Where's Bertie? He's in a temporary car park (a patch of grass given over to car parking) for the Südbad (outdoor swimming pool) on the S side of Trier. Exact location: 49.72854, 6.643624
Weather: Sunny and hot (28 degrees).
We had no reason to spend any time in Rodemack this morning, so all we needed to do was get up, have breakfast, faff a while and leave. Spending a little too long on the third element of those four, we timed our move a couple of moments after two other vans headed towards the service point. The water point there does not have a fast flow rate, so each van takes an age to fill (even the modest 40 litres we put in Bertie took an unreasonable length of time).
It was as we sat and waited that I suggested that maybe we had forgotten the lesson long ago learnt that, when you need to fill or empty tanks, it's best to do so on arrival (unless you're about to take the last parking space), as it's far more likely that there will be a queue when you come to leave than there is when you arrive.
As I mentioned last night, today's destination was a detour from 'plan' (using the word loosely). The plan was that we were visiting Alsace on this trip, which I knew was going to take us through Belgium and Luxembourg. It was only when I looked at our onward route last night that I saw that we were also going to be nipping through a corner of Germany, and if we were going to be in Germany anyway, then why not go a little further into Germany? (Don't scrutinise this logic too closely, please!)
So, here we are in Trier, having arrived via Luxembourg and the Moselle valley.
The only thing on the agenda in Luxembourg was to buy fuel. That we did in a town with six petrol stations, all next door to each other. With fuel prices being set by the state, it mattered not which we chose, and with fuel prices being relatively low there, we treated Bertie to a tank of the good stuff. Going in to pay, I thought we'd misallocated payment duties, as both cashiers were speaking German, and Mick is in charge of German communications. Then I got to the counter and was greeted in French.
Two minutes later we were in Germany, driving up the east side of the Moselle river, which forms the border between the two countries.
The glorious blue sky may have had something to do with it, but the combination of the river and the extensive and steep vineyards had us oohing at the attractiveness of it. We acknowledged a danger that our trip to Alsace could easily morph into a slow journey along the Moselle valley - although danger is maybe the wrong word, as what's the harm in an ad-hoc change of plan?
Leaving a retail park after a stock up on groceries, I looked at the clock and wondered what parking situaiton we would find at the Südbad. A hot and sunny day in school holidays meant that surely half the local population would be availing themselves of the outdoor swimming facilities. We've spent enough time in the past in such car parks to know how busy they get and how bad the parking can be. As it turned out, we arrived about half an hour before it all got crazy, and opted to put Bertie in what I would describe as the overflow car park. After lunch and a lengthy phone call, we moved him slightly to free up an extra space next to us. We will likely move him again slightly before bed, as he is currently on such a backwards slope that I would be in danger of rolling out of bed.
Whilst the occupants of the van next to us rode off on bicycles (probably into Trier which is just a few kilometres distant), we set out on foot for the local park.
A pond
Another pond, with a lot of water lillies
In the absence of any other contender I'm putting this forward as fountain of the day
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Germany does a good line in public parks!
Back at Bertie, the rest of the afternoon was spent between various Apps and good old paper maps trying to decide where we might want to go between here and Strasbourg (with a few visits made to this very blog when I kept coming across place names I recognised, some of which I confirmed we had visited before, others I probably knew becase we'd seen them on road signs when travelling to those we have visited).
I'm not sure how fruitful that time was. I've got a whole list of motorhome parking areas that we may use, but reached no conclusions as to where we are going next.
Weather: Sunny and hot (28 degrees).
We had no reason to spend any time in Rodemack this morning, so all we needed to do was get up, have breakfast, faff a while and leave. Spending a little too long on the third element of those four, we timed our move a couple of moments after two other vans headed towards the service point. The water point there does not have a fast flow rate, so each van takes an age to fill (even the modest 40 litres we put in Bertie took an unreasonable length of time).
It was as we sat and waited that I suggested that maybe we had forgotten the lesson long ago learnt that, when you need to fill or empty tanks, it's best to do so on arrival (unless you're about to take the last parking space), as it's far more likely that there will be a queue when you come to leave than there is when you arrive.
As I mentioned last night, today's destination was a detour from 'plan' (using the word loosely). The plan was that we were visiting Alsace on this trip, which I knew was going to take us through Belgium and Luxembourg. It was only when I looked at our onward route last night that I saw that we were also going to be nipping through a corner of Germany, and if we were going to be in Germany anyway, then why not go a little further into Germany? (Don't scrutinise this logic too closely, please!)
So, here we are in Trier, having arrived via Luxembourg and the Moselle valley.
The only thing on the agenda in Luxembourg was to buy fuel. That we did in a town with six petrol stations, all next door to each other. With fuel prices being set by the state, it mattered not which we chose, and with fuel prices being relatively low there, we treated Bertie to a tank of the good stuff. Going in to pay, I thought we'd misallocated payment duties, as both cashiers were speaking German, and Mick is in charge of German communications. Then I got to the counter and was greeted in French.
Two minutes later we were in Germany, driving up the east side of the Moselle river, which forms the border between the two countries.
The glorious blue sky may have had something to do with it, but the combination of the river and the extensive and steep vineyards had us oohing at the attractiveness of it. We acknowledged a danger that our trip to Alsace could easily morph into a slow journey along the Moselle valley - although danger is maybe the wrong word, as what's the harm in an ad-hoc change of plan?
Leaving a retail park after a stock up on groceries, I looked at the clock and wondered what parking situaiton we would find at the Südbad. A hot and sunny day in school holidays meant that surely half the local population would be availing themselves of the outdoor swimming facilities. We've spent enough time in the past in such car parks to know how busy they get and how bad the parking can be. As it turned out, we arrived about half an hour before it all got crazy, and opted to put Bertie in what I would describe as the overflow car park. After lunch and a lengthy phone call, we moved him slightly to free up an extra space next to us. We will likely move him again slightly before bed, as he is currently on such a backwards slope that I would be in danger of rolling out of bed.
Whilst the occupants of the van next to us rode off on bicycles (probably into Trier which is just a few kilometres distant), we set out on foot for the local park.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Germany does a good line in public parks!
Back at Bertie, the rest of the afternoon was spent between various Apps and good old paper maps trying to decide where we might want to go between here and Strasbourg (with a few visits made to this very blog when I kept coming across place names I recognised, some of which I confirmed we had visited before, others I probably knew becase we'd seen them on road signs when travelling to those we have visited).
I'm not sure how fruitful that time was. I've got a whole list of motorhome parking areas that we may use, but reached no conclusions as to where we are going next.
It's like doing The Grand Tour. The custom is to bring back some treasured mementos to display in your country house. I guess you're not going to Greece so the fact that the Elgin Marbles have already been bagged is of no consequence.
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