Ostfriesland

We headed out for our Dutch home base, routed through Leer, a town in Ostfriesland heavily connected to iPastor's genealogical line. We hit heavy traffic immediately, so we rerouted the GPS and started over. After that was smooth sailing. The autobahn is not the speedway some Americans romanticize it to be, but we clipped along nicely. The "suggested" speed is 130 kph, with slowdowns of various extremes in high congestion or construction zones Although we didn't encounter much heavy truck traffic, semis, as well as campers and busses, are required to stay in the left lane. The center lane held close to 120-30 kph, and those who felt the need for speed kept to the right. It was easy driving, and the condition of the road, even in construction zones, was impeccable. I did open up to 160 kph for a while when conditions warranted. It was delightful.
We got to Leer and wandered our way through it and the connecting little towns. The various neighborhoods we've been in have all been similar in many ways. Although we were in Germany, we were spitting distance from the Dutch border, so the houses had that same close proximity, and red brick was prevalent. DD2 spotted a local restaurant to try, and it was amazing. Luckily, we wandered through a couple of cemeteries, requiring us to walk around and move, otherwise we'd have been hard pressed to stay awake. The cemeteries we visited were pleasantly different from many in our neighborhood. Frequently, the area over a grave had been gravelled over and surrounded with edging. Little container or rock gardens were common within the edging. All the plots were well-kept, and watering stations and cans were available for use. Much nicer than some of our flat-marker-no-plants-allowed "memory gardens." iPastor did find some ancestors, so he was pleased. We drove back to 't Goy in the waning light. We're a couple latitude lines north of home, and the light stays much later here. At 10:30 it was still light out, though the sun was long down.