Sometimes, we go to the bookshelf, pull out the very first issue of CURVES and start leafing through it. Slowly, the memories start to drift back – of a time when CURVES was still just an idea – Alpine passes and soulful driving. Having stood at the bookshelf for a few minutes, we wander slowly to the armchair without looking up one single time, completely lost in thought. In the South of France, in the Maritime Alps. Eventually, fully steeped in great memories, we pull out the Pyrenees issue, California or Scotland. We keep going until we remember the boots standing out in the hallway, still gritty from North Sea sand, the small pile of business cards from Danish restaurants and the shells from the Baltic Sea. The new CURVES you are now holding in your hands is also now already a memory for us – carefully and gently filed with all the other great, wild, amazing memories gathered over the last few years of CURVES. For our readers and fans, however, this issue of CURVES is completely new. Fresh. And in some cases, perhaps a little, sweet shock. As we do every time, we ask ourselves: Is that still CURVES? There aren’t actually that many curves between the south and north of Denmark … Is that still soulful driving? Taking a ferry across the water? In case you haven’t already been drawn into the pages of this issue of CURVES, allow us to offer an explanation that became increasingly logical to us with every kilometre we drove along the coast of Germany and Denmark: CURVES is made from wanderlust, this bittersweet substance is the main course on our particular menu. Wanderlust drives us into the mountains; wanderlust drives us around the globe. And our wanderlust became a vision of this long journey with “the sea in the left window”. This wanderlust is stirred up by a curiosity that constantly wants to know what lies behind the next corner or over the horizon. Thankfully, the world isn’t flat but round – and can thus also been seen as a curve of sorts; and at more than 40,000 kilometres long, a pretty sizable one. 40,000 kilometres of material for CURVES.
Naturally, this issue of CURVES has also stayed true to its tradition, but the many kilometres have rubbed off on us a little. Something happened to us. For instance, we can now manage to drive for a long time in a straight line. This switch was thrown somewhere between Badwater and Yosemite, since when we don’t always have to be on serpentines. It’s an astonishing, but extremely pleasant insight that we called the “drive into zen”. You have to be honest with yourself to be able to drive in a straight line with integrity. Capable of time travel. Three heartbeats per minute. Sperm whale transformation. Silent. Breathe in/breathe out. When the adrenaline levels sink, the whole balance rises. Hence – no problem with Denmark. Change number two is almost Obelix-esque in nature and therefore not exactly easy to explain. We all fell into a pot together – or rather, into many pots. At some point in South Tyrol we began to enjoy eating, and it has now become something of a passion. Perhaps because good food is also a sort of CURVES – emotional travel through landscapes; getting to know people; hot and cold. It’s summer on a spoon, the sea on a fork and that feeling when you lick your fingers that’s just like driving through the forest with the windows down. We like it, and we hope you do, too. As always after dinner or while standing at the bookshelf leafing through memories, you want to say thank you – to the chef, to your travel companions, to all the wonderful people who, for just a moment, were CURVES. And who will be shortly – when you start from the beginning, page one. CURVES Northern Germany / Denmark – a few kilometres past the Dutch border at the mouth of the River Ems.
Hey, you gotta start somewhere.
