Three countries, endless hours and thousands of kilometers in the car. We felt we’d just about had enough for driving around for now. It was time to head home. Early morning, the day after Swedish Wedding (read the story here), we packed our belongings to Skoda das Auto and hit the road. The goal was to drive through Sweden sideways and catch a ship from Göteborg in the evening. Car tires were singing as we drove. Only at some point I started thinking they were singing too loud. And a few moments later my dear husband said it out loud… – Darling, am I just imagining or does the car sound different than before…? No honey, I said, you are not imagining. I think something is about to break…

We drove some more kilometers in silence, listening to the tires singing too loud, pondering what was to come. What do you think it is? Asked my dear husband. The bearing, I said, it sounds exactly the same as the last time that happened… Then we were silent some more kilometers. Shall we try to make it to the ship? Asked one from another. Yes, said one to another. The bearings don’t break totally that fast. So we drove and drove and drove some more. And we made it to the ship.

Stena Line was a pleasant surprise. We spent a nice and relaxing evening sailing from Göteborg towards Kiel, Germany. We slept well in the cabin that felt spacious after the little mouse trap we had at Silja Galaxy. We ate a delicious breakfast in the morning and were actually so relaxed that we forgot about loudly singing tires. Reality slapped us on the face pretty hard after driving the car out of the ship. The sound had not disappeared over night. Quickly we decided to drive as far as the car was willing to go. Only 1000 kilometers between us and our precious home…

Our little prince Charming was blissfully ignorant about what was going on in his parents’ heads and decided to continue his interrupted good night sleep. At the same time I was starting to feel the consequences of drinking too many cups of coffee at breakfast table. And I was not the only one… Instead of seeking the first toilet we decided to drive as long as the little guy was sleeping. And we drove. Listening to the tires singing loudly and feeling the increasing pressure in our bladders. We reached the point when we had to give up and decided to stop at the next service station. Only at that same moment we got stuck at traffic. And there we were. Next 40 minutes barely moving and no way out of motorway. I started feeling my whites of the eyes turning yellow and my dear husband said even his back felt like it was going to explode. We were going 20 km/hour when we spotted a service station. Only it was closed due to road construction… Didn’t we see this service station already on our way to Finland? One asked another. Yes we did, answered the another, and it was closed then already…  Finally, after some more bubbling moments, we could see an exit, only it was not leading to a service station but to another motorway. Whatever, we thought and took the exit. At least there was no traffic. My dear highway warrior hit the gas pedal and drove like a maniac to the next exit (God bless Germany for having no speed limits!) which naturally didn’t have any service station, only a disgusting, filthy portable toilet. At this point we didn’t really care. My husband could only walk doubled and I… oh well, let’s just say it was the last moment.

What did we learn from this? Probably nothing. Journey continued and magically we made it. 1000 km later Skoda das Auto took us faithfully to our doorstep at midnight. We were exhausted. But this time we didn’t fall over the edge and naturally started planning the next road trip even before this one was done. The End.

Ps. To whomever it may concern. It was the bearing.