Driving in Germany

This morning we happen upon German Nickelodeon and the Dora the Explorer show. We were all curious to see what it would be like. Would Dora teach German children Spanish? Nein! She teaches them English! Rebecca loves Dora, but we could tell that she knew that something wasn't quite right. She lost interest pretty quickly.

David flies back to Atlanta today for a meeting and to check on the state of our house renovations. The kids and I are to be left to our own devices. This could be interesting.

The kids received their school supply lists, so off we went to a German equivalent of SuperWalmart -- Real. (Walmart failed here in Germany. I'm hoping Target may make a go of it.) Getting to Real is an adventure and after asking once for directions, we make it. One thing we noticed immediately was that there were two floors. You get your shopping cart and enter and see that food is on the first floor and everything else is upstairs. How to get upstairs, though, with a shopping cart? In the middle of the store is a slanting moving sidewalk and the wheels of your cart lock into place on the conveyor belt. Very smart, otherwise it would be difficult to hold your heavy cart in place.

We manage to find most of what the kids need, but I am struck by the lack of selection in this large store. Instead of 5 types of glue sticks, there are 2. Instead of 12 different boxes of crayons, there are 3. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but I'm wondering how this might play out in the future with other things we need.

Our most important purchase of the day? Stickers for our glass doors. Someone still manages to walk into one of the doors every day and that someone is usually little Rebecca. Her poor head can only take so much.

Getting home is a big revelation for me. Here, highways have number names, just like in the U.S., except the highways aren't given directional names, such as 66 North or 5 West. It's just "the 66" and "the 5." So, for example, you come up to the entrance ramp of a highway, and one sign will say "66 Frankfurt" and the other "66 Wiesbaden." That is, if you're lucky. I'm clear that Frankfurt is to the east and Wiesbaden is to the west. But some of the signs instead have one arrow for "66 Bad Soden" and another for "66 Steinbach" (I'm not familiar with either place) or better yet, there are places where "Liederbach" is indicated on the sign for the ramp going to the left and the ramp going to the right. Which way to go? I'm realizing that I have to learn the names of the cities around here pretty quick or I am never going to get where I need to go.

So, back to our ride home from Real. Which way is home? I keep taking what seems like wrong turns and every time I take a ramp to try to get off the highway and turn around, I am put onto another highway.

Thanks to the view of the tall telecommunications tower in Frankfurt, I can tell that no matter which way I turn, I am heading toward the tower, and thus, in the wrong direction. After more than 6 wrong turns and becoming completely disoriented, I finally take a ramp that allows me to pull onto a side street, shut off the engine and take a long, deep breath. Having the kids in the car with me is the only thing keeping me from bursting into frustrated tears. I take our apparently useless map and approach some people on the street for help. Hooray! I have happened upon very patient people who just happened to be heading toward the highway we needed, though they will eventually get on it in the opposite direction. It takes several twists and turns while following my new best friends till we come to the entrance ramp for the 66. One of my saviors actually leans his upper body out the car window to indicate which lane I should be in and with a very grateful wave, we're on our way home.

I am, though, admittedly spooked about driving around now. On the map, it looked like getting to Real and back should have been a piece of cake. This is all to be more complicated than I thought.