We were supposed to go to France today - it's sunny and warming up again and a friend loaned us his car for the 2 weeks he'll be away on summer holiday. So we packed up our backpacks with cameras and extra batteries and cigarettes and whatnot. We had to hike over to the Opel dealership where the car was parked. We arrived at 1pm to find they had already closed for the day at 12 noon. The place was dark and deserted and locked up. This is the sad/crazy part of a country that keeps severely limited work hours. In the US, at least a few of the mechanics would still have been hanging around talking and smoking and poking at their own cars and we could have thrown ourselves on their mercy and kindness and talked the into letting us have the car. But the place was empty and we had to hike all the way back home.

Monday we'll get the car and take a nice drive into France. Finally.

Meanwhile Asti arrived home safely late last night. I also spoke to Andrew and was relieved his surgery went well.