"They never did fit, or look very good on me, but they were free." -S2, on his sunglasses
Road trip, day 1.
We left Klaus at the airport this morning. It wasn't the emotionally draining experience of last August, but that was probably because that other family sending their kid off to college (with their dog. At the airport) wasn't there.
I drove. S2 fiddled with the radio. NS wore her pajamas.
There's probably some metaphor, or juxtaposition in the fact that as Klaus was heading off to L.A., one of the most aggressively sunny places in the world, it was pouring rain in Hannover.
On our way home from the airport,S2 pointed out that at least we managed to get the mandatory monotonous road trip traffic jams in the rain over and done with before we had even properly started. It was around this time that he started playing around with the radio. He kept asking NS if he had managed to find a "schläger” song (a kind of folk genre, apparently only found in Germany) without realizing that the song was actually in English. But he just kept fiddling with buttons, until he hit the jackpot. Silent night. In July.
Followed by Walking in a Winter Wonderland.
Somehow, a disk of Christmas songs has become stuck in the car's CD player. And you have just not heard "the Little Drummer Boy" until you've heard it sung by Johnny Cash. In July. With no context.
And if out of season Christmas music wasn't enough, every time the car hit a bump, the disk would skip. But we tried our best to sing along to such holiday hits as "Let it snow-Let it snow-Let it snow- Let it snow- Let it snow."
So, off we are in the 1994 VW Passat station wagon we are renting from friends for our epic trip to Eastern Europe. It was surprising how quickly three of us filled it up. There's the tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, the duffel bag of clothes, the kitchen bag with cups and plates and bowls (we did add a container of garlic since we are going to Dracula's castles), the entertainment bag (iPad, embroidery and games), the library (the Kindle, a collection of books from the shelves and all of NS's literature books for next year except the poetry ones), the towel bag, the map bag (sure we have a borrowed GPS, but some of us still prefer a paper map), oh, and food! Yes, definitely epic trip ahead of us.
Our first destination was Göttingen, to see if Julian really did want to go with us. Maybe he was his usual super polite self when we asked if he wanted to go with us, or maybe he'd had time to reflect on the ramifications of an epic road trip with three of the Roamin Wyomans...either way, he opted to stay behind.
Things we forgot so far:
Harmonica
S2's address book
Our Bulgarian contacts phone number
First blue sky spotted at 1:58 pm, just west of Leipzig.
Don't be surprised if this blog gets hijacked a time or two. When you travel with a paleontologist in the making, it is bound to happen
Road trip, day 1.
We left Klaus at the airport this morning. It wasn't the emotionally draining experience of last August, but that was probably because that other family sending their kid off to college (with their dog. At the airport) wasn't there.
I drove. S2 fiddled with the radio. NS wore her pajamas.
There's probably some metaphor, or juxtaposition in the fact that as Klaus was heading off to L.A., one of the most aggressively sunny places in the world, it was pouring rain in Hannover.
On our way home from the airport,S2 pointed out that at least we managed to get the mandatory monotonous road trip traffic jams in the rain over and done with before we had even properly started. It was around this time that he started playing around with the radio. He kept asking NS if he had managed to find a "schläger” song (a kind of folk genre, apparently only found in Germany) without realizing that the song was actually in English. But he just kept fiddling with buttons, until he hit the jackpot. Silent night. In July.
Followed by Walking in a Winter Wonderland.
Somehow, a disk of Christmas songs has become stuck in the car's CD player. And you have just not heard "the Little Drummer Boy" until you've heard it sung by Johnny Cash. In July. With no context.
And if out of season Christmas music wasn't enough, every time the car hit a bump, the disk would skip. But we tried our best to sing along to such holiday hits as "Let it snow-Let it snow-Let it snow- Let it snow- Let it snow."
So, off we are in the 1994 VW Passat station wagon we are renting from friends for our epic trip to Eastern Europe. It was surprising how quickly three of us filled it up. There's the tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, the duffel bag of clothes, the kitchen bag with cups and plates and bowls (we did add a container of garlic since we are going to Dracula's castles), the entertainment bag (iPad, embroidery and games), the library (the Kindle, a collection of books from the shelves and all of NS's literature books for next year except the poetry ones), the towel bag, the map bag (sure we have a borrowed GPS, but some of us still prefer a paper map), oh, and food! Yes, definitely epic trip ahead of us.
Our first destination was Göttingen, to see if Julian really did want to go with us. Maybe he was his usual super polite self when we asked if he wanted to go with us, or maybe he'd had time to reflect on the ramifications of an epic road trip with three of the Roamin Wyomans...either way, he opted to stay behind.
Things we forgot so far:
Harmonica
S2's address book
Our Bulgarian contacts phone number
First blue sky spotted at 1:58 pm, just west of Leipzig.
Don't be surprised if this blog gets hijacked a time or two. When you travel with a paleontologist in the making, it is bound to happen
The truly definitive "Lil' Drummer Boy" is the duet by Bing Crosby and David Bowie.
ReplyDeleteBut when pah rumpa pum pum gets stuck, it is hilarious
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