Checzhing In (Part 1)

She was blond, young, and wore a gun on her hip. No this isn't Hollywood people, that was the Chezch border police. What was I doing at the checzh border you may ask? It's really quite simple. Collecting passport stamps. Such pretty ink designs - Well actually there was a better reason than collecting stamps for the sake of collecting passport stamps... though that could be an pleasant pastime... collecting passport stamps... My more logical reason was actually because I was nearing the end of a 90 day period permit free to dwell in several of several European countries in a certain agreement. I actually was finding it amusing that I only acquired a stamp in Amsterdam and got no stamp, questions, or dirty looks in Berlin.... It was like, ''heh! I just walked in here... and how do they even know I'm still here.... who cares if I stay longer than 90 days without getting one of these permit thingies?'' I was ignorant enough not to realize that that one stamp in Amsterdam is my entrance stamp to this entire area and so it wasn't not necessary to double stamp me in Berlin. Most wonderfully, the sister of the mother of the family where I'm dwelling right now happens to have for a sister a bundesgrenzshutz employee! That would be the German border police. Think, Federal border security when you read bundes-grenz-shutz ... those Germans and their compound words. Anyway, nothing like hearing the word on the street from the horse's mouth.... The verdict was: By leaving this area of countries in this agreement, receiving a stamp on the way out, and one on the way back in you are clear for another 90 days... or ... at least that's the idea. Where is the closest country not in this agreement??? Checzh Republic. Yes, formally Checzhoslovakia, behind the iron curtain, now divorced from Slovakia, and is now the place with the cheaper gasoline and perhaps not so many laws as Germany.

We set off from Germany cruising down the autobahn heading towards the Czech border.
Out of One Bundesland (Provence) and into another... by forests, hills, and fields.

More to come ( and pictures too )