German floods

Something we really hate about Germany is the way Germans drive. They never care about the conditions or other drivers. They drive far too fast and take far too many risks. A perfect example was this afternoon. I’m surprised I’m still alive to write about this.

We were driving down a long, straight country road with the rain coming down and cars coming towards us when a guy (it has to have been a male) overtook us at speed, narrowly missing a driver on the other side of the road. The lunatic just managed to jump in front of us before he killed us all. Why do Germans think like that? Is it because they’ve always survived driving dangerously, so why not keep at it?

I bet they all hated the bumper to bumper traffic as we skirted the flooded area south of Bremen. The access road to our hotel was blocked off so we had to divert about an hour extra, as did a lot of other cars. And emergency vehicles. Big trucks carrying massive sandbags. Ambulances, police, all sorts. It was awful.

It was the unexpected end to a reasonably pleasant drive from Rostock. Okay, we were on motorways which are awful in themselves but there were no road works, just Formula 1 wannabes out for a bit of deathwish roulette. Really, I don’t care if they want to kill themselves but I really wish they wouldn’t try and kill us at the same time.

There was also very little snow but some rain, particularly as we neared the flood zone.

The day had started well. We decided to have breakfast because, eating at service places during the day always means eating rubbish and at least German breakfast buffets are full of fresh stuff. And a satisfying quantity of sausage, cheese and eggs. And coffee. Actually the coffee was excellent.

And Mirinda discovered that the hotel, which we thought was called Land-gut is actually called Hermann’s. Land-gut is a former German country estate which has been turned into a hotel/restaurant etc. It came up because the place we stayed at tonight was also a Land-gut and Mirinda thought it might be a chain.

We think it’s a bit like the French chateaux and the Spanish paradors. They vary a lot though are probably surrounded by farm land. At least the two we’ve stayed at were. The one we stayed at tonight in one of the German towns called Büchen, was renovated around a year and a half ago and is, essentially, a brand new building whereas, Hermann’s looks exactly like it probably did when it was a farm.

Our second Land-gut was called Thöles and the food was fantastic. As was the beer. Actually, my beer (and Mirinda’s G&T) was bought for us by a guy at the bar called Vasilia. He admitted that this was a female Slavic name but his father was drunk when he signed the birth certificate.

He follows the Orthodox Christian church (though he claimed he actually worshipped Satan) so his Christmas is tomorrow (January 6) according to the Gregorian calendar. He will spend it with his three sons (one is returning from Bosnia). He is separated from his wife but, because they both want access to the boys, they still live about 200 metres apart. He explained that in Germany, a lot of separated fathers only get to see their kids once every two weeks.

While his English was, as he explained, schoolboy level, he could make himself understood. He was very entertaining and was very surprised when we explained we were Australians. We enjoyed his company for a drink before heading in for dinner.

While Mirinda had the duck, I went for the venison ragu which was brilliant. In fact, accompanied by the puppies, the whole meal was excellent and a great remedy for the day’s event.

It was then back to the room for a bit of television and blog writing. Tomorrow, Utrecht.