Belgium to Germany

Our only task on this day was to get to Hamburg so we could catch our train to Sweden the following day. We estimated it would be about a six hour drive but I think I've made it clear enough that me and the GPS didn't always agree on where we were supposed to be going, and with intersections like this to navigate through, do you blame me?

There had been about three times on our Bruges trip that I made a wrong turn, and I did so again about three times on this morning too. The fourth time it happened I was 99% sure I was following the correct road coming out of an intersection but our beloved GPS told me I went the wrong way so considering the number of times I had been wrong (6/6), I followed the advice it gave me and turned back. This ended up being a seriously bad move and added 150kms and lots of gaaaah to our trip. Reviewing our route at the end of the day we couldn't believe nobody had noticed we were headed in such a different direction but at the time we were tired and just wanted to arrive so we faithfully followed the suggested route without zooming out to see the bigger picture. Something tells me there's a lesson to be learned here.

On the way we passed briefly through a corner of the Netherlands so hopped outside to say hi..

Adam waving hello to the Netherlands

Dutch soil!

..and I had great fun making the most of the Autobahn's excellent roads and lack of speed limits.

That's 170 folks, and there were people cruising past me at even more ridiculous speeds.

At one point we were on a bathroom break and it was freezing. One look down at the ground explained why:

hail!

The weather had been iffy all day but we hadn't passed through any hail storms. I've never seen ground cold enough for hail to stick around before so that was pretty exciting for me. Small things, I know.

Eventually we arrived to Hamburg and after having to go around the block three times because of missing the entrance to our hotel (don't ask me why. Tiredness? Random intersections?) we tumbled in and found our rooms. The hotel was really lovely and super cheap too at 140€ for six people - Hisham has discovered a gift for finding excellent deals on lastminute.com.

Delicious food right next door to our hotel

Hisham has an aunt, uncle and cousins living in Hamburg who were gracious enough to host us when we visited last year so after eating we loaded up the car and headed out to visit them for second dinner. It was very nice to see them again and spend some time catching up in the evening, but soon enough it was time to head back to the hotel to prepare for yet another travel day. To Sweden!