September 11

September 11th (sunny and warm)
Both of us woke up in a bit of a sour mood in that this was not exactly the way we wanted to end our tour of Europe. As mentioned, we decided that we were not going to just sit on the beach for the next couple of weeks and sun tan, so basically what was the use of prolonging our trip. We have seen so much and everything now would be a “repeat” basically. I remember my mom telling me that “one day sitting in the sun and just tanning will not be that important any more”. She was right – I do not get such a bang out of burning myself brown.
We disagreed as to the ‘exit plan’ though. Georg’s was to drive until you drop until you get to Utrecht. I really was not sure what my idea of “finished” was, but I never thought that we would drive quite so much today – 780 kms. None of you know Georg as well as me and when he is finished he is like the horse racing back to the barn. I guess most of us are the same, but I felt like I needed to finish stuff – like the rest of the food and supplies, etc. I am a bit obsessive-compulsive that way.
I was in agreement with him in that we really have had a very full and exciting time travelling, but all of a sudden we both felt it was time to return home. Things like Else falling off a ladder and breaking her leg, my father being without my mother and hopefully needing me to talk with, our children and our friends to name a few. We are a very lucky couple in that we have such a wonderful network of family and friends and we hope that they have missed us as much as we have them.
Since it was very late by the time we finished driving, I thought we should free camp where all the truckers stay. During our whole trip, Georg has been adamant about not “free camping” unless it is an emergency. I felt that this was an appropriate time and again, we totally disagreed, but stayed with the truckers tonight anyway. He was so cranky that I was ready for a divorce. Georg gave me the name of a lawyer we can use. I must admit, it was noisier than I expected with the trucks coming and going, but it was alright for one night.