There was little to no phone reception so I was thankful for my over-preparedness which had led me to bring a detailed set of directions from each of our stopping points. This got us safely out of Offenberg and onto the autobahn, at which point we regained signal and were able to use Google Maps as usual.
Traffic today was heavier than we'd experienced on previous days, with lorries making up a good proportion. Frequent short bursts of roadworks also slowed us down, but as we had plenty of time it didn't worry us unduly.
Instead of eating on the motorway I again decided it'd be a good idea to pull off and find something in a town. Darmstadt fitted the bill nicely - it was somewhere we reached around 1pm and on our short drive around the town centre we spotted the sign for an Aldi, and pulled in. The car park and attached shopping centre had a confusing layout which led us to poke our heads into an electronics shop and then detour via three floors of a C&A before we actually found the Aldi.
The store was laid out in pretty much the same way as the ones back in the UK, but the bakery corner had an interesting contraption, with photos of around 8-10 different types of bread on the front. You pressed a button and one of whichever bun corresponded to it dropped into a tray in front of you, which you then bagged. We picked up a couple of crusty rolls each - partly because they looked good and partly because it was fun to press the buttons!
On the way out of Darmstadt we decided to fill up with petrol before hitting the autobahn again. I'd already started filling the car before I realised I had no idea how to say "eleven" in German, and wished I'd chosen a lower numbered pump. (In my defence I never learned German at school so whatever bits I know I've picked up from a couple of visits, and have never needed to count above 10!) Thankfully RJ came to the rescue so I was able to confidently ask for "elf, bitte" and be understood.
Back on the autobahn we were looking for somewhere to stop and eat, however unlike the French aires, the German equivalents were both less frequent and nowhere near as shady. We ended up eating at a sunbaked concrete table with about a million cigarette butts underneath. At least the food was nice.
A hundred kilometres or so further up the road, we were approaching Cologne. Halfway into town, and midway through a traffic jam I realised we'd set the navigation to the centre of Cologne, rather than to my cousin's address. A quick detour through town followed, and as an ambulance with its blue lights on wailed up behind I pulled to the side of the road only to jump as someone knocked on the window. In a fit of coincidence it was my cousin! She told me she'd be home in 15 minutes; as we were only 5 minutes' drive away we took a quick joyride around the town to kill a bit of time.
Once we'd properly arrived, had a shower and changed, we began to feel a lot more human. I read a very difficult book about dinosaurs to the children, we all had a delicious supper and as lightning flashed overhead began to get excited about tomorrow's trip to Phantasialand!
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