“So what did you give Angela?” Gran enquired as we negotiated downtown Mettmann, “It certainly brought a smile to her face.”
“Mozart Balls.”
“Come again, young lady?”
“That’s what they’re called, Mozartkugel, they’re like nougat and marzipan in chocolate, Angela goes doo-lally over them.”
“And you don’t?”
“Well they are quite moreish,” I had to admit, “straight at the lights.”
It took us a bit more than fifteen minutes to reach the airport but we had plenty of time still. We got parked and set off for the terminal.
“Dad?”
“Gabs, where are you?”
“At the airport, just waiting for the monorail into the terminal.”
“You could’ve parked closer.”
“Gran just went into the first parking we saw, so what’s up?”
“Nothing new, give me a call when you set off, your mother’s not back yet either.”
“Will do, have to go, the train’s here, tschuss!”
“Tschuss!”
“What did he have to say?” Gran enquired as we stepped into the rail car.
“Just checking we were here.”
It was still only half seven when we reached arrivals so we succumbed to a cup of expensive caffeine in solution, tasted like dishwater to be honest. The flight from Gatwick was on time landing so we headed to the gate to await our traveller. I can’t remember doing this before, I’m usually the traveller.
“There she is,” I told Gran.
“Where?”
“Just behind the chap with the baseball cap.”
And indeed there was Miss de Vreen trailing her case and looking – well dishevelled. I waited until she cleared the customs area then shouted her.
“Mand!”
It took a second yell before she spotted my arm waving amongst the waiting crowd.
“Gabs, am I glad to see you, where’s your dad?” she mentioned pulling me into a hug.
“At home when I last spoke to him.”
“You’ve come to get me?”
“I’m here,” I noted.
“So we catching the train then?”
“No, we’ve got Mum’s car.”
“Jenny’s here?”
“Ut uh, Gran’s driving.”
“Whe…”
“Right here, Amanda, let’s get back to Dernau.”
“Erm thanks for picking me up…”
“It’s Josie,” Gran instructed.
I called Dad once we cleared the airport but when I started to talk to Mand I realised it was a bit one way – well one hundred percent, she was asleep.
With six of us now travelling the Mercedes wasn’t big enough so Dad had arranged to borrow a Vito from the garage, he fetched before breakfast, we’d leave as soon as we were loaded.
“You got everything?” Mum asked for the hundredth time.
“You saw me packing,” I pointed out.
“I know you of old,” she noted.
Last night had been a whirlwind of activity of course, the airport party got back not much before ten thirty, so it was straight into packing mode for New Year. I’m pretty sure Mand dumped everything onto her bed and repacked from there! This morning it was pretty much just loading the minibus.
“That it?” Dad asked surveying the crammed luggage pen, five cases, three loose pairs of heels and my new frock in its plastic cover laid on top.
“If it’s not, tuff,” Mum suggested.
“Okay then, load up everyone, you okay, Mum?”
“Fine, Dave, come on, Jules, you can sit with me.”
With Mum up front with Dad that left me and Mand on the rearmost row of seats, quite luxurious. Mum slid the side door shut and we were off.
Although it’s over four hundred kilometres down to Harburg it’s easily doable in a day but the Duke insisted we should go a day early hence our travelling today. Likewise we’re staying Saturday and travelling home on Sunday – just in time to start school on Monday.
“You alright, Mand?”
“As it gets,” she allowed.
I still didn’t know the whole story and it didn’t look like I was gonna be privy any time soon.
“You’ll like Sophia,” I opined.
“’Kay.”
“Oh come on, Mand, don’t be such a blanket, we’re gonna stay in a real castle,” I enthused.
“Anywhere’s better than Croydon.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“No it’s worse, look I don’t want to talk about it, okay?”
“Okay,” I agreed.
“Anyway, didn’t you guys spend Christmas day at Max’s?”
“No, it was Sunday, we had a right laugh on Christmas day.”
And so I found myself recounting my brief career as a waitress cum chorister, we were pulling into the services at Spessart before I’d completed my tale.
“We had this Cordon Bleu thing in Koln yesterday,” I mentioned as we perused the food in the self service restaurant.
“Sounds expensive.”
“It wasn’t too bad, ten fifty I think,”
“Not expensive,” Mand chortled.
“It was nine for standard Wienerschnitzel.”
“So what was this Cordon Bleu thing then?” she asked picking out a slice of cheesecake.
“It’s like a schnitzel stuffed with ham and stuff.”
“Pig stuffed with more pig?”
“Turkey.”
“Turkey then, sounds very – German.”
“Well it tasted alright, you want Coke®?”
I hope she’s gonna liven up a bit, last thing we want is a wet blanket putting a downer on stuff.
We picked up the E43 after Wurzburg, this is the same way we came when I went to the Munich wedding, we were soon passing the Rothenburg turn. The biggest difference today, apart from the company in the car, is that whilst it’s dry it’s cold. A lot of the northbound traffic had, if not snow, ice hanging off the front – I hope there’s heating in this castle maybe I should’ve brought something warmer than short PJ’s to sleep in.
There was a certain amount of sleeping going on as we travelled further south, Dad still humming to himself as the kilometres passed. I must’ve nodded myself as I jerked awake as the brakes went on.
“Wassup, Dad?”
“Traffic’s stopped, kiddo,” he called back.
“Where are we?”
“Just past Ellwangen services,” not that that helped, “we’re going off at the next junction.”
The traffic shuffled along for a couple of kilometres and was still doing so when the Aalen turn hove into view. We joined the string of traffic using the hard shoulder to reach the turn off and escape from the hold up and were soon heading towards Aalen.
“isn’t there some Roman thing here?” I queried.
“The Limesmuseum,” Dad agreed.
“We are not going to some museum today, Dave Bond,” Mum stated.
“Wasn’t planning to.”
“Hmm,” Mum didn’t sound convinced.
We reached a junction and with Aalen to the right we turned left, the sign suggested we were headed for Bopfingen or Nordlingen.
“There is a lot of Roman stuff around here,” Dad supplied, “the Limes cuts straight through here somewhere.”
“And my bladder needs emptying,” Mum told the bus – really, TMI!
*
“We’ll be stopping shortly.”
Shortly turned out to be best part of fifteen minutes later in a car park just outside of the Nordlingen city walls. Luckily there were toilets, well one of those self cleaning things, you know, drop a euro in the slot and it opens and stuff automatically, anyhow it did the job for Mum. The sun was doing its best to warm things up but it was still quite brisk.
“How far is it now?” Jules asked.
“Half an hour,” Dad guessed.
“So what did we stop for?”
“Your mum wanted a wee.”
“You were going to stop anyway,” she pointed out.
“You got me, I thought we could have a look here before we go on, they’re not expecting us until five or so. You coming, Mum?”
“A walk I can do,” Gran agreed.
In the end Mum and Jules stayed at the van but I cajoled Mand to join the expedition into the town. There was a map by the gateway into the centre, Dad quickly had a plan and we struck out towards the centre where the church and its high steeple dominate everything.
“Nice place, Dave,” Gran observed.
“It’s on the Romantische Straße, all the toffs used to come down from Würzburg, Rothenburg, here then down to Augsburg and the Alps.”
“I’ve been to Augsburg, and Rothenburg, Max’s aunt lives there.”
Mand gave me a look, “Where haven’t you been?”
“Here?”
She rolled her eyes, so I’ve been places, so what?
Maddy Bell 17.03.16
