Day 4--Part 1 Autobahn & Schwerin

Friday morning we rode the U-Bahn over to Alexanderplatz to pick up our rental car.

At our first rest stop (to eat ice cream!)

The built in navi only spoke German, so I'm sure glad Aubrey was there to translate! We drove out of Berlin and onto the autobahn. Oh so fun! There are some parts with a speed limit, usually 120 kilometers per hour (about 75 miles per hour), others are unlimited. There are only two lanes each way on these divided highways, but the traffic was light, there were no semi trucks, and people know how to drive fast. So, my speed on the unlimited sections was about 150 kph (93 mph) to 160 kph (99 mph), but a couple of times I went faster. The fastest I went was 190 kph (118mph), but only because the car wouldn't go any faster.

I know I look a little maniacal, but I really was driving safely. It was just so much fun :)

Our first stop on this little road trip was a town called Schwerin. We went to the Freilichtmuseum (Open Air Museum) which includes several buildings from the 17th-20th centuries that recreate the look of a typical village. It sits on the south shore of Lake Schwerin, which makes for lovely views. The weather was perfect when we visited, which made for a happy mom and kids.

Carson the blacksmith

Aubrey found a pizza cutter (apparently the charcoal in the background is used to fire up the  blacksmith's fire each Wednesday--too bad we were there on a Friday)

Me by a very old fishing boat

The oven, far from other buildings

After the museum, we drove into town. We had a little trouble navigating (due to a wrong turn, one-way roads, and construction), but eventually got to where we needed to park. We set off to find some lunch and bathrooms and actually ended up at a small mall. They had free bathrooms and food, so we stayed there. Then we walked over to the Schloss (castle) on a little island. We only walked around the outside, but it was just lovely, and the weather continued to be on our side.

Aubrey, me, Maren in front of the Schloss

Maren, Carson, Aubrey in the garden at the back of the Schloss 

As lovely as this town was, we had to be on our way and move on to Lubeck, so we bid farewell and, without a wrong turn, headed for our next destination.