european road trip #1

we rented a car in amsterdam and hit the road for heidelberg. despite a small snafu at the start – the local rental car office that we could get to by bicycle opened at 10am but closed from noon-5 so mike had to trek out to the airport to get our car – all was well. however, instead of a nice minivan we had to take a large VW eurovan type thing. luckily mike was driving bc it was stick shift!

driving through the netherlands can be described in one word – flat. speed bumps are about the largest thing out there. lots of canals, a glimpse of a few dutch style windmills, and huge greenhouses dotted the landscape. as we entered germany we started to see many massively large wind turbines, which can look pretty ominous when you get up close to them.

driving on the autobahn was, uh, interesting. luckily there was close to zero traffic and our lumbering giant VW got up to about 145 km/hour and of course people were still passing us by a lot. we had no car seats for the kids (we had planned on getting them at the car rental place but at the last moment were told it was not possible on a one way car rental). not our finest parenting moment...

we had a great stay in heidelberg – the kids and i spent 5 hours at the castle. despite having been there on a trip i made with my german class in high school (1985 or 86) i had ZERO recollection of the place. the castle was great and the kids were highly entertained but completely exhausted by the end of the day. we also took city buses and streetcars which are always a hit.

day 2 of heidelberg was bit more low key – just some walking around the city taking in the sites, eating local food, and having the kids frolic in large town squares. the weather was clear and warm.

after mike's workday we packed up the car and drove to frankfurt for our night train to copenhagen. we ate dinner in a beautiful square and the kids ran around like crazy while we enjoyed some german beers and schnitzel. we had to find a gas station and return our car by 9pm, which we did with 10 minutes to spare. we got to the train station with plenty of time for our 10:18pm departure and hung out in the train station taking pictures and reading harry potter to the kids. we were just so proud of ourselves for timing everything so perfectly (and without any stress-induced arguments!). but that would come back to haunt us... more on that in my next post.......