Autumn on the Autobahn

Our journey began in the historic fishing city of Hull, England. As the fishermen did once upon a time, they got on a ship, we did too. However, our ship wasn't heading for the schools of fish in the North Sea, it was merely passing by. The stocky waves kept us awake, alongside the disturbing creaking and clanking, and teenagers running down the corridor, they're all equally terrifying.

We were heading for Prague, the peaceful Capital City of the Czech Republic, a mere 1000 km away from our starting point. The Czech Republic is landlocked, so arriving via boat would have been a little bit tricky. Fortunately, we had remembered to bring our car.

Breakfast was minimalist because our attention was diverted to the beautiful sunrise, as we headed into the Port of Zeebrugge, Belgium. We waddled past the hundreds of coach drivers on the steps down to the vehicle deck. The bitter air hit us as we stepped out into the car park, we were relieved to turn on the heating upon getting in the car. After exiting, we had our passports checked, then we were off! 

Our destination of the day was a little town outside of Frankfurt, Germany, where we would stay overnight before continuing to Prague the next day. The real stress hit us as we left the port, as we suddenly remembered that we were on the wrong side of the road - why does the UK have to be different?! We recovered as we pulled onto a motorway, on the correct side of the road this time. The Belgian landscape was flat and covered in repetitive farmland, as for the weather... foggy.

Eventually, our minimalist breakfast caught up with us as we fell hungry. We pulled over into a remote town, and found a small supermarket. The language barrier made us stand out like a sore thumb in this tiny town, it was probably unusual to see a family of English people there. I had studied German at school so I thought I was prepared, forgetting that the Belgians speak Flemish and French... We managed to throw bits of different languages into the conversation, to understand each other. The shopkeeper was super friendly and even allowed us to use their staff toilet, which took about 5 minutes to translate. After waving goodbye to our new foreign friends, we carried on towards the German border. 

Belgium is small. We had completed the breadth of it before lunchtime, but we said farewell to the tiny country, as we sped off down the autobahn. It was quick, 80 mph and you were in the slow lane. No wonder the German's are so progressive, they don't spend time sat around in traffic every day! We fell in love with the trees as we passed through the forests of Southwest Germany, the splashes of various shades of green and autumn orange made for a pleasant drive. A teacher once told me that no one was going to pay me to look out of a window... I know I wasn't being paid... but the view was stunning anyway! (Maybe I should have become a pilot?)

We arrived in the quiet town of Rödermark. By quiet, I mean it took us 15 minutes to find someone to ask where there was a good restaurant. My broken German and their broken English made for an interesting discussion until we resorted to drawing directions on a piece of paper. Despite the directions, we still got lost. After walking around the lonely streets, we stumbled across a tiny restaurant with good food, we were sold. 

The restaurant had an earthy feel to it, there were twigs and branches used to decorate the tables and the wine was served in a beer mug. We ate Stroganoff to our heart's content and even made conversation with a couple sat on the table next to us who could speak English. After dinner, we headed to the hotel, (not without getting lost) which was in the middle of a forest (sounds like something out of a horror movie...) It was also deadly quiet, we couldn't spot any guests, and the only member of staff was a lonely receptionist. However, the room was nice, the bed was comfy and the TV worked, we couldn't ask for anything more.

We awoke the next morning feeling fresh and ready to get to Prague. The first challenge was to find our way back to the autobahn from Rödermark. Despite only spending the night in Rödermark, we had fallen in love with it's quirkiness, its unusual yet colourful architecture and empty streets. But it was time to go and leave this place behind as we eventually found the familiar autobahn. The route took us next to the massive Frankfurt International Airport, which turned the autobahn into a tunnel. But we had a motorway to ride, not a plane to catch, so we journeyed on.

We all agreed that the timing of our trip was perfect, the way the trees were changing colour, each with a unique shade of green, yellow or orange. The autobahn took us through national forests and open valleys at a speed that I'm sure you'd lose your licence for in the UK... We took a quick break at a service station to fill up the car and grab some breakfast, the queue was full of hefty lorry drivers and families with squirming children, I couldn't help but wonder where their destination might be.

A few hours later we began to see signs of the border of the Czech Republic, they instructed us to have our passports ready for inspection. As we passed over the border, we felt a bit foolish as we drove through the abandoned border control. The Soviet past of the Czech Republic meant that at one point in history, it was a very hard country to enter. Nowadays, it is like any European Union country; lovable and open to tourists (until Czexit occurs, then who knows...)

It wasn't long before we made it to Prague, the bustling city, with its flocks of crowds and dozens of trams, made it difficult to manoeuvre. Our 'trusty' Google Maps took us to a dead-end and told us we'd have to walk the remaining mile to our hotel... We decided to ask some locals instead, apart from laughing at us for parking in the middle of a pedestrianized road, they didn't have a clue. Prague has an extensive one-way system, which meant that even though we were only a mile from the hotel, the route we eventually found took us half an hour. Once we pulled up outside the hotel, it was official, we had made it to Prague!