the night before leaving i stand at 9PM, still looking through the tailgate into the yawningly empty interior of the race van: shirts, pants, shoes and each and every other vacation necessity are still waiting to be loaded. and being this extremely responsible highway captain i wanted to long since be horizontal, quiet and comfy and more importantly: out like a light... *sigh* the good news is that even 4 hours later, when finally _ALMOST_ the entire household has found its way through said tailgate, we will not need a roof box. we did manage to find a way to make those ridiculously few 300 cubic feet of race van inside suffice. well, WHO managed? and who exactly? :)
leaving day. planned departure was 9AM, highest probability estimate was 10AM, reality was 11:30. and that excluded the drop-off of hera at the doggie vacation center. because norway has inacceptable vaccination requirements, our eldest and 4-legged daughter has to stay in the olde land, unfortunately. and my heart is bleeding. but the "farm" she will stay at this year we have in fondest memories, after all the lady who owns the doggie motel has taken the mousy all the way into her bedroom, so she wouldn't have to stay so alone all the time! :)
finally we hit the highway, german autobahn, where everyone can jam traffic as fast as they want to... heading north. actually relatively light as far as jams go, but the sunday driver density must have been sufficiently high, as vicky can _PRETTY_ well say "meine guete" (in english something like "my goodness!") by now! peculiar! :)
then, finally hamburg. koebrand bridge, elb tunnel, the docks, my beloved northern germany... spent the night at true natives - friends of old times, which was really nice: we sat talking until well after midnight and got going far too late the next morning - it simply was too nice after all those years. so, a huge warm snuggly appreciation at this point!
now just quickly to the local electrics store for a new navigator and back onto the autobahn, further on north. but then it started: african velocity: hamburg - flensburg in 4 hours! for not even 80 miles! because even in the 21st century merging 2 lanes into one simply does not work in germany. not in frankfurt, not in berlin, not in munich and neither at the bridge over the canal connecting north and baltic seas... on the bright side the dragon was really quiet. no nagging "are we there, yet?", not even close. very briefly, approaching meal times, but on a trip like this, a very permissable thing.
pushing 8PM, we reach the cabin we rent for the the next week, north rim of continental denmark, if there is such a thing. except fat black rain clouds (why is tap water invisible, but water in the skies pitch black?) and a pretty stiff breeze we haven't seen much, but this must be sure to come! for now i say goo'night, the dragon has to get something between the jaws, before they go between the sheets themselves, and slowly i am getting a little tired, too... *yaaaaaaawwwwwwwn* see you tomorrow, or so...