Seiffen in a . . .

For one heart dropping moment I was overcome with sadness when the car rental agent pulled out keys for an Opal. She looked at my ID and said wait that's wrong and pulled out another set of keys. Then my feet did a little happy dance on the other side of the counter and my eyes started to tear up from joy.

I found my little car, yikes it's not an automatic as requested. But I'm still giddy. It's been 10 years since I've driven a manual and longer since I've driven one in the snow. Thank goodness it's like riding a bike and after a practice lap in the parking garage I was off. Here, I need to give props to my sister Christy who was the driver during our London adventure. She did a great job. I on the other hand had a couple close calls and I was on the RIGHT side of the road.

While I don't think I was on an official stretch of the autobahn I was on the freeway reaching 145 km an hour (approx 90 mph). I'm still checking it off my mission possible list. Give me a break it was snowing.

For you soccer fans I followed this bus for a while. They probably thought they had a stalker.

I also need to give a shout out to my sister Melissa for recommending the town, Seiffen. She will recognize this picture.

Everything combined made for a fairy tale vacation day. Driving a BMW (he he) through villages, over scenic hills, through fields stitched together with trees, winding in groves and forests, stunned by copper steepled churches, and stony buildings covered in snow, everything covered in snow. I tried to take a few pictures but there is only so much you can do as the driver and passenger.

I arrived in Seiffen that is so cute and bursting with shopping possibilities. It is the kind of town that is over run at Christmas with everyone trying to nab an authentic nutcracker or pyramid (pyramids are the wood towers with varying levels and carved wood animals or crèche scenes and when the candles are lit the heat causes the little figures to whirl, you know what I'm talking about). I had the stores and the frozen museum all to myself.

Aren't those the most perfect snow flakes stuck to the side of MY car. Oh and I want this to be my next car!

So today was definitely a splurge day: BMW, hotel next door to Frauenkirche, room service, and a large souvenir purchase. But it was the kind of day I needed to wrap up this first month of travel and begin the next one. And tomorrow I'm meeting a friend in Prague!

The view from my window in Dresden. The bells rang for a good 15 minutes tonight after the announcement of the new pope. The church is Protestant now, but was originally built as a Catholic Church.