Setting things straight

Certain rumours have been circulating that Andrew and I are traipsing across countries in order to board a ferry to the Queen's land.  

To set things straight, I shall tell you the tale of Wednesday.  It all started with a German going travelling and an Englishman who didn't want to go travelling.  

These were Andrew's work colleagues, one couldn't go to Germany to do some work and one didn't want to as he was in England.  Andrew was next up in line to go, so he did and I tagged along.

We cycled through early-morning Amsterdam streets to get the hire car, only to find that the promised GPS was no where in sight.  Avis opens at 8am and this was before 6am.  Hmm. What to do?

  

We had to get from Amsterdam to a little town in Germany with no GPS, no

 maps and no stars to guide us by.  Solution: Google maps and a quick stop at a petrol station to buy some maps.  And then we zoomed.  Through Holland, through mist, past trucks, following red tail lights, into Germany and finally to Netphen.

Andrew was freaking out because he was dropping me in this tiny town with no idea of what was there and it was below zero degrees. 

 I assured him I would be fine, he dropped me and then zoomed off to the big factory to get down to work. 

 I wandered around the town for the day.  

(A tree warmer!?!)

Sometimes outside admiring the few sights, mostly wondering where I could next go to spend time inside and warm up. 

 I had a little thermos full of delicious carrot soup but that only kept the cockles warm for so long. 

 I spent extended periods of time in a craft shop (having hilarious English for me and German for the shop lady conversations), 

Aldi (when in Germany one must go where the Germans go), 

Toom (BIG supermarket where I bought sunflower seeds and pretzels-mmmm for German soft pretzels, and also spent a fair bit of time in the liqour aisle-Wodka, how funny is that!!! [Germans pronounce 'w' as 'v' hence the 'wodka' spelling), the steps of Toom (I had to warm up somehow!), a chemist/healthshop and I even resorted to cruising the aisles of a video shop in order to warm up. 

 It was a nice day, it was a cute little town, but gosh I was glad when Andrew arrived back so I could warm up in the car!

We zoomed home in reverse, with a little sidestep to Koln (Cologne) to see the cathedral and wander a little around the city with a hot chocolate.

So, dear sister of mine (you know who I'm talking to), that is why we were in Germany.