I hadn't planned to make a post today, but there is just too much to talk about to leave it all until tomorrow. Lots of diverse subjects, so I'll do this topic by topic.
The Car
Our Internet access is far better in a tiny, historic town in Holland than in a much larger city in Germany, so now I can get the pictures off Suzanne's phone! Here's the car:
The color is officially "rich Java metallic." It's really a stunning piece of technology. We are amazed and impressed with the adaptive cruise control. Basically, you can get on the Autobahn, say "Go 80mph" by setting the control, and it takes care of the rest. When someone's in front, it slows down as necessary, even slamming on the brakes if someone cuts in quickly. Then when the coast is clear again it accelerates back to 80. All you have to do is steer! It's easy to see how close self-driving cars are to the market.
Note the red license plate: It readily identifies us as foreigners. The EU natives get white (or yellow). We hope that won't be a problem.
Random Thoughts on Deutschland
Germany seems much like the United States to me. It's definitely not Oregon, but I have trouble deciding if it's more like Texas (fast, obnoxious drivers), New York (more brash than warm), or California (technology rules). Our time there was brief and we know that there are wonderful sites, but in terms of "personality" we found little that would compel a longer visit. One more comment: They really should change their polizei sirens. They are still using the same one's that the Nazis used and it really reminds me of a frightening Holocaust movie!
That said, the Autobahn is an amazing and wonderful technological phenomenon. It is the epitome of transportation efficiency. People drive 80, 100, 120mph, or more in the left lane, but the rules are very clear. When traffic slows down and slower traffic needs the left lane, they don't weave around cars trying to get past. They wait patiently until traffic allows the slower cars to move over. On the other hand, no one lurks in the left lane when faster traffic comes up behind. It actually works very well.
A Truly Amazing Music Store
We chose tonight's destination (on the way to France) because Suzanne had read about Adams Music (http://www.adams-music.com/) and wanted to make a pilgrimage. We had high expectations, but nothing prepared us for what we found! First, the town. It is located in Ittervoort, a tiny town of fewer than 2000 residents located in far southern Netherlands, almost within walking distance of both Germany and Belgium. Just outside of this tiny burg is the largest music store we have ever seen. Think Powell's Books, but entirely devoted to wind and percussion instruments. Almost no sheet music, no strings at all, no pianos---just hundreds of flutes, hundreds of trumpets, hundreds of saxophones, clarinets, snare drums, tympani, marimbas, and everything else that you can make music by blowing into or beating on. You want Sousaphones? They've got Sousaphones:
Marimbas? Three different huge displays of them:
How about a whole room full of trombone bells?
A wall of gongs?
Each kind of wind and percussion instrument is represented by a selection larger than the total floor space of Portland's largest music store! They organize a European Flute Festival each spring that brings flutists from around the world to this tiny town, perhaps even Suzanne one of these years! We managed to escape with only a flute case cover and a portable music stand (for Suzanne to use during our time in Bratislava), but just spending an hour wandering about the store was an unforgettable experience.
Thorn
There seemed to be no lodgings whatsoever in Ittervoort, so we booked a room in nearby Thorn, which turned out to be the epitome of the old, European small town. Narrow cobblestone streets (and not many of them) wind through the town, which is centered around the Thorn Abbey, a gigantic structure originally founded as a Benedictine nunnery in 902. It would easily now hold the entire town population 10 or 20 times over. The lovely sculpture below (in Thorn) totally fit the musical theme of the day (though the people at Adams Music do have clothes on)!
There are several hotels and restaurants on the main "street" through town, but in wandering a bit we found a promising one a block back off the street that clearly identified several vegetarian items on the (Dutch) menu. We were rewarded with a dining experience that would fit right in among Portland's best. The Eetcafé de Kuueninklike Hoeskamer van Thoear (the Eat Café at the Royal Living of Thorn, http://www.eetcafethorn.nl/home/) served us two wonderful vegetarian pasta dishes, an excellent salad (below, with fried camembert on top), and a caramel sundae with both caramel sauce and chunks of caramel, and at a price that you'd never match in Portland. Wow! Combined with highly potable house wines from South Africa, it was a memorable meal, the best of the trip so far.
Tomorrow
After sleeping in four different beds, plus an airplane seat, over the last five days, we are looking forward to settling in a bit at our next stops. Tomorrow we take the four-hour drive down to Epernay, in the heart of the Champagne region. I'm sure I'll have much more to write about in the next few days!
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