impressions from 130 km/h

One Ford Mondeo station wagon, two small children, three suitcases, four rounds the "Aydan's Favorite Tunes" CD, and five European nations stretched from the North Sea to the Mediterranean... Yes indeed, we are on vacation -- our first real European family vacation. There have been moments of horror, glory, frustration, contentment, confusion, and clarity. What more could you ask for?

I don't pretend that I've seen enough of Europe to offer any truly profound or meaningful observations... But I can offer trite and adolescent anecdotes of the last two days' journey -- and that's faster and easier for everyone to digest anyway, right? So here are my casual observations of the five countries through which we've journied -- call them momentary impressions from 130 kilometers per hour:

The Netherlands - flat, green, lots of cows and sheep... road signs that I can actually read and understand... a strange sense of familiarity and belonging (I guess it really is getting to be home, huh?)...

Germany - I couldn't help but laugh when I read the road signs proclaiming, "Schnelle fahrt, gefarliche fahrt;" my combination of English and Dutch allows me to guess the true meaning ("Driving fast is driving dangerously"), but on an instinctive level I couldn't avoid mentally translating it as "A fast fart is a dangerous fart" (real mature, I know)... I had been interested to see what the famous Autobahn was going to be like -- but honestly, it's just a highway system (kind of a let-down)... My top speed in the ol' rental car: 160 km/h (about 100 mph)...

France - We stayed the night in a beautiful hotel in Strasbourg, with a very friendly hotel staff and a delicious breakfast in the morning -- I was very pleasantly surprised... One thing about the French, though, is their insistence on maintaining cultural purity -- did you know they use a different computer keyboard in France than in other parts of the world (it took me a half-hour to try eke out a two paragraph e-mail)? It also turns out that I don't really speak French anymore (too bad)...

Switzerland - An absolutely beautiful country; the mountains were more spectacular than I ever imagined... If I weren't American, I think I might like to be Swiss -- breathtaking scenery, nice cities, everyone is extremely cultured and multi-lingual (I was blown away by their command of English, especially considering that it was likely a third or fourth or fifth language for everyone)... Still, though, I think it's silly that they insist on minting their own money -- can't the whole neutrality thing be adjusted a little bit, for everyone's benefit? At any rate, I'm already looking forward to driving back through Switzerland at the end of the vacation...

Italy - expensive roadways and congested traffic (I'm just going on first impressions, here)... just in the short distance from Gerard St. Bernard to Torino, we had to pay about thirty euros in tolls and we stood in traffic jams for about an hour and a half... It's muggy here, too... But we've got lots of exploring left to do...

Ah, the joys of being an uninformed tourist... It's unlikely that Fodor's or Frommer's are going to be calling me anytime soon, to start writing travel books for them -- but what do they know anyway?