Day three - Gent, Belgium to Dettelbach, Germany

Location: Dettelbach, Germany.
Total Miles: 852

The end of another really long and fascinating day, ended again by not being able to connect with this MiFi thing; stupid 3 I am really unimpressed with them. Sell a "roaming" sim card which doesn't actually roam!

So back to the beginning of the day; I had a disturbed night sleep because of Sassy, and other noises, but did get a fair lenght of sleep if not much quality. The alarm went off at 6am and I was up 10 mins later and out doing a round of the vehicles; checking oil and tyre pressures etc. Everything looked OK and then I decided to be helpful and turn Thomas and the trailer around to be pointing back out the way we came. I did this like an expert and, when my parents got down, we started driving along the feeder road until we can to a dirty great big "NO ENTRY" sign and had to swing down into a loading bay and I was put into play again doing another three point turn with a trailer. It wasn't quite as easy this time but we managed it with no drama and then were back on the road.

Our first traffic jam of the trip

Unfortunately the satnav had taken us onto the R0 ring around Brussels and so we were subjected to our first traffic jam of the entire journey. The day had dawned dull and cold and cloudy, similar to the day before, and we spent about 40 mins crawling along through traffic before it suddenly cleared and we were bouncing along again at 50mph.

A full orange juicing machine

We were on with our usual routine of drive for about an hour and then do a driver change and every other stop, have to get to a fuelling point to take Julian from half empty already (Thomas got to 1/4 left of the tank we put in in England, today, and so had some more added!). We did get to see some interesting things at these stops which I shall drop pictures of as and when they come. Like this juicing machine my dad saw.

There were other small holdups along the way today, but pretty soon we left Belgium and entered The Netherlands, a very short visit as about 10 minutes after my phone welcomed me to the country, we had once again crossed a border and were in Germany.

 

The only problem was it stank of piss

By this time the weather was starting to break and when we stopped for lunch I took the chance of the nice warm sun to have a little doze in my deck chair, just tucked behind Julian out of the way. My mum was nice enough to do the prep on lunch and my dad brought it round to me sat there; what stars!

 

An example of the road, and the viaduct

I declared that this lunch break was to be a short one as we wanted to stop earlier today (fat chance, really, huh) so we were back on the road again soon and saw some fantastic examples of German engineering on the way. The country was becoming much more hilly and this was reflected in the roads as one minute I was heading down hill very fast (up to 60mph at one point) and the next I was struggling to regain altitude with the speedometer plummeting to 25 or 30mph and trucks queuing up behind.

At a number of points I felt very Kris Kristofferson and I must admit to having called over the walkie talkies that I was Rubber Ducky and I think I seemed to be having a Convoy.

Yes, well... anyway...

 

A church. In a motorway service station. Yeah.

A bit further down the road we stopped at Medenbach Rest Area which was distinguished by having an “Autobahnkirche” (motorway church). It wasn’t that much to look at but it did at least give me an excuse to stretch my legs more than the normal quick turn around both vehicles checking straps, tyre pressures and temperatures, and anything else that could be untoward. There as a certain peace to the area but I didn’t stop long enough to really enjoy it.

 

The prohibition era vehicle

Later on at another rest stop I spotted an interesting looking vehicle strapped to the back of a low loader. After a thumbs up from the driver I took a few pictures and later, when he over took us I noticed that it had US repeal the ban on alcohol stickers on the back. I didn’t see these when I was taking pictures, which was a shame. It still looks awesome though.

 

Nestling in a dell, HELL ON EARTH!

By this time we were well and truly into Germany, having driven past Frankfurt (and seen a plane taking off over the road, but no camera ready to capture this) and then out into the hills again. We went through a long period of road works where all the trucks were stuck in the right (slow) lane and we were with them (it being illegal for a truck to overtake on that bit of the road; typical regimented Germans) and then down the other side and into a more pastoral, idyllic scene. We spotted a number of typical little German hamlets; cookie cutter houses clustered around their own little church. What a hellish life that must be!

My target for this day had always been Wurzburg and, with only a small “oooh could we make Nuremburg after all?!” moment we decided that we would stop at the closest rest stop to there. This is where the day took a bit of a downturn as I missed the sign my Dad spotted for the rest stop and, when another didn’t become immediately apparent and we decided to head for the SatNav “nearest hotel” we ended