Roadtrip

We drove to Frankfurt, Darmstadt actually, which translates literally to "Digestive tract city" - hm.

We had tickets to J's favorite a capella band, the Wise Guys. They're from Cologne so bummer we had to drive so far to see them; this is their end-of-career tour and Cologne sold out right away.

It's my second time seeing them and again I was uncomfortable to be in a place packed with people, 100% white people. I don't remember that ever happening back home. However when I went to the bathroom, the attendant was black. I asked him where he's from and he said Ethiopia. He told me his name is Haile (hi-la) and that it means the trinity. We talked for a good while, about church and yummy Ethiopian food, he explained that most concerts are diverse, but this one not at all. Since it was so hot up there, I was happy to stay downstairs chatting with him. Also, the kid standing next to me kept reading WhatsApp, about every 5 minutes he checked it.

The Wise Guys appeal to kids as well as teenagers and even people as old as I am - they use humor sort of like Weird Al. For example they have a song whose lyrics are my exact recipe for American chocolate chip cookies. They sing about the pains of dating, how Cologne has better beer than Duesseldorf, and how great it is to be a short man because you don't have to clean on top of the cupboards (in Germany the cupboards don't go to the ceiling, so they do get pretty gross).

Near the end of the concert the band made a statement against a political party. I couldn't believe it - how rude! They went on to say that at the last concert, a lady complained about them doing this and they said they're happy to no longer have her as a fan. It's not that I'm an AFD supporter, I just don't think it's appropriate to bring it up at this type of event. They're not U2, afterall: )

Our budget hotel (50E) was clean as always but as usual, no air conditioner. It wasn't even that hot outside but our room was a furnace. I found a vent system and turned it on but it just made noise and did not help. If we opened the window, the noises of downtown were too much for us, so we spend a miserable night.

J slept most of the way home and I actually had fun driving, which never happens. Driving on Sundays is the best because there are no semis on the road (or very few), so you can go a lot faster.

Driving along I notice things you never see in Germany. No hay trucks, cuz hay is all grown locally. No boats, cuz where would you float it? Rarely I do see a boat on the Autobahn and I get all excited, it reminds me of home. And I've never seen anyone have a flat tire. With the rules about the conditions of cars, and with the glassy smooth roads, they just don't happen. Except that it did happen to J once, I wasn't there, I'll have to trust him. Another difference is that people use their hazard lights to signal "traffic is slowing down - don't crash into me please" and it really works. However I rarely do this because I try to drive far ahead so I never have to slam on my brakes.

In 6 hours of driving we only saw 3 other Priuses, that's how rare they are, and one of them was our model and color, what a creepy feeling, "If that's my car, what am I driving?"

There was this one car from the Netherlands that did not respect the keep right except to pass rule - it's usually foreigners who don't. It's incredibly rude here to bogart the middle lane (at least they knew not to do it in the fast lane).  With no semis on the right, there is no excuse to just stay in the middle only barely faster than the right.

My MPG for Sunday was 55MPG (see how I converted that for you?), not bad for driving not-slow. I drove mostly a relaxed 130 or 140KPH, but sometimes 160 or more (100MPH). I'm always thrilled when I can drive 130 or more in the slow lane. When you come to Germany you think, "Yay, I can go as fast as I want" but the highways are not long straight lines like in America, so you are constantly adjusting, turning, passing, turning, you cannot just cruise, not everywhere at least. And there are speed limit zones.

Driving in Germany is the very best - it's the very opposite of Seattle. People here drive smart but you will get in trouble if you make a mistake. So don't screw up!

I got a little video of J driving Saturday, as we come into a speed zone. He does hang in the middle lane longer than he should, but there was no one behind him.