(no subject)

From a Railway Carriage
R.L. Stevenson

Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle,
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.

Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And there is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart run away in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone for ever!


This is pretty much what I experienced today - not on a train, but on the A7. I love motorways.

YES! Just zooming along a long, broad, empty road, the boring landscape of the North German Lowland racing past on both sides. And not only landscape, too - the occasional idiot driving even faster than I do (which is already unhealthily fast sometimes) shooting past on the left-hand side, slower cars and drivers being left behind on the right - wonderful.
In the morning, even the landscape can be interesting. Those bloodless grey villages are hidden in the mists filling the valleys, woods which look as though they are bound to be infested with fairies and sprites appearing and disappearing in the grey mass - it would have great to see that as a child.

I only wish I wouldn't have had to drive from Hannover to Hamburg. I wish it had been the other way round. The 166,2 km - problem has not been solved yet.