The first stop on my way to Pristina was Geverik: the small village 15 kilometres North of Maastricht where my parents lived. It gave me a good feeling to see them, my brother and his wife and the landscape of my youth before leaving The Netherlands behind. In the early afternoon of Sunday I reached the German highway. Now I could finally test my new car! And its radio. While listening to Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Balkan Beats, Goran Bregovic and much more others (thank you Harald and Horst) I floated with 160 km per hour to Plzen in the Czech Republic (fffwwwooeeezzzsss). This was definitely not the shortest way, but I really wanted to have a Pilsener Urquell! At 23:00 I was sitting behind my beer in a bar with 4 other tourists from Germany. The Czechs were all home. No Pentecost for the Czechs. They had to work on Monday.
The next day I drove the Southern Bavaria. My goal was Neuschwannstein - the kitsch castle of Ludwig II. That night I slept in Gast Hof Steen in Unterammergau. It was as if I was time warped into one of those German Schlagershows that my father loves to watch on Saturday evenings. Any minute Heino could step into the room. Katja Ebstein brought me the Sauerkraut with Wurst. Unfortunately the Kastelruther Spatzen were too drunk to play. Especially the tuba player. He had to go home early (see picture).
The day after I drove through Austria. I passed numerous mountains, valleys, villages, tunnels and gas stations. It was a great ride although the weather was really bad. Just before evening fell, the sun came through the clouds. And I entered Slovenia.
