Saturday we hired a car, a little Cheverlot Kalos, rattles a bit but seems to go reasonably well. Would not buy one as the driving position is terrible.
We were looking at about 150-180E for 2 days from the likes of Hertz, Avis etc. But a little local knowledge saw us being offered this car (only 6000ks on the clock) for 70E even better we could have it for 2.5 days for that. Now that's service. If your ever in Berlin look up CARO in the local yellow pages.
Trip down was good. about 140ks on the Autobahn. For those not aquanted with said roads. They sometime do not have speed limits. They have a recommendation of 130. So you get these crazy dudes tail gating at 180kph. Then you get the idiot who pulls out at 120 into the path of a car doing 200. Yikes.
While I was doing a measly 150kph I was passed like I was going backwards, probably somewhere around the 250kph mark.
Well we finally got to the town we were headed for. Then we momentarily were unsure of where to go. I've got "links" going off in the back seat. Links = Left. Not sure if the spelling is correct.
By the time we got to the right street it's been blocked off (The reason for this was a sodding great big hole in the road).
At this point I think Tante Rosie had had enough and was almost at the point of wialing.
We're trying to work out what to do when I spot a van turning round at the blockage....... quick thinking and I following him..... sees us get to Uncle Rudi's house safe and sound.
Lunch was typical German food, 2 pork steaks, bacon and then cheese on top. Was great but I'm still not hungry 18 hours later.
Then the real mini epic journey began. Given a very nice hand drawn map for how to get to the Autobahn. Except we don't quite follow it.
Final corner....... Bea says "Road swings to the left, halfway round turn right towards Berlin"
Road appears, Bea says "We don't want that one there must be a turning on our left in a minute"
Notice the change from Right to Left...........
10 minute sceninc tour of Weissenfel. Try again. Finally on the right track.
An hour later (and this time it's not Bea making the mistake) Turn off here, take the 169. Sean moves off, Bea says "Stay on this road". Road on the right (signed 169) goes to where we want to go. Road straight ahead goes back onto the bloody Autobahn!!!!!! Guess where we end up......
We get off 20k's later, that's the first exit! Then try and find out why to where we want to go...... no road signs half the time and then the are these block roads, I'm sure we went through the same town twice. Sure felt like it.
Oh what's worse than a back seat driver?
A back seat driver who does not know where they are and only speaks German.
I get the rabble of German between Bea and Tante Rose and then "Links"
We finally got to Hoptgarten in deepest darkest Germany. Not far from Colditz.
Great place, nice cousins.
The bloke (I'll change this later to his real name) restored vintage motorcycles for a living. Been doing it for 25 years (I'll put some photo's up later). Apart from one of two things, like spark plugs, this man can hand build you a 1929 vintage motorcycle. Yes I do mean everything, wheel hubs, speedo housing, brake hubs, the whole rear assembly and things like petrol tanks. I've seen his workshop, in Oz it would have been shut down years ago. He has every type of metal work machine I've ever heard of and then a couple more for good measure. He does something like 10,000k's a year on a 1929 vintage bike!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment