I walk into the rental car office and the two people behind the counter are chatting away in German. The young man looks up at me and says English or German? I answered “English” and smiled. And then as if someone flipped a switch, a barrage of English came out of his mouth. My first gut reaction was awe. I’m still amazed that people can speak multiple languages because it’s something I can’t do. I’m fascinated by it; I hold it on a pedestal of curiosity, much like pregnancy and childbirth.
He took me outside to show me the rental car and look it over. Much to my surprise and shock, he got in the car with me and sat in the passenger seat. He then proceeded to go through every gadget with me even showing me the navigation system and ensuring it was all setup in English. I’ve never had anyone sit with me and show me how to use the car or all the buttons…normally they just give you the key and say, “come back if something is wrong” and I’m left looking at the dashboard wondering what all the stuff is and how to turn on my lights. As he flashed me a smile and I pulled off the lot, I thought to myself, this is my first dose of the famed automotive German precision and quality.
I normally love taking back roads, but I was in Germany, so you can bet I was going to hop on the Autobahn.
The first step was getting used to my rental car. I haven’t owned a car for 13 years, so every time I get in a new car I’m amazed at the new technology, today’s cars seem to practically drive themselves! It tells me the speed limit on my dash and gives me traffic updates (in German), beeps at me as someone passes me, and magically runs it’s own windshield wipers and lights. Not only did the car take getting used to, but so did the autobahn. I started out pretty cautious as cars blew past me like a blur and eventually got my speed up to par.
After two weeks driving around central Germany, I was a pro – and you can be too. Rent a car, don’t be afraid to be a speed demon, and enjoy these sites on a German Road Trip!
I’ve been around German products my whole life thanks to my German heritage. But I didn’t really know the history behind them or what part of Germany they were from. When I decided to go on a Germany road trip, I wanted to educate myself about all of these well known (and some lesser known) […]
The table is filled with drinks: pints of beer, German diesel (beer and coke), and glasses of wine. There’s music in the background; it sounds familiar to me as it echoes throughout the empty bar. My brain suddenly places it – Edelweiss from Sound of Music – a grin creeps across my face as I […]
I drove into the little hamlet of Holzhausen Germany, nestled in the rolling hills and blanketed in morning fog; it seemed like a German fairy tale. Everything and every person were rather precise, reserved, serious, and orderly in the little German town, just as one would expect. However on the outskirts of Holzhausen there lived […]
Time flies. Time travel. Time to go. What time is it? Have you ever thought about the origin of time? When did we start to care about time and why? When was the sun no longer good enough to tell time? “You can explain how time is measured when you understand how a cuckoo clock […]
What better place to start a Germany road trip than the automotive capital of Germany? Every 4 people who live in Stuttgart are in automotive industry. Not only do you have a Mercedes Automobile Museum, Porsche museum and track, and Mercedes plant that is the size of a small city, but you also have plenty […]
No, Germany didn’t sneak into Whoville and actually steel Christmas, but if the Grinch had wandered into Annaberg Germany to steal Christmas his bag of contraband would have most certainly been weighted down with German Stollen Cake. I’m not sure that he would have made it back to his perch on the mountaintop. Butter Stollen […]
You put them on your tree every year, but have you ever wondered – why? Why do we hang glass balls on a tree – it’s really kind of strange if you think about it. Yet we do it all around the world, year after year, after year. I’m often fascinated with how things became […]
They appeared to glide around the small space as if they had been dancing together for years. Each knowing the other persons next move; it was beautiful fluid movement however it wasn’t accompanied by the typical German waltzing music. There was no music at all; the only noise was clanking pans, ovens slamming shut, and […]
