Location

When I heard my parents were coming over to Germany to visit me I thought it would be a nice idea to hire a car and see some of the countryside. The idea was good enough but I got a bit carried away with what were could see in five days. We didn't get to all the countries on my whirlwind schedule but with the exception of Switzerland we did remarkably well.

Dad did an excellent job on the autobahns with cars flying past him at 190km/h. Apart from the occasional washing of the windscreen to signal a lane change it was a hiccup free drive. Mum was also very good at interpreting the job and deciphering which exit we needed to take. I did my best to translate the road signs, ''Ausfahrt'' provided a few seconds of amusement.

Cities visited on our trip include Dessau, Bamberg, Nuernberg, Munich, Fuessen, Ulm, Stuttgart, Luxembourg City, Ypres and Aachen. The good thing was we saw a lot of great places, the downside was that once we''d discovered a good place it was time to get in the car and find something new. Most of the places we went to you could easily spend a few days soaking in the architecture, countryside and sampling the local food and beer.

I've got one more month here in Berlin which I think I will dedicate at least half of to the films being shown at the Berlinale Internationale Filmfestspiele.