- The autobahn rules completely rock.
- Refer to #1; double the awesomeness.
- Refer to #1 and #2, trip the awesomeness.
- Refer....ok. This could get tedious.
BUT, you get my point!
My introduction was a "HOLY SHIT" exclamation as a BMW streaked by, going what I had to estimate 200 km/hr. Seriously? These people are nuts!
Then Eric gently reminded me ... Germany has the Autobahn.
This filtered slowly in my brain, not quite sure if it was safe to grasp such delicious truth. Never have I pumped a car over 100 mph .... and now that was about to change.
We belted across Germany is what I would define as quite good time, pushing our little Renault rental to it's death, while cursing the reality that all the Audi's, BMW's, and Mercedes' yawning their way up to 150 mph. Not only are Germans insanely loyal to those three brands of vehicles, they are really excellent machines.
Stupid Renault.
Meanwhile, Germany makes up for it's speedy cross country efforts once you get off the highway. If anybody suggests "let's take the scenic route" ... add some serious time to your journey.
Eric: Let's just pop off here and wander through the villages. I see a castle over there.
Marian: As long we as we get to drive through the Black Forest.
*envision happy couple dancing towards the impossible and invisible maze of doom*
Firstly, chasing castles based on site is not the wisest use of one's time. Secondly, the Black Forest had no orcs, no witches, no fairy godmothers, and NO lost princesses. I feel betrayed by years of fairie tales lying to me. This was supposed to a deep, dark, scary forest full of magic. What it actually is at this point is a cute minature version of Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina (without the mountains).
Brokenhearted and trying to think of reasons that the Black Forest wasn't as imposing as I had wanted it to be, we start finding the villages. In fact, there's a handy footpath and exactly two fields between each one - scarily engineering like. All named impossible pronunciations, the random turns start occuring, until finally, a few ... moments?.... maybe longer ... later, we discover a town name we recognize. Based on the number of kilometers to that town from where we got off the highway and where we were at that moment was ....
...wait for it!
...no no, wait for it....
...two kilometers.
At least it was two kilometers closer to that town, and frankly, we took that as a victory.
Off highway adventures are now much more heavily planned.
