I was up early this morning and drove the car to the glass repair shop, then sat patiently for two plus hours waiting to get our new window installed. It felt triumphant. Kaleb slept in and Kory had some time to relax and drink more than one cup of coffee before we had to hit the road again. Heidelberg was just a planned stopover point because I knew it was too far to drive from Prague to Brussels in one day, so we are now near Brussels and totally on schedule. We even had a few hours to walk about downtown Heidelberg (see photo) and splash in a fountain before we left town, so all-in-all, we haven’t missed a beat. This whole break-in thing is just part of the adventure of traveling. We even got new passport photos today, without even looking for a place – it was right across from where we stopped for lunch. God provides.
The drive this afternoon from Heidelberg to Brussels was VERY hot and frequent traffic jams made it hotter. Because the new window can’t be rolled down for 24 hours, we had no air circulation (and no air conditioning) so we were all toasted by the time we reached our hotel. Coincidentally, or not, it was the first hotel we’ve stayed at with a pool. How sweet it was! We couldn’t wait to jump in and cool off as it must have been ninety degrees today, but tomorrow the rain returns. At least we now have a window. Our drive today took us to our southern most point on this trip - down to the border of France and Germany and then we drove right across the tiny country of Luxemburg which was a first for all of us. It was so hot and we were so anxious to jump into the pool at the hotel, we opted out of taking an exit and seeing a little bit of Luxemburg up close and personal. We just enjoyed the view from the freeway. Luxemburg doesn’t plant trees right up next to the freeway like they do in Germany so we could see far into the horizon and we enjoyed looking at all the rolling farmland, cows and horses and occasional villages and chalets.
I was thinking today about the differences between the neighboring countries of Germany and Czech Republic - which are pretty drastic. It’s somewhat like America and Mexico. Hardly anyone in Czech Republic speaks English, and if they do, it’s very limited. We stopped at a gas station yesterday to fill the tank. There was a big sign on the front window that said “Internet” so I thought maybe I could post the blog there. I couldn’t see any computers inside the store so I asked the guy if he spoke English and he didn’t. I said, “Internet?” and he answered, “Diesel,” so I pretty much knew I’d get nowhere with him. That was typical of our interactions with most everyone we encountered in Czech Republic. In Germany everyone speaks a little English and most speak it fluently. Yesterday, however, when I was trying to call the Car Glass place, I encountered “voice jail” in German. I had the biggest fears about making phone calls in Norway because of those automated answering systems, but finally after a year, I was able to understand them enough to punch the right button, but German was a whole different ballgame. I understood nothing and just hit 1 the first time and when someone answered I said, “Do you speak English?” and they hung up on me. I called again and pressed 2 and asked them if they spoke English and I got hung up on again. Finally I called back a third time, pressed 3 and said in German, “Do you speak English?” I don’t know why I know a few phrases in German, but I do, and that’s one of them. Finally the person answered and said, “A little” (but that always means “a lot.”) I despise calling anyplace and getting trapped in the voice jail system – but when it’s in another language, it’s just downright comical. And I love the voice jail system at the American Embassies I’ve called. The travel book I have says to report stolen passports immediately, and the book even has an after hours emergency number to call for such a thing. When I called it, I got a recording that said I should call back between 8:30 and 5:30, Monday to Friday. When I called back on Monday morning at 8:30, I got a recording that said I could find out all the information I need to know about how to report a stolen passport on their website, and I never got an option to talk to a real person. Their website then says to call the emergency number to report the passport stolen. It’s a good system to make sane people crazy. (I still haven’t reported our passports stolen to anyone in the US government – just to the Czech police – because I’ve yet to figure out how to do it.)
Also in Czech Republic, out in the countryside it has a feel somewhat like Mexico, in that the houses are all drab and the yards aren’t well maintained (but our campsite was VERY nice and meticulously clean). I think someone should start selling paint in Czech. All the houses are made of stucco and are either dull grey or boring beige. And many of the buildings and walls in the villages are made of brick with a stucco overcoat and half the overcoat has chipped off so everything looks like it’s been bombed at one point. But then there are beautiful farms and wonderful landscapes and castles and monasteries everywhere. The castle we visited on Sunday was so impressive because it has been there in one form or another since 1170. In the chapel alone was an altar built in 1492 and the library had over 35,000 books dating from 900 to 1900 AD. - most of them hand written because they were made before the printing press was invented. So the history in Czech Republic has been well preserved. It seems the field to get into now would be restoration, as everywhere we looked in the cities and countryside, scaffolding surrounded some steeple or building somewhere and people were working on cleaning or repairing the antiquities. I’m sure Czech Republic has come a long way in the last twenty years, but they still have a long way to go, as evidenced by their neighbor Germany where every city is beautiful, manicured, clean and pristine, and there are no speed limits on their freeways. (Maybe that’s why they are so advanced – because they can go so fast!)
July 20, 2009
A Window on the World
No comments:
Post a Comment