after today’s events
Stellplatz at Rothenburg ob der Tauber
Every train trip we have taken has presented us with different scenery, a different story. Could every road day do likewise? The scenery started out a repeat of snippets of various countries west of Mongolia…..evergreen forests, vibrant flowering yellow fields, windmills, orange-roofed villages in the distance. But there was difference too – the brown billboards town marking signs with points of interest painted on them, the castles appearing on hilltops, the *whoosh* made by cars faster than us zooming past at speeds deemed too dangerous to contemplate in New Zealand, the car we passed (yes, we passed a car on the autobahn! And went on to pass a few trucks too), the children complaining that there was nothing interesting to look at out the window because they actually wanted their noses stuck in card games and Sudokus, the obviously ill rabbits that didn’t run away at our lunchstop, getting off the autobahn and weaving through narrow-streeted villages with houses so close to the road you could pick flowers out of windowboxes from the van, the crying Youngest Child (oh no, that was the same as yesterday – although today she only lasted five minutes before dropping off to sleep), and the Grandpa taking out a road sign. But that’s his story to tell, not mine. I just happened to look in the wing mirror as Rob yelled into the walkie talkie, “Are you OK?” and panicked to see “The Other Van” half on the grass verge swaying about searching for road. Rob had seen the demolishing of the road sign just before that and was splitting his gaze between the road in front and the drama unfolding behind. Thankfully a parking lot appeared almost immediately and we pulled over to assess the damage. That was the pivotal point of difference for today and we hope not to repeat that story again another day! If you want to *see* what happened, take a look HERE.
Time on the road: 4 1/2 hours
Distance travelled: 274km by car, plus a looking-for-mechanic expedition on bikes
Tags: children, grandpa's stories, parenting, postcard: Germany, postcard: Rhein Road Trip, transport
rayres
Leave a Reply