Well the day finally arrived - time to venture off into the big unplanned(ish) unknown. In my usual way, I spent the morning feeling sick with nerves! We did the final pack, leaving behind what we didn't need and then packed up the car. I thought we were packing very light, but Aunty Margareth's car was bursting at the seams. Uncle Albert & Aunty Margareth drove us to Lingen, Germany and we picked up the rental car (Monique & Daniel, you'll be pleased to know it's a Ford Focus like your rental!).

After lunch with Aunty Margareth & Uncle Albert and a few extra driving tips from Uncle Albert we headed off on our own in the rough direction of Bamberg.

Brett got to experience the joys of German Autobahns ... although he definitely didn't break Steve's speed record! Brett was warned by Steve to expect to be tooted at lots. It still hasn't happened yet despite some rather dodgy driving (Brett's words not mine). Steve, how did you manage it? :) We also got to experience a delightful downpour or six. We managed to get hopelessly lost in some town on the way when part of the freeway was closed for maintenance. Gertie (our GPS) was obsessed with putting us back into that spot so let's just say we drove around for a bit. Eventually we got annoyed with Gertie and decided to take a break and have a look at Ikea (my first time!). We had to laugh at the German efficiency as they had arrows on the floor directing you around the store (past ever single area of course). I was pretty blown away at the size and variety ... if only we had one in NZ!

Eventually we went back to old fashioned navigation and headed back in the right direction, despite Gertie repeatedly saying, 'recalculating', 'turn back' and 'you are over the speed limit'.

Some random impressions thus far of Germany (well, what I saw on our drive today): lots of fields of corn, very good roads, lots of roadworks (but at least they only make you slow to 60) and there are a billion trucks on the road. I'm sure every second vehicle was a huge truck!

We decided to stop for the night in Kassel which the lonely planet description starts as follows ...
"The term 'architectural crimes' could well have been coined to describe the reconstruction of Kassel, nestled on the Fulda River ..." We found a lovely campsite overlooking the river and set up for the night. Most surprisingly this campsite even had a kitchen ... which contained the hugest dog (a bloodhound) I've seen in a while lying under the table its owners were sitting at! We managed to find a supermarket and took the most inefficient route ever as we meandered up and down the aisles looking at all the different foods. We settled on some 'hackfleisch' (yep, that's really what they call mince!) to make nachos.

Night one of camping ... here we go :)

- Rebecca