This is a humorous and insightful story, where Manfred, recounts his recent holiday with his wife. The story is told in a conversational style, interspersed with Claire and Sam’s reactions. The central theme is the joy and simplicity of everyday experiences, even on holiday. Manfred recounts mundane details, such as traffic jams and a parking ticket, but his perspective highlights the joy he finds in these simple moments. The story subtly underscores the importance of embracing the unexpected, finding fun in the ordinary, and appreciating the smaller details in life.
Transcript
Sam
Hey Brida Community members, welcome back. Ready for another Brida Swimming Club story?
Claire
Oh yeah, definitely.
Sam
Well, today uh we’ve got one from Manfred, you know.
Claire
Oh man.
Sam
Salt of the earth. Really? You know,
Claire
I love Manfred.
Sam
He shared a little bit about his summer holiday with his wife Kirsten.
Claire
Okay.
Sam
So, get ready. We’re going on a journey.
Claire
I’m ready.
Sam
And I’m going to read this exactly as he wrote it. All right.
My wife and I left Bad Wildungen on August 24th at 1600.55 precisely.
Claire
Wow. Oh, precise.
Sam
We were a minute late, which is better than Die Bahn. My wife caused the delay. I tried to gain the time by crossing the first red traffic light, but it didn’t work. All other traffic lights were against me.
Claire
Sounds about right. Yeah.
Sam
All right. So, they’re on their way. The next 4 hours passed without incident. We loitered on the autobahn singing “fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn” by Kraftwerk.
Claire
Nice.
Sam
We eventually arrived at a campsite not far from Nuremberg. There we met a few other campers and had a pleasant evening together.
Claire
Oh, I love
Sam
The next morning, we continued south trying to get to our destination in Kärnten, but there was a horrible traffic jam all the way. It got on my nerves.
Claire
I hate that.
Sam
Okay, so they finally arrived. The next morning, we set up our temporary home, prepared the caravan, set up the BBQ, very important, made everything comfy and cosy for our 3-week stay. Then, after a lot of extremely hard work, I kicked off my shoes and put my legs on a chair.
Claire
Oh, a BBQ. That’s amazing.
Sam
Manfred understands the essential, very important BBQ.
Claire
Yes. Very important.
Sam
My wife had the crazy idea to drive to Slovenia by car.
Claire
Oh, Slovenia.
Sam
We just arrived in Austria, but she already wanted to leave. To get there, we had to drive through a long tunnel. It was built in the Second World War by forced labourers. I was afraid I would have to stop to repair any damage in the tunnel. But eventually, I saw the light at the end.
Claire
Oh, I love Slovenia. Such a beautiful country.
Sam
We had a look at Blent, which is a nice town on a lake. And we drove to Yubjup Janna, the capital city.
Claire
Ljubljana. Yes.
Sam
It’s actually a nice place. It has kept its charm. They avoided building horrible shops in the city centre, which was good because my wife couldn’t go shopping as much as she wanted. After a pleasant trip, we drove back to our BBQ. We finished the day with delicious steaks and French fries, bought in Germany, so they weren’t really French, but they are still called French fries. Nobody can tell me why.
Claire
That’s so funny.
Sam
Okay. After doing nothing much the next morning, we decided to go on our first cycle tour. We didn’t really go far, only about 15 km to a small town nearby. The motivation was to visit an ice cream parlour. My wife is addicted to ice cream and will travel for miles to eat some.
Claire
That’s my kind of bike ride.
Sam
Like the advertisement for Camel cigarettes. Travel for miles to light up.
Claire
Oh yeah, that’s good.
Sam
But there wasn’t much more to see.
Claire
Okay, so 15 kilometres for ice cream.
Sam
That’s dedication.
Claire
That was worth it.
Sam
A few days later, we were in the same town. The police were very friendly. They gave me a certificate telling me that I wasn’t allowed to park the car there. I was allowed to buy it for €20.
Claire
What?
Sam
It was a fair price, but the ice cream was not included. It’s not very tourist-friendly. Maybe next time.
