This week was a long weekend with 4 days leave all over Germany.
Germany and other European countries were celebrating Good Friday and Easter and so the Monday was also off. I had no plans to sit at home on this long week end. Thanks to the weather, we couldn't plan anything for 3 days at a stretch, but we decided to do 1 day trips and keep ourselves busy. My mother-in-law is also here with us, so it was a good chance to take her and show her around. On Thursday itself, Atul broke the news that he finally got the International Driving license and he can now explore the German AutoBahn (highways) by either buying or renting a car. He immediately set into action and hired a small Volkswagen Golf for a trip to Titisee (a lake in the Blackforest area, 165 kms away from Stuttgart).
Driving on German Autobahn is an experience in itself. I had tasted the speed in Sep 2003, when we had driven from Frankfurt airport to the university in Germersheim, near Mainz. Oh what discipline, what speed, what a drive it was!! Within no time, we had reached our destination without honking or traffic jams! Now, in 2013, the scene was not going to be different, I was sure and this time, Tanay, Atul and my mom-in-law were with me, so it was going to be all the more fun filled! Tanay was tied to the child seat, which he didn't quite like at the beginning. In Bangalore, we always carried him on our laps and here he had a separate seat of his own and had to remain seated during our drive-time. He reluctantly settled down once the car started and he fell asleep within sometime.
The road to the Titisee was just awesome. On both the sides, there were tall trees, covered with snow and the vehicles were passing by in no time. I was seated next to Atul and sometimes when I watched the speedometer, it had crossed 180 km/hr. I was aghast. It didn't feel like we were traveling at that speed. All the cars had put on their headlights as the light was low and the visibility was poor. I did not hear a single person honk in the journey of those one and a half hours. Trees, posts, valleys, rivers were just passing by and getting out of sight within no time. We finally reached the destination and parked our cars and went walking to the lake. It was a nice area with many shopping centers around. We had coffee and cake in one restaurant and then proceeded to watch the lake. The lake of course was frozen due to the heavy snowfall the area had experienced. We just roamed there for some time and got into a shop which had cuckoo clocks of all shapes and sizes. The blackforest area is famous for such clocks and almost every tourist who comes here pays a visit to the shop and enthusiastic people like us buy it too. We spent almost 2 hrs in that shop and finally bought a cuckoo clock, which we will have to take back to Bangalore with us and hence we got it nicely packed. We bought a few things for Tanay and headed back to Stuttgart.
Atul drove very carefully and proved that he is a good driver, no matter where he drives. Changing lanes, adhering to the speed limit, taking care of all the signs on the sign posts and driving at a great speed, all at the same time requires some technique and he is indeed good at that, I must say. We all had a nice time and a nice first drive so to say on the German Autobahn and we will be making many more such trips to different destinations..
Here we come!!!!!!!! zoom zoom vrooooooooom.
Germany and other European countries were celebrating Good Friday and Easter and so the Monday was also off. I had no plans to sit at home on this long week end. Thanks to the weather, we couldn't plan anything for 3 days at a stretch, but we decided to do 1 day trips and keep ourselves busy. My mother-in-law is also here with us, so it was a good chance to take her and show her around. On Thursday itself, Atul broke the news that he finally got the International Driving license and he can now explore the German AutoBahn (highways) by either buying or renting a car. He immediately set into action and hired a small Volkswagen Golf for a trip to Titisee (a lake in the Blackforest area, 165 kms away from Stuttgart).
Driving on German Autobahn is an experience in itself. I had tasted the speed in Sep 2003, when we had driven from Frankfurt airport to the university in Germersheim, near Mainz. Oh what discipline, what speed, what a drive it was!! Within no time, we had reached our destination without honking or traffic jams! Now, in 2013, the scene was not going to be different, I was sure and this time, Tanay, Atul and my mom-in-law were with me, so it was going to be all the more fun filled! Tanay was tied to the child seat, which he didn't quite like at the beginning. In Bangalore, we always carried him on our laps and here he had a separate seat of his own and had to remain seated during our drive-time. He reluctantly settled down once the car started and he fell asleep within sometime.
The road to the Titisee was just awesome. On both the sides, there were tall trees, covered with snow and the vehicles were passing by in no time. I was seated next to Atul and sometimes when I watched the speedometer, it had crossed 180 km/hr. I was aghast. It didn't feel like we were traveling at that speed. All the cars had put on their headlights as the light was low and the visibility was poor. I did not hear a single person honk in the journey of those one and a half hours. Trees, posts, valleys, rivers were just passing by and getting out of sight within no time. We finally reached the destination and parked our cars and went walking to the lake. It was a nice area with many shopping centers around. We had coffee and cake in one restaurant and then proceeded to watch the lake. The lake of course was frozen due to the heavy snowfall the area had experienced. We just roamed there for some time and got into a shop which had cuckoo clocks of all shapes and sizes. The blackforest area is famous for such clocks and almost every tourist who comes here pays a visit to the shop and enthusiastic people like us buy it too. We spent almost 2 hrs in that shop and finally bought a cuckoo clock, which we will have to take back to Bangalore with us and hence we got it nicely packed. We bought a few things for Tanay and headed back to Stuttgart.
Atul drove very carefully and proved that he is a good driver, no matter where he drives. Changing lanes, adhering to the speed limit, taking care of all the signs on the sign posts and driving at a great speed, all at the same time requires some technique and he is indeed good at that, I must say. We all had a nice time and a nice first drive so to say on the German Autobahn and we will be making many more such trips to different destinations..
Here we come!!!!!!!! zoom zoom vrooooooooom.
Reading this I am jealous !!!
ReplyDeleteHow I wish I can go for such long drive with dear ones !!!