Day two. My first sunrise for six months

Before heading to Switzerland, we had to make a stop by my house first. My wife had a birthday coming up while we were in Switzerland and I needed to get my gift for her. It had proved to be impossible to prepare, wrap and store the gift without my wife noticing, so I postponed that to the very last minute. Now that she was out of my way (so to speak), I finally had the time to gift-wrap and write a card to go with the present.

 

That being done, we headed out once more, but this time truly on our way to 'La Suisse'. Somewhere deep in the Belgium Ardennes, the forecasted black ice hit us, and it hit us hard. Although the roads were well prepared and not slippery at all, the car was a completely different story.

The temperatures out side, combined with the wind chill factor of the moving vehicle made the car so damn cold, that the rain froze as it hit the windscreen. Covered in unbelievable amounts of ice, the windshield wipers stopped working all together. We drove slowly to the nearest parking area and cleared the wipers and the windshield of the ice. The car has windshield heating and an especially for the winter adapted window screen wash, so we thought we would be OK. But you know how it goes with guys and thinking… after a mile or two we were looking out for the nearest parking possibility again. The electronic window heater, even when combined with the blower at full heat and strength, seemingly had no effect. When the alcohol drenched screen wash was applied, it became even worse. So yet to another parking space we trotted. And after that, again and again and again. We ended up driving all night from parking area to parking area so we could chop the ice of the screen, the blades, the grill and other vital parts of the car. In hindsight, it would have been better to find a hotel but as I said; guys and thinking… well, to bad. Lucky for us it was Christmas, hardly anyone else was on the road. The important thing is; we made it safely through the night.

 

It was about six in the morning when we were in the vicinity of Strasbourg and I was treated to one of the best sunrises ever. In all fairness, I don't get to see much sunrises, for I am not a morning person. However, even the most die-hard early birdie there is, would consider this sunrise spectacular. Although, it wasn't so much the sunrise as it was the scenery. The moist air, the lack of wind and the extremely low temperatures covered everything and anything in a thick layer of frost. Combine that with this morning's pink light and what do you get? Great photographs for one thing, as you can see in below pictures.