Tuesday 20 August - Bad Dürkheim

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Stellplatz in Bad Dürkheim. It was entirely Bertie's decision to stay, not ours.
Weather: Overcast and cool enough to need a fleece all day.

At about 7.30 last night, the foursome occupying the two vans immediately to Bertie's right got out their musical instruments (accordian & guitar is what it sounded like; I didn't go and look) and started to play and sing. They were a talented bunch and in another setting the music wouldn't have been offensive in the slightest. However, I'm of the opinion that it's not acceptable to inflict any music (or TV or radio) on your neighbours in a campsite setting, no matter what its quality, and certainly not at that volume.

At just gone 10pm the neighbours on our left retaliated. Every time there was a gap between songs on our right, the couple on our left started broadcasting pop music at volume.

We were stuck in the middle, wishing and waiting for it to finish, which it finally did a few minutes before 11pm.

Thankfully, I didn't wake up silly-early this morning, so there was no sleep-deprived grumpiness as I dragged myself out of bed when the alarm went off.

An hour later (a late start, but it didn't matter, being cool today) we were running a circuit of tracks through the vineyard opposite the Stellplatz. An enjoyable start to the day, although Mick did have to slow down with a muscular niggle after 3 miles. Fingers are crossed that it settles down quickly.

Running through the vines

Time ran away with us during the rest of the morning, as it so often does, such that it was only a few minutes before lunchtime when we unplugged Bertie and turned the cab seats back around ready to drive. I programmed the SatNav, and Mick turned on the ignition whilst I watched the engine battery voltage on the control panel reduce from full to empty. Bertie had decided: we weren't going anywhere today after all.

Tools came out. Precise battery readings were taken. Research was done. The general concensus was that we have a dead cell in the engine battery*.

We opted not to call the breakdown service, instead walking the mile to the nearest garage to see if they could help. Failing to go armed with details of our battery was a silly omission and required us to walk another round trip.

Some disassembly was required just to see the details of the battery, which are under the array of positive wires.

The chap at the garage (whose claims to only speak a little English were overly modest; he didn't stumble over a single word) was most helpful and is due to deliver a new battery to us tomorrow morning. It's going to cost rather considerably more than it would have if we'd been able to order one off the internet and fit it ourselves at home. But, we're in a little town and have no ability to drive anywhere, so our options are limited.

There are certainly far worse places to be stuck in a breakdown situation, although if I could be picky, I would rather that the musicians to our right weren't still in residence...

^{(*The current unknown: is it a random fault or has it been caused by another fault that will repeat itself with the new battery?)}