Odysseus Times Two (aka On the Road To a Birthday Dinner)
The day started normal. Albeit a bit early (my internal clock woke me at 6 a.m., I couldn't go back to sleep afterwards). Shopped for groceries, got reacquainted with "Without a Trace" (finally found a source for season 4, though only seven episodes so far) ,
We set out in good spirits, thinking that in less than an hour we'd be tucking into yummy food. Birthday party hosted by
thestralis and
kangaroohills, the latter having completed another decade.... Nope. I had - foolish me, yeah - only printed out the map provided by the restaurant which clearly showed "take the Solingen exit off the A46, then follow the 229". Right. Morons. We got on the A3, then the A46....and then spent ONE HOUR shuffling our way along two kilometers in the Traffic Jam From Hell because somebody believed it a great idea to get roadworks going and closing two lanes out of three. We got off at the Solingen exit and then were quite confused because there was no 229 in either direction (we tried both) from the first intersection we got to. A map at a gas station revealed the error: should have taken the Solingen exit off the A3 (think I caught a glimpse of that in passing and kind of wondered "229? Here? Nah...too early....")
What followed was a merry odyssee through Solingen and Wuppertal ("This is the road of last weekend, isn't it?"-"Yeah. There's the house. There's where we parked." -"Right."), a setting sun, growling stomachs, tired eyes, two calls to
thestralis...and AT LONG LAST...food!
In a nutshell: it was fabulous. The buffet was astounding and I could have gone on eating forever. Everything was delicious...and the company as regaling as ever. Too bad we arrived so late (at 19.30 after having left home at 17.00!) and only could stay for three hours before our respective eyes told us that we better leave; I'd put in contacts and didn't have my glasses on me, still I did the driving after application of eyedrops....)
Got back okay. In 40 minutes. Kinda awake now, head-wise, and trying to talk myself out of writing the restaurant a nasty email...
We set out in good spirits, thinking that in less than an hour we'd be tucking into yummy food. Birthday party hosted by
thestralis and
kangaroohills, the latter having completed another decade.... Nope. I had - foolish me, yeah - only printed out the map provided by the restaurant which clearly showed "take the Solingen exit off the A46, then follow the 229". Right. Morons. We got on the A3, then the A46....and then spent ONE HOUR shuffling our way along two kilometers in the Traffic Jam From Hell because somebody believed it a great idea to get roadworks going and closing two lanes out of three. We got off at the Solingen exit and then were quite confused because there was no 229 in either direction (we tried both) from the first intersection we got to. A map at a gas station revealed the error: should have taken the Solingen exit off the A3 (think I caught a glimpse of that in passing and kind of wondered "229? Here? Nah...too early....")
What followed was a merry odyssee through Solingen and Wuppertal ("This is the road of last weekend, isn't it?"-"Yeah. There's the house. There's where we parked." -"Right."), a setting sun, growling stomachs, tired eyes, two calls to
thestralis...and AT LONG LAST...food!
In a nutshell: it was fabulous. The buffet was astounding and I could have gone on eating forever. Everything was delicious...and the company as regaling as ever. Too bad we arrived so late (at 19.30 after having left home at 17.00!) and only could stay for three hours before our respective eyes told us that we better leave; I'd put in contacts and didn't have my glasses on me, still I did the driving after application of eyedrops....)
Got back okay. In 40 minutes. Kinda awake now, head-wise, and trying to talk myself out of writing the restaurant a nasty email...