We’ve managed to fumble our way through the first week and a half without any major incidents.  Germany is a beautiful country and for having as many people as they do the amount of farm land you see is rather surprising.  There are always lots of people out walking and riding bikes.  With the trees changing color driving from town to town is very enjoyable.

Speaking of driving, we broke down and rented a car.  I wouldn’t really call it a car, it’s more of a small bus, but with six people in the family it was the only car they had to fit us all.  She had originally told me it would be stick shift so I was pleasantly surprised it was an automatic.  It hangs about halfway over the sidewalk when it’s parked at our little temp house driveway.  I’ve managed to maneuver it through some pretty small streets, surprisingly without taking any mirrors off.  Though, I almost didn’t make it out of a parking garage today.  Because it’s so tall it won’t fit in most parking garages here.  We attempted to go to a little town called Esslingen today and being a German holiday I didn’t expect it to be busy.  I just wanted to walk around the town square and let the kids play at the park.  Well, after driving around for 30 mins looking for parking for the haus that is our rental car, we finally found a parking garage that had a height that the van would fit in.  The directions said to veer to the left for taller vehicles and smaller one’s to the right.  Well, we get past the booth to get the ticket and go to veer left and its gated off.  I’m not stuck between both lanes going into the parking garage and trying turn the van around to go up the exit ramp.  The kids were were commenting in the back, “Mom!  The car’s stuck!  What are we going to do!.”  Of course their’s a median in the middle of the ramp so I’m now wedged between the median, wall and taking up almost both ramps.  I just about have it turned around enough to get up the exit ramp and the wheel was stuck on the median.  The driver side of the van was hovering maybe two inches from a concrete pole and the front and rear sensors of the car are beeping at me telling me I’m too close to things.  I knew I had to get the tire over the corner of the median, I really didn’t have much of a choice.  I looked at Jon and told him,  I have to go up over the curve, it’ll either get us out of here or crash us into the wall in front of us.  I tapped the gas and by the grace of God we were on our way out.  Lesson of the day, if the destination is fairly close and has public transportation, take the train and leave the car.

I think I’ll be able to manage my Sienna just fine when it gets here.