Who needs an Autobahn

This morning we woke with the sunrise and packed our bags leaving our lovely apartment, which amazingly had many quirks.  Not one wall in the house was vertical, all lent one way or another, the floor sloped in all directions and was a different slope in each room. The floorboards were in some cases long slabs of timber, some as wide as 1 foot and they also appeared to bend as you walked across them.  It may sound terrible, but it wasn't, it was exactly what we were after and gave us a wonderful insight into life in current Germany and also that of hundreds of years ago.

We decided to avoid the Autobahns today as when on them, there isn't much that can be seen other than freeway signs whizzing by along with blurs of cars doing well over 160km/h.

It was going to take us a little longer to go the back roads, about an hour in total, but with the sat nav providing the guidance we knew we were on the right path.


Our first unscheduled detour and stop was Hornburg, a small town that we could see on the satnav and could tell that it would be an easy detour off the main path.

It was worth it, we saw a typical medieval market square and were fortunate enough to be the only travellers in town.  We wondered the few streets and stopped by a little cafe for refreshments.

Next, we were back in the car, Katie with the camera in hand and me with both hands on the wheel. Driving on the right side of the road is nerve-racking, but on country roads, I feel less stressed.  Katie and I both randomly say when we are driving "keep to the right", this is a great reminder and helps avoid the worst.  So far I have only driven twice on the wrong side.  Once at a roundabout and once pulling our from a carpark on to the road.

Next stop was planned, the town of Celle.  We parked in a multi-story lot and after many "keep to the right" being said we were wondering the small medieval town.  It was amazing to see so many buildings with "anno" and then something like 1612 or the like.  This means it was built in the year 1612, most were of this era, just amazing that these were built generations ago, and almost 200 years before Europeans settled in Sydney Cove. Amazing.

Then back on the road, through some amazing farmland, forests and towns.  We saw hundreds if not thousands of wind turbines, this country is on a strong path for sustainable power generation.

Finally, after about 5 hours on the road, we pulled up into Lubeck, both a little weary we checked in to our accommodation, but without a moment to rest we were back out to the Laundromat.

This evening we will be watching a little TV and preparing for a restful day tomorrow.