Me and Kid took a…bus(?!) to travel to Europe. It was rather weary 15 hours of drive, but we’ve got to see so much on the way - I don’t regret doing it. (though, perhaps, the way back we should’ve change the transportation pattern, but alas – we had two-way tickets). At least we saw a lot again and I even picked up the place, where I would like to return again for a proper visit. I saw the capital of Europe and was absolutely captivated by it. One day I will find time to come to Brussels for a weekend break – it seems too good to miss.
It was interesting to drive through so many countries – we crossed France, Belgium and Netherlands before actually entered Germany itself. Few stops on the way let us see the cities and since bus stations traditionally located in the town centres, for a few times we were included in the life of a stranger’s lands, getting stuck in a traffic, watching people walking by, running to work or enjoying sunny day. We read the street signs, looked at the shop windows, noticed how character of retailer industry changes, reflecting the different life style…(I must make a note here: on our way, to while away the time, the Kid counted the amount of …sex shops that we’ve seen on the streets of German towns. The most of them he counted in one rather small town was – 5! And this is just on the way of the transit bus. One can only imagine how many there are out there in the jungle of the streets, where buses do not go. Something, you will not see on a prudish British city maps).
From my notes, I’ve made along the way, very brief:
Europe
very straight roads (and those who’ve been in England, will understand what I mean, as the only straight roads one can find here are those built by...Romans!). The same – about rivers – straight and wide in the vast expanses of a land. There are no borders between the countries, just the sign on a road side will tell you: “Welcome to …”country” ”
France
Drove through mostly at night, so didn’t managed to see much of a life, but there was some amazing "float through" the almost ghostly towns with the buildings made of steel and glass (hmmm, at least I believe that’s what I saw there, but I might’ve just been sleeping and seeing a dream…)
Belgium
As we’ve been driving on the roads, the roads are what I mostly saw. (Duh!) Good roads. And Brussels. Which I really liked a lot. It is a city of fantastic modern buildings: glass, glass, glass – everywhere. And the older part of the city – two majestic cathedrals and noble streets, wide and straight. Lots of space to breath.
Netherlands
Remembered it by tidy white churches in every village we pass. Houses - lots of windows, very wide – looked like the whole wall is made of just windows. And a concrete fences around the motorway with the…glass “windows” in them too…(?!) At first I thought – to protect privacy, then someone explained to me – it’s a soundproof barriers! How clever.
Germany
Wind generators. Lots of them! Army of them along the road. Like in a futuristic movie – proudly they stand in squadrons, rotating their wings in asynchronous fashion – there was certain techno beauty in these strong disorder. There was certain grace in the effect of seemingly slow motion….I don’t know why, but I was absolutely hypnotized by that view…
Monchengladbach, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Essen, Munster.... …We’ve had so many stops in Germany that by the end of the journey all of the cities merged into one big endless set of streets, shops, stations (hauptbahnhof) and distinctive double towers of cathedrals. (oh, and underground(?!) in Dortmund, and cute tiny trams in Dusseldorf). We were heading to the part of Germany that is not so touristy, as Western Germany(which is famous for the treasures of Dresden and Potsdam). Opposite of the beaten track we went to visit Lower Saxony.
Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen)
This is the second largest federal state of Germany, situated in the north-west of it. We stayed with distant relatives in a small village of Lohne. Neat, red bricked houses, pretty gardens with lots of flowers – those Germans sure know how to make their homes look like a postcard. And another little thing we’ve noticed: very often there were crucifixes standing right by the entrance of the gardens or in the corner of it. A petite “personal tribute”. As we’ve been told: they often put up such tokens of gratitude, when they believed God performed a miracle on someone in their family…
We only stayed there for 5 days, so didn’t see much of the landmarks. Just hanged about in Lohne and went to the nearest cities of Bremen and Osnabruck. Few travel notes for those – later.