Claire
Oh, a parking ticket,
Sam
Yeah, maybe they were so focused on that ice cream.
Claire
They missed the signs.
Sam
Sylvie was right.
Claire
Oh, Sylvie.
Sam
Before we left, she asked “me what happens if it rains?” And yes, it did rain. But no problem. We had plenty to do to relax, read, watch TV. kill time. But killing time is difficult because it keeps coming back. But it’s wonderful fun.
Claire
Even rainy days on holiday can be lovely.
Sam
See, Sylvie, always thinking ahead.
Claire
Always.
Sam
Every morning, no matter the weather, I dutifully took my bicycle to the bakery and got the morning rolls. It’s curious. When I’m on holiday, I enjoy doing things I normally hate doing at home. I eat things I normally don’t eat and do things I normally don’t do, like washing the dishes.
Claire
It’s funny how holidays change our perspective on things, isn’t it?
Sam
After two days of relaxing and cycling, we took our car and drove around the Wörthersee. The car was happy. It enjoyed the exercise and loved exploring the new area. The roads were like at home in Germany. And our car enjoyed saying hello to all the other cars. The area is like a tourist high castle.
Claire
Tourist High Castle.
Sam
We also passed the hotel where they filmed the “Schloss am Wörthersee”
Claire
Oh wow.
Sam
We also saw something about the singer and actor Mr. Roy Black who was actually called Gerhard Hollerich.
Claire
Okay.
Sam
Sometimes our car wanted to stop and have a look at the area where it could relax and get away to quiet areas where there are no tourists. I think the car liked that and so did we. You have to understand Germans love their cars and don’t want to stress them too much. Happy car, happy husband.
Claire
Oh, that’s cute.
Sam
We had to compare the DB with the ÖBB. We took a train to Klagenfurt, which means the town of complaints or accusations.
Claire
The town of complaints.
Sam
But we could not complain about the ÖBB. So, we decided to go to the city centre to see if we could complain about anything there.
Claire
Oh no,
Sam
We had such a great time. Then we eventually found something to complain about. We had to stick to the departure times of the trains. They could not wait for us to finish our day. We think that this should change.
Claire
They always find something.
Sam
Much to our surprise, there was a huge party in the town centre with music, a flea market, Fleas are little insects that flee. We don’t know where the Klagenfurt fleas fled from. They were too busy fleeing from people who didn’t want them to flee. I think fleeing fleas lead a difficult life. My wife and I fled Klagenfurt. Nothing to complain about. And in the evening, we enjoyed the company of our BBQ.
Claire
Back to the BBQ. I love that. Klagenfurt sounds fun.
Sam
It does.
We had a good holiday. When we felt like doing nothing, we did that. When we felt like doing something, we did that, too. Good fun was when we did something which was actually nothing.
Claire
So true.
Sam
On the way home, we stopped at a large field and we were the only caravan there. In the middle of the night, we heard a noise. We were expecting the worst. Ghosts, monsters, animals.
Claire
Ooh, spooky.
Sam
The next morning, we saw another caravan close to ours. It was time to plan our next holiday. This holiday was too short because we expected the worst when, in fact, we should have expected the best. Three weeks is not enough for a holiday.
Claire
Three weeks is never enough for a holiday.
Sam
Never enough. So, there you have it. Another tale from our Brida Swimming Club.
Claire
Ah, that was lovely.
Sam
I love listening to Manfred’s stories. They always make me smile.
Claire
Me, too. He’s got such a unique perspective on things.
Sam
He really does. And I think there’s a lot we can learn from his approach to life. You know, finding joy in the simple things, embracing the unexpected, and always remembering to have a little bit of fun.
Claire
Yeah, I think that’s a great takeaway.
Sam
So, Brida Community members, have you got any holiday plans coming up? Or maybe you’ve got a favourite holiday memory you want to share? Head over to the forum and let us know.
Claire
We’d love to hear from you.
Sam
Hope you enjoyed the story. See you soon,
Claire
Claire and Sam.