Driving the convertible

Today started in the most evil way known to a holiday: A 4 am start.

Breakfast boxes

The alarm clock rang. We (barely) managed to drag ourselves out of bed and fall into the elevator, pick up the breakfast box and stumble into a taxi with Zombie-Like vigour.

Somehow we made it through airport security, having consumed all liquids in our box before hitting the scanners. The lady at the scanner made some joke about my hair gel being a liquid, but then put it back into my bag. Too early lady. Too Early.

We fought through the crowd to get to the gate. Manja asked me for her laptop and…. I’d left it at security. THAT woke me right up, and I ran back through the airport. I arrived there to be greeted by that same security lady with a big grin saying “What a shame, I thought I’d get a new iPad and Laptop today…” but after proving that I could unlock the iPad she handed them over.

I raced back just in time to board – hey at least the plane was leaving on-time (and at all!) today.

We got to Köln without any issues, and the car hire had a nice surprise for us: We’d be getting a Fiat 500c, just like in Italy. He even joked to Manja that he’d give us a convertible. Manja seemed confused, so I said “Don’t worry, he’s joking you can’t get such a small car as a convertible….” at which point he looked at me and said “No, really, I’m upgrading you guys. It isn’t a joke”. Turns out I know nothing about cars and the Fiat 500c does come in a convertible – though this particular one also came in toy-car green.

Our little convertible… Cat not included

None the less it was awesome. A Perfect compromise between motorbike and car: I get the feeling of sticking my head out of the window, but we can close it for a relatively quiet drive on the Autobahn. To ensure safety we stopped at a scenic little town with a nice cafe to change the blood to caffeine balance in my body for the better. While there, however, I got the message that mum and dad had a motorbike accident and that Mum had been air-lifted to hospital. Damn! I chatted to Dad for a bit, and besides a tear in her spleen she’d be fine: Just needs rest for a while. Lucky!

After that shock we went to the lookout and then headed over to Doris to catch up for lunch at a traditional German restaurant – which was delicious and plentiful. After being fed we made full use of the weather – Doris gave us a short driving tour of the beautiful wine areas around her place with the roof down and the wind in our hair. Some ice-cream later it was already time to say farewell and drive on to Manjas Aunt where we’d spend the night.

We arrived just in time for a tour of the house and some awesome guitar playing – I even got to play with a (really!) expensive guitar for a bit. It does make a difference!

Kreuznach_Expensive_guitar

Then we headed off for a nice walk to dinner, through the nice old town and along the river. We had some great funny conversations with Manjas cousin (who’s a teenager) where I (possibly on purpose) mis-understood what she was trying to tell me in English… She did claim English was easy 😉