Day of Dichotomies

The sun rose bright and high in the sky early this morning, promising something entirely other than what it turned out to be. I captured these tulips as my coffee was cooking and then gathered a few other garden flowers to arrange on the dining table. But within a couple hours, grey clouds converged and the rain commenced. And continued. Throughout my extended drive north to the Baltic Sea.

I am back blipping this, as it was well after midnight when we arrived in this sleepy beach town of Hohwacht. I left home at 5pm with my daughters to pick up three more teens at the Hauptbahnhof. The girls were delayed, so it was nearly 6 before we left the station and after 7 before we cleared the local Ruhrgebiet Friday rush hour traffic. Despite the rain, it was fairly smooth sailing from there for two hours. Then full stop.

A combination of construction and multiple accidents kept us sitting on the Autobahn for more than hour with less than 5k of progress! It was midnight before we even reached Hamburg, and by then I was exhausted and very stressed from the poor visibility and heavy traffic. So a pause for coffee, diesel, fresh air, and to wake the 5 dozing girls so they could keep me better company. For the last leg of the journey it was loud music and off-key singing until we pulled up to my in-law's vacation home.

Now I'll hit the beach for a run while we still have a bit of sun here. More rain is forecast soon. I'll post a pic of the sea later, maybe :)