I guess as Plan Bs go it's not too bad of a Plan B.
As you may recall two months from today Loraine and I will be in the middle of our trip to Germany. And as you may recall, that trip to Germany is fraught with uncertainty over train strikes, airport strikes, and municipal transit strikes. Because of that uncertainty we took a leap and decided not to travel to our destinations by train, as originally planned.
Guess who gets to drive a rental car instead?
8-)
We had originally decided to forego a rental car for trains for a number of reasons, including cost and environmental impact. However, with the uncertainty surrounding whether or not we'd get where we wanted we figured we might was well bite the bullet and get a car. It was either that or face the (unlikely, but still possible) fact that we might spend all 10 days at the Frankfurt Airport.
And I don't think anyone would consider that a “vacation”.
So now I have to get ready to drive in a foreign country, which means digging out and updating the GPS I haven't used in (gulp) six years since the last time I drove in Europe. I need to get an International Driving Permit, and I have to find the sheet of road signs I printed out the last time I drove in Germany (six years ago!) so I can remember not to do something stupid like, you know, ending up in jail because I drove the wrong way down a one-way street.
Excuse me...an Einbahnstraße.
But in the end that's nothing compared to the uncertainty with which we were faced. Now that we have a car, we don't need to worry that much about train strikes or municipal transit strikes. Airport strikes... well, that's another thing. So keep your fingers crossed for us, if you would, and who knows—maybe we'll actually get to see sites like this two months from today--
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