Day 55 - The Drive of Imminent Death

All of our German belongings piled on the sidewalk outside the guesthouse

Todd and Therese taking one last walk up our street


Good-bye Germany home!

We woke up very early on Saturday in order to finish packing, eat, and move the furniture back to its original position before Herr Knezevic came over to check us out. The morning began with Herr Knezevic's brother who sometimes occupied the room next to our's delivering an entire box of chocolate and orange cookies to Therese as a going away present. It was very sweet. We then crammed all of our suitcases, bags, and stroller into the hallway so Herr Knezevic could see that the room was in perfect shape and give us our deposit back. He was so sad. He kept giving Therese and her bunnies hugs and telling her that she is his schatz (treasure). Then the gifts started coming... First he gave Therese a gigantic bar of white chocolate. She insisted on carrying it around for the next hour. After our keys were handed in and the luggage was being moved to the street, he gave Therese a huge pack of Hanutas- the chocolate and wafer treat he gave her nearly every day. He made Todd promise to send him pictures before going to his apartment for one last present - a little toy delivery truck. It was so cute. We took it out of the box and tried to show Therese how to drive it on the sidewalk. She's such a girl. She didn't know what to do with it. The taxi came and the driver packed our bags into the trunk while Herr Knezevic showed-off all of Reese's German tricks to him, calling her "Wunderkid."

Loaded down with wonderful gifts, we left for the train station one last time. I felt incredibly sad as I looked out on the lake, realizing that this exciting chapter in our lives was coming to an end. I may never again live such a simple life - living in one room with few belongings, no yard to manage, no house to clean, no job to go to, meeting Todd for lunch every day. It was such a great break.

Todd took Therese to say good-bye to the ducks and to dance to the accordian being played below the train station while I sat with our luggage on the platform. I was sitting among our bags when I was startled by someone walking right up beside me. It was Jesse. He had come to Radolfzell on his way to Konstanz just in time to say good-bye to us. It was great to see him and to get to say good-bye in person. He helped us get all of our bags and Therese onto the train before going to get his favorite yufka.

The train rides were rather uneventful as was our plane ride. Therese refused to sleep on the plane even though it was her naptime - she was just too excited to be flying in the air. With about 20 minutes to go, she started screaming. Between her cries she managed to say, "Reese's ears hurt. Reese's ears hurt." Todd taught her to blow her nose while he held it shut and after a few tries her ears popped and she was alright. After all of this excitement and crying, Therese fell asleep as the plane touched the ground.

From the moment the plane door opened, we realized just how much colder Ireland was going to be. It was wet and about 50 degrees. We got our luggage and wandered over to the Avis desk to get our rental car. The lady at the desk spoke so quickly and with such a thick Irish accent for people who hadn't heard much English in a few months that she had to repeat herself a few times. We were given keys to a beautiful car (a Nissan Qashqai) and a car seat from a guy in the garage and were let loose on the streets of Dublin to figure out how to drive on the left side of the road, shifting gears using the left hand. We were sure to have ample opportunity to adjust as we were driving across the country in this first venture (2 hours and 45 minutes according to Google maps).

In order to prepare for our big drive across the country, we searched for directions on Google maps before leaving Germany. The directions seemed easy enough. I could even find most of the roads on our big map from AAA. I should have known we were in trouble when Yahoo maps won't even attempt to give directions in Ireland... We set off around Dublin and did well despite the traffic. Todd had to adjust often in order to not hug the right side of the road, but he adapted rather quickly. After about an hour we were getting a bit restless and REALLY hungry so we decided that we'd take the next exit that had a sign indicating food. Simple enough. We tried 3 different exits before we finally found the food the signs talked about. We ate at a little inn, sharing sandwiches and fries and FREE WATER. This was very exciting.

Thank goodness we stopped for nourishment because if we had to endure the rest of the night on an empty stomache I don't know if we would have survived. With about an hour to go on our directions, we turned onto a state route that seemed harmless enough at first. The road was a little tight with stone walls on each side, but we managed ok. Then we drove further into the country. There were few houses and no lines in the middle of the road. As it grew dark, the road narrowed and the lights of houses became fewer and farther between. In preparing for our trip, Todd read many reviews of Ireland on Trip Advisor and other sites. People always talked about the ridiculously narrow roads and how you need a small car to get by. We thought they were exaggerating. They weren't. A few kilometers into this route it was picth black and the road had widdled away to the size of a narrow one lane one-way road in the States. Only it wasn't a one-way road. And it was lined on each side with high hedges and sometimes stone walls. In all seriousness, the road was a tight squeeze for our mini SUV. I was suddenly grateful for the darkness because we could see the headlights of any car approaching in the twists and turns ahead. Between the bushes and the darkness I felt like we were in some horror flick. It was terrible. The worst part was that we didn't know if we were on the right road and there were no signs for kilometers to tell us where we were. We did pass by other cars two or three times. One car would have to reverse until it found a gap in the hedges or a break in the stone wall where it could snuggle in while the other car crept past it trying not graze it. At some point I declared that there was no possible way this was the right road because there was no was this could be a real route. We needed to figure out where we were so we could get back on track. Of course we were on the right road; this was the way Google maps sent us. We spent the remainder of our time in Ireland immensely suspicious of anything Google maps had to say.

Somehow we did manage to make it to our bed and breakfast, Headley Court in Bunratty. It only took us 4 hours (Google maps was SO wrong). The B&B was beautiful and the owner had been kind enough to wait up and greet us when we drove in at 11:00pm. Therese was fast asleep in her carseat. She stayed asleep as I carried her into our new "Ireland home" and placed her in her pack-n-play. If we were worried about how she'd sleep in this new place, we no longer were. She never stirred or opened an eye. We all slept sweetly, safe and sound in our new room.