Travel log: A look back: Sydney to Strasbourg

Pictures in this post by Ben.
To the right: Strasbourg, France.

I have been home from our trip to Italy for a few weeks now. No journal in front of me because I didn't write a thing while I was away. Since returning, BTW, I have also taken a short, 5-day vacation to Hawaii with my fellow PartyLite high achievers. I need to write about that. I've also gone to see P!nk in concert and haven't read a decent review of that night, so I'm bursting at the seams to get one out of me. There are a lot of words rolling around in this head of mine. Ah, to get them into an order.

So let's start with Italy. I'm sorry if this is going to be a long post, but some of you want to KNOW. I'll break it up into parts. This might take a few days....

OK. The MAAWB (pronounced "mob" and consisting of Michael, Alan, Ange, Wendy, and Ben) started our journey to Europe from Sydney on a Qantas flight to Frankfurt Germany via Singapore. That's a 7 hour leg followed by a 14 hour leg and broken up with a 2 hour stop. The two notable things for me were the in-seat entertainment (which made the 21 hours in the air exceptionally bearable) and the (free) foot massage machine in the Singapore airport lounge. I want one!

We landed in Frankfurt at a respectable 6 am and after gathering our luggage and getting stamped in, we rented a big black VW van, loaded ourselves in and set course for Strasbourg. I drove. I wanted to. I love driving. I love the front seat. I feel confident on the right side of the road. I can follow a sat-nav on silent (I hate the voice telling you what to do).

The first thing we learned was that our radio was locked. The instruction manual was in German and there seemed to be no code for us to unlock it. For the next 14 days the only music we had was in our heads (5 very different channels, I'm sure) or from my singing. (I am pretty sure I sang the entire Rumors album on the way to Genoa... quietly, but aloud. I hope the rest of the MAAWB didn't mind. Maybe they had their mental radios on loud to cover it up.)

OK, so we drove and I realised quickly that I was on the Autobahn. OMG I discovered the German in me. I was made for this road! I was made to drive whatever speed I want to as long as it's safe and to give way to others with better cars, faster safe speeds, or death wishes. It's so simple. It's so logical. It's so fun. And it's so safe. Let us drive. Ahhhhh.... bliss.

We pulled off the Autobahn in Heidelberg for a breakfast and culture stop. Cobblestone streets. Cool weather. Quiet morning. A beautiful castle (being refurbished, so partially scaffolded). A wide, rolling river. We ate a nice continental breakfast, had much needed coffee and then walked around for about a hour taking pictures and drinking it in. Then we loaded in and moved along.

Our next stop was Strasbourg, France. We had organised our travel path and accommodation for the entire journey. Michael had painstakingly sat in his bedroom in Castle Hill and pre-loaded every hotel name and address into the sat-nav. We simply selected the next destination and hit 'go'. So straight to the hotel I drove and we unloaded the van. This first stop is when we learned a valuable lesson. Our 2.3 metre van is tall. Parking garages are short. Oops.

No fear, Alan and I drove around and around for about an hour and finally found what seemed like a good spot. It was a parking lot of a museum. There didn't seem to be signs saying no parking overnight. Nor was there a fee. The museum was on the outskirts of town, but it looked clean and secure. We parked in the back corner, locked the van, and traveled by tram back to the hotel.

We couldn't figure out how to pay for the tram (all was in French now) but a lovely lady who we had asked for assistance simply gave us two single tram passes. (Funny thing is that we didn't validate them before getting onto the tram because we didn't know we needed to, so we got a free ride anyway.)

The tram ride was nice because we got to see the beautiful city. Strasbourg is lovely. It's a University town. Lots of parks and old buildings. It's flat. We hadn't even hit the foothills of the Alps yet. Finally we got back to the hotel and met up with MAB. We showered and got ready to go out and explore. The five of us finally relaxed and ready to push through so we could avoid jetlag as much as possible. We are standing on the sidewalk and discussing our path.

(It was this moment when I felt my hand and realised after a few heartstopping seconds, that I had left my wedding ring in the van. After stopping, my heart then kicked into full gear and I told everyone to go ahead without me and I'd be "right back". Once he heard what I was doing and why, Alan gave me one of those looks (you know the look) and went with me all the way back to the van. Tram ride to the van was a bit nerve-racking. (We still couldn't figure out how to pay - we stole another ride. We were going to plead ignorance.) Tram ride back with ring on finger was, again, lovely. We took a deep breath and got back into the moment. Looking forward is a wonderful thing.)

At our MAAWB meeting destination, the cafe on the corner had green awnings, 20 outdoor tables, and a handsome 60 year old french waiter. He served Alan and me our first beverage. 100 mL of wine for me and a cold beer for Alan. We sat in the late afternoon sun and watched people while we waited for MAB to rejoin us.

As I write this, I can't believe how much we fit into this day. I haven't even talked about our Little France walk, our dinner (Ben had sauerkraut with furnishings... you'll have to ask him), the escargot, our relaxed walk back to the hotel, and how proud we were that we had arrived, travelled, done so much, and stayed up so late. We had set ourselves up for the perfect jet lag recovery. When we finally hit the sack, it was after 10:00, we were suitable tired, and we slept through the night.

Ring on my finger, all I thought about as I drifted off was, "I hope the van's still there in the morning."