Bremerhaven-bound to pick up my Jeep, and then to Prague

The next morning, I woke up at about 6:30, showered, dressed, packed all my crap, and headed to the train station. My train wasn't until 8, but, me being me, I had to set my alarm early since I tend to sleep through those pesky buzzing sounds. It was now time for four and a half hours of fun. There is no direct train between Amsterdam and Bremerhaven and really no indirect train between the two either. Instead, I had to change trains 3 or 4 times, each time paranoid that I was either going to miss the right station or get on the wrong train. I managed though and arrived in Bremerhaven at about 12:30, in plenty of time, or so I thought, to pick up my Jeep and clear German Customs by 2 (the unions which run Germany's public sector have apparently decreed 6-hour workdays for customs workers).

Trying to plan for the unforeseen rail strike or my more-likely oversleeping, I had told my sales-rep in Kosovo that I planned to pick my Jeep up on Thursday, but that it was possible I might not make it until Friday. I reiterated this several times. Still, that was somehow interpreted as I would definitely not be in until Friday. So when I showed up on Thursday to pick up my Jeep, none of the customs documents were ready and could not be made ready until Friday morning. And it is no use trying to cajole German administrative staff into hurrying up the paperwork process. They are efficient within their own rules and carry out their tasks promptly according to their own timetables. They have no concept of American-style customer service. So it was off to a hotel, which the admin staff was gracious enough to arrange, although not enough to offer to pay for.

I had not planned on staying in Bremerhaven and had no idea what attractions or historical sites existed to keep me amused for the day and night so I hopped on the internet to find out. After scouring several travel websites I found out there was nothing. Bremerhaven is a busy seaport with lots of warehouses and holding yards for shipments and doesn't have much else. I took a nap and then set off to find something interesting, but only found industrial storefronts and fishing boats. I did find a decent Italian restaurant close to my hotel and had a pizza and several beers.

After sleeping in, I was back at the port the next day to pick up my Jeep. All the paperwork now in order, I eased through Customs and was on the road, headed to the Autobahn. Driving through a construction zone, I promptly missed the sign for the entrance ramp and drove into a residential area. Searching for a good place to turn around, I ended up in a school zone and got stuck waiting for a rather large group of kids to cross the street in front of me. Finally turned around, I made my driving debut on the unregulated speeds of the Autobahn, which were limited to about 45 MPH because of heavy traffic. Part of me was okay with that because I needed to take it easy on the new engine for the first few hundred miles but I never expected traffic to be that bad all the way across Germany! It would be like driving from Houston to Dallas on I-45 with Houston area rush hour traffic the whole way.

I had originally planned on spending Thursday night in Magdeburg and then having a short drive to Prague for Friday night. Because of the hangup in Bremerhaven I had to nix Magdeburg and head straight to Prague. Google Maps told me it was about a 6-hour drive. Google Maps is a liar. It took me closer to 11. Google always seems to over-estimate drive times in the States and has the exact opposite problem in Europe. Now I know it didn't help that I missed a few turns, but they weren't nearly significant enough to add 5 hours to the trip. Still, I made it to Prague safely, found my hostel, and then found an incredibly expensive parking garage to house my new Jeep for the next two nights.