Road Trip Germany - Part Two - Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday meant three things this year, in order of importance: Nathalie's sixteenth birthday, a 300 mile drive from Lubeck to Leipzig and J S Bach's Matthew Passion.

It was drizzling with rain as I began the journey through the suburbs of Lubeck at just after 8 a.m local time. Knowing that Nathalie had celebrated her birthday with a sleepover meant that I knew I had at least two hours of driving before making a telephone call home to wish her happy birthday. Incidentally I learned from German television during my stay that they sing Happy Birthday in English to 'our tune,' how bizarre is that?

Once I was on the A24 heading east towards Berlin I was able to enjoy German roads at their finest. No roadworks, no accidents and no change of gear or braking for almost 100 miles and, if the car had some sort of sensor built into the bumpers which meant it would avoid other road users, I could have climbed into the back for a sleep. Isn't cruise control a great invention?

Anyway Easter Sunday was going to be the day I finally listened to the three CD of J S Bach's Matthew Passion (the 1742 last performing version for you JSB fans out there) as performed by the Dunedin Consort. The three CD's last a total of two hours and forty minutes and having purchased the recording the week in came out, just before Easter 2008, I hadn't had the chance to listen to it in one sitting. This journey meant I was a captive audience, the sun was shining, the roads were relatively free of traffic and on the passenger seat beside me was a packet of American wine gums, how much better does it get?

I stopped at a German motorway service station, Linumer Bruch if anybody wants to know, to make the call home. When Janis answered almost the first thing she said was "Where are you?"

"I feel like I've been waiting all my life to say this," I replied, "but the sign about twenty feet away from me says 'Berlin' - I'm about forty miles or so from Berlin."