Hope for the best, plan for the wurst

Our first night sleeping in the van passed uneventfully, although it did feel like the whole van wobbled any time the twins moved around, and they were amusing themselves greatly before sleeping in time. It took me back to when they were younger and some nights all the girls would be a little hyper before bed and I would get a little antsy and try to quieten them down, it worked sometimes but often it didn’t. It did seem to do the trick last night though and we were off to sleep after a tiring day. We did wake quite early today, I think with thoughts of the road ahead for the day.
We started moving around and getting ready, waking the twins up and getting breakfast and coffee/hot chocolate to start the day before getting the van ready for take off. We needed a quick trip to the supermarket before we got going, there were a few items we realised we either had forgotten or not thought of bringing. The supermarket was very possibly the nicest one I have ever been in. If you imagine the kind of supermarket you would see in a tv ad, well stocked shelves, very clean and smiling staff everywhere. We got what we needed with no messing around as we had another long day ahead of us. Jess was doing the first leg today and again she got the short straw with the motorway traffic. German motorways are not a patch on French ones, way too much traffic and roadworks everywhere so it was very stop-start. I just amused myself by telling her that for the duration of our German adventure she would need to address me as mein Herr and also by talking with a German accent. There is nothing that does not amuse me if I talk like this, especially jokes about ze toilet and ze breaking of the wind. Speaking of which, as the German word for exit is ausfahrt, there was no end of opportunity for me to chuckle away to myself.
Time for lunch and we found some services to stop at, not particularly appealing but we all needed a break. Everyone needed the toilet and since I have to empty the one in the van I try and encourage the use of other facilities wherever possible. But it turns out that at the particular services we stopped at, in order to spend a penny, you have to spend a euro! Per person! There was no way I was paying €4 so it was back to the van. Except for one of us (who shall remain anonymous), whose need was greater, meaning that 1€ was a price I was quite willing to pay to not have to deal with it later. All the important stuff is here! Lunch was had and we were back on the road, my turn to drive. Much like when I was a passenger, I just amused myself with the names of many of the towns we passed, there was Bad Herrdei, Aldschlag, Zwinginglöw, Arsfeldt and Bad Homburger to name just a few. The trick is in knowing which is a real place and which exist only in the imagination of the 12 year old inside of me.
Our stop for tonight is in a town called Einbeck, chosen equally as randomly as our stop last night, but much more successfully. Whereas last night was a little beaten up and run down, tonight, while still being a little rugged is in a car park next to a swimming pool. To pay for our pitch and electricity you do so at the pool, and two free tickets to the pool. So we quickly got changed as we didn’t have long before closing, when we got back the woman actually told us it was finito (didn’t know that was a German word) but despite not understanding each other we managed to get her to let us in to what was a very lovely pool, Jess got to do some laps and the twins and I enjoyed the various water relaxation features, right up to the point I felt cold air being blown right up my Bundesliga. Then it was time for the pool to close so it was a quick shower, back to the van to change and then off to the bistro associated with the pool for a spot of dinner, and beer. There are some things the Germans just get right. We did know our veggie options were going to be limited so to minimise our guilt, Jesss and I went halves on a veggie burger and a schnitzel, the twins had no such qualms and went full meat. We did spend a moment giving thanks to the pig who sacrificed so much for us. The food was excellent, the payment process not so much. For some reason Visa and Mastercard don’t work on their payment terminal, only some other card we couldn’t quite understand what, and we did not have enough cash. So Jess and I left what had and then had to hot foot it to an ATM which was 10 minutes away and then get back before they closed to give them the remainder. Lucky the food and beer were so good really. Anyway, travelling is tiring work so we are all back in the van now and ready to sleep, it’s Denmark tomorrow.Read more