From Heilbronn (Germany) to Aires (Portugal)

Here is our plan for tomorrow. We’ll start when I get off work at around 16:00.

Route Path:

• Pforzheim, Germany.
• Bordeaux, France.
• Aires, Portugal.

Distance: 2300km

Time: 23h (driving time).

So here we are after another week full of ups and downs, we are leaving for some quality time with our friends and family before we come back to (finally!) a normal life. A (rented) house in Stuttgart, a job, kindergarten, language school, etc…

And here is our adventure (realtime pictures here):

• Time spent: 26h00
• Distance covered: 2300km
• Gas money: 143,70€
• Toll money: 56,60€
• Extras: 33,15€

RoadBook (GMT+1):

2008.12.19
15:00 – Time to go! All packed and ready. We have fuel for 400km… Let’s roll…
15:20 – The girls have to pee…

16:00 – A5 heading to Strasburg, packed 2-lane highway.

17:00 – A36 entering France! A bit rainy before leaving Germany but it is dry here. Got a 3G connection from OrangeF.

20:00 – Trying to stay below the speed limit we drove 3 hours in the rain with some short periods of dense fog. The little one fell asleep for one hour and we’re feeling good. We are now eating in a highway rest area. Everyone speaks French! .

21:00 – Got off A6 and we have now around 200km in national roads (70 and 90km/h limit). Caffeine levels are ok. The little one is watching a movie and ready to sleep. Joy is driving, I am writing .

23:00 – Finally back on the highway, we roll on the A71 after spending 2 hours behind trucks. My turn to drive now.

2008.12.20
03:00 – Ah… Big strech and two times out of the highway as told by the navigation sexy voice. Stopped for caffeine and gas… We are still in the A89 but we’ll soon be passing Bordeaux and then heading south into Spain.

09:00 – It was a looooong ride through the whole night. I am done. We stopped for food, in Spain, 300km before Madrid. The sun shines and the weather is now clear, much safer than the fog we got during the night.

11:00 – Got an hour and a half of semi-sleep and we are now getting closer to Madrid. And we can read 188km to the Portuguese border. It is all covered in fog we can’t see sh*t… My turn to drive.

14:30 – Stop for quick lunch in Fundao. It is hot and sunny. Next stop in Setubal.

17:30 – What a hell! This is not Christmas, it’s Summer, 18°C!? Drove the last 3 hours in the desperate mood of finally getting my ass off this car! Enough is enough and we made it safelly I’ll be home hugging my parents pretty soon… I wonder how am I getting all the way back to Heilbronn… But we’ll worry about that in 2 weeks time.

Going Home for Christmas – 2008

We-re going home for a couple of weeks of vacations (please be real vacations this time!!).

We’ll be driving… it will be an interesting adventure and we’ll be posting updates to the blog every hour!!

I will post some detailed information tomorrow. Now I have to go to bed, I have been fighting the flu since Sunday.

Company Christmas Event

 

Bernried (Deggendorf) - Christmas Event

Being part of this company for such a short period has already taught me a lot about the way things can be we the people are good.

Good as people and good as in “we’re in this together so let’s make it happen for all of us”. I confess it has been unreal all this experience with this company, and from one end to the other, from the best to the worst I have seen enough to make my decision to stay “forever”. 

I had previously mentioned they emanate a good vibe I had not felt for a long (professional) time. This is like having a group of friends you can depend on. Until now it has been the best and I cannot regret this new relationship, and not all has been good, as some of my closest friends and family already know… far from that…

But as another proof that this is another reality I had the greatest experience with the Company’s Christmas Event. We drove 350 km (+400 km back) to be with our new friends and it was just great. I am not referring to the 4-star hotel with the superb food, the pool or the sauna. I mean the feeling was great and it felt like… a dream. All friends, from different countries and speaking different languages but joined together to… in fact to have fun and to enjoy this cultural exchange.

Those who know me best can confirm that I love to work, If motivated or being given a good challenge I can work long hours day after day, and when I feel this about the people that hire me I feel like giving back all they deserve and make them happy with their choice to trust me and my capabilities.

Not that I owe them anything because this has been a great effort for me also, but in the end it is because of this balance that I keep going everyday and trust when everybody tells me: “… be patient, it will come to you, you just have to be patient”, it must be a sign, when people of all ranks tell me this…

Lately I have relied on these “signs” as if I was not the most non-religious persons I know. I am super-rational! I don’t believe in any kind of gods or super-powers but I trust that I have a path to follow and I take what life offers me. I usually say: “I take what life offers me, but I tend to force my destiny.” and it brought me here… and it’s been quite a ride!

I am (quite) happy, I am (almost) rich, I (don’t) have (yet) a great job, and I am (moderately) healthy!

Therefore, I can’t complaint too much…

 

Bernried (Deggendorf) - A child in the snow

Geburtstag

00:00 – My wife and daughter sing me Happy Birthday! I love them, they make me happy.

07:45 – I wake up late, skip shaving. Take a quick shower and think: “This will be over very soon.”

08:15 – I sit in my car, had no breakfast, no caffeine and can’t manage to configure the iPhone bluetooth, damn, time to go!. At least the garage remote is now working (I disassembled/fixed it last night). On my way to work, no traffic jam, everything is covered in snow, just perfect and white! I dream the whole way, make it in less than one hour.

09:15 – No parking, I parked on the visitors parking space (I hope the car is still here when I leave later tonight).

10:00 – Jeez, when will this be over. I think my face shows what I feel. I feel like… this isn’t going to work. When will this be over?

12:45 – Time for lunch after an “Excel”lent morning of work. I wonder what’s good to eat. I could eat a small farm animal. Had fish and boiled potatoes. I ate a Magnum, I deserved it, and It is now the high point of the day.

13:15 – Back to work, I wonder when this will be over. This is not the way I should be spending my (birth)days.

14:00 – Jeez, what am I supposed to do? Maybe I will leave at 16p.m.

16:00 – Still here, I will leave at 17p.m.

17:00 – I am leaving… in a moment, something important came up.

18:00 – Time to go. The car is still here, I feel relief. I sit in the car and try to configure the iPhone and can’t make it work (while driving)… Better leave it alone. No 60-euro-refuel-damn-oil-prices-day. It is not snowing today. No traffic jams. I’m thinking there’s no way I will keep this for much longer, I plan my weekend and make a quick assessment on the past events, it was a week full of decisions and finally I can see some good in the future ahead (not sure where or when though…). It will be a nice evening with my girls and I feel excited about tomorrow’s event.

19:30 – I made it home. The remote still works like a charm (I must be some kind of engineer).

20:00 – Ordered chinese. Heard from my dearest friend and shared my best with my girls. Glühwein for a good night sleep.

22:00 – Packing for tomorrow. We’ll drive 3 hours till the mountains for the Christmas event, I should be a blast. I am really excited for my daughter, she will love the snow! And the Spa… let’s see…

23:00 Time’s up. I made it, I am now 33!

PS: I thank my family for being there for me even at a distance. I thank my friends that never forget, they are better than I am.