Osnabruck, die erste Tag: Osnabruck, el primer dia: Osnabruck, the first day

So after about 2 or 3 hours of driving, a pit stop for some German fast-food at a rest stop (the soup was AMAZING!), and possible multiple traffic violations ("what was that flash?!") we made it safely to Osnabruck, where my friend, Malte, goes to school.

Bob and Tom are clearly ecstatic to be here!

We parked in this small, free parking lot near the edge of this "city" ("Stadt" in German), and walked to find the hostel, where we were happy to know that we could park right outside of it for free instead of walking two blocks. We almost had a run-in over the boys' lack of Hostelling International cards, but the guy just brushed it off and didn't give us a hard time. We headed up to the 2nd floor of this hostel/retreat center, to find our 4-person bedroom, equipped with our own bathroom and shower! Sweet!

Our bedroom...pretty swanky, eh?!

Afterwards, we started our journey into Osnabruck so that I could check for an email from Mike at an internet cafe and we could explore. There was a plethora of churches, a huge shopping street, and...as we were taught in German class, a Fussgangerzone (pedestrian zone), which actually went all the way through the center of the city along the shops and restaurants...we need a city like this in the US.

This would be the Fussgangerzone sign...precious, no?

We wandered until we reached the side of the city opposite the hostel, then came upon this castle gone...something-cool-looking! We'll have to ask tomorrow.

Then we headed back toward the city center. Bob was craving icecream, which should tell you how strange the situation was, even weirder, was that on a Friday night around 9 PM there were lots of open bars and restaurants with no one in them! One street that we walked down had about 15 people on it...DEAD silent...soooo Creepy! We did get some gelato for Bob though (yeah, Tom and I wanted some too, as usual!)...dessert first!

We ended up on the opposite side of a church we had seen while walking out of the city...that had a nice little courtyard where a group was gathered with someone who seemed to be in the military...probably a Brit, as I recall Malte saying there was a base nearby.

This is a view from said plaza.

That stepping facade along the roofline seems to be pretty typically German as far as I can tell from driving around today. The stepping pattern or just high gabled roofs in general are EVERYWHERE. As in Spain, the buildings are brightly colored, and I really love the vibe it gives off...it makes the street feel alive and homey.

We grabbed a pizza zu "mitnehmen" ("to go"-the only phrase about eating NOT in my phrase book), stopped at a grocery store to get a few things for tomorrow, and headed back to eat at the hostel and shower.

The pillows here are HUGE and fluffy--I need to get one of these for home!

This will be our first night with 8+ hours of sleep in quite some time...hooray for vacation!

Goodnight Germany!

We get to see Malte tomorrow!

Vamos a Alemania!: Let's go to Germany!

So we hopped on the metro early this morning and got to the bus station by arc de triomf just on time to catch one of the frequent buses to Girona Airport for our RyanAir flight to Dusseldorf/Weeze.
THIS was my view...when I was awake, at least...

Most of the time, I followed Tom's lead, though...a nap never hurt anyone!

OMG--That would be Germany!

Bob is geared up to use the tour book for our big trip through western Germany.

We got to the Weeze airport, and were completely baffled. It is the smallest, most deserted airport I have ever seen. After the baggage claim, I only saw 3 people who weren't working there. How weird! It was cool though, because it meant we didn't have to stand on a long line to get our rental car. That's correct...I said rental car and I am referring to a little French car named Clio, which became our new best friend and partner in crime today!

Bob and Tom are loading up the car.

I spent about 20 minutes making sure I knew how the car worked, from windshield wipers to lights to radio. Once we had it figured out, we took on the roads of the country of Germany...yes, that includes the Autobahn. I don't want to burst anyone's dream-bubbles, but it wasn't all that I expected and more...the Autobahn is simply a system of roads, not one straight, 20-years-into- the-future-superhighway, like I had previously thought. Tom played navigator and every 10 minutes I said "Guys...we're in GERMANY...and I'm DRIVING!" haha. Needless to say, today was the beginning of a great adventure!