The Junket turns German at last

Wednesday we drove without incident from Alessandria to Basel.  Even the 17 km long Gotthard Tunnel passage (one lane only in each direction) didn't cause any problems.  Coming out to the north side of the tunnel, we stopped at a roadside restaurant/gas station and it seemed appropriate to take a couple of pictures of the Swiss version of the wayside stop.  Contrast the following with a typical "On-Route" in Ontario.  The comparison is embarrassing.  The only thing we do right is to not charge for toilets.
Here is some scenery from the same place.




Another lovely visit with Myles and Vanessa ensued, but we needed to get a really early start from their place in order to arrive in Bochum before the Institute closed in mid-afternoon.  So they kindly sent us off early this morning with freshly made zucchini bread for the road.

The nice thing about driving in Germany is that, over long stretches, there is no speed limit.  This actually works quite well, especially if there are 3 lanes.  The right lane contains all the trucks, the centre lane contains the 'normal' people, and the left lane contains the maniacs.  Here is an example of our speed.  Even at this rate, there were vehicles absolutely flying by, we think at least 250 km/hr for some and maybe even higher.


We were also given a treat in the form of two hot air balloons along the route.   We made good time and arrived in Bochum around 1:30 p.m.


We are staying at the Landesprecheninstitut at the University for 2 nights since our apartment isn't ready for us to move in until Saturday.  There is always some little trick that messes us up.  One key opens the external door as well as the door to our room.  To get through the external door, you have to click twice and turn the knob to the right.  However, when you go into the room, you have to click once and turn the knob to the left.  Every possible combination was tried of course, except for the correct one.


We were finally rescued and then went for a little walk, first to find our apartment since we need to get the keys for it tomorrow in preparation for a Sat. move-in.  Success on this front.




We depart today with a picture of the University campus from the 'Uni-Center'.