4 Nov '09: And after weeks of planning, emails and anticipation it has finally happened, the BMW Travellers got together at Delifrance at Schiphol Airport to start their Aussies in Europe adventure.
Karen and Evonne arrived an hour earlier then scheduled so they had quite a wait whilst Frans and Maxine arrived from Copenhagen on time.
After the usual hello's and kisses we proceeded to the Sixt rental desk to collect our BMW.....only...it turned out that another car was reserved for us after I had rang yesterday about Winter Tyres and us wanting to travel through Germany which was one country that was strangely not mentioned on the rental policy as a country that was covered by the car's insurance.
So we were a little dissapointed about that until we found out that the BMW had been replaced by a Mercedes Benz! Well, that wasn't too bad considering the amount of luggage that had to be carried along.
After completing the desk formalities we pushed our luggage trollies to the Car park and where Evonka had a few near misses and not so near misses ruling her pretty much out as a co-driver. We had to wait a little while in the parking garage because our Merc had to be retrieved from some far away and dark place but when we eventually got it you just couldn't wipe the smile of our faces. It turned out that the Mercedes Benz was a very late model SUV with all the bells, whistles and gadgets and lots of room for all our luggage.
Frans had to take a few moments to study this highly sophisticated piece of machinery with more electronic gadgedery then the space shuttle. Even the gear stick was reduced to a small pokey thing attached to the steering wheel and it would have been just too embaressing to start driving in reverse whilst we really wanted to go forward and that right in front off the rental people.
Schiphol was quickly left behind and we drove East towards Terwolde, there were the usual traffic jams but all in all it wasn't too bad. We stopped briefly on the way at a service station to pick up some bare essentials.... licorice, kroketten, sausage roll and of course a carton of milk, some loo paper and coffee....we are on our way!!!
*sigh*
ReplyDeleteYou just had to mention the kroketten, didn't you?
Would you like me to send some over? Vacuum packed should work? ...considering what they look like though, would they pass Homeland security?
ReplyDeleteA Mercedes Benz... wow! My dad is always joking: 'Mijn laatste wens, is een Mercedes Benz!' In the meantime he is driving an Audi. Not to bad I think. I think the Mercedes suits you, Frans!
ReplyDeleteAnd then the kroketten... I cannot wait... We will spend this Christmas in Holland and I hope that we can have kroketten instead of Turkey... The ones you can buy in the Dutch shop are ok, but not as good as the real Van Dobben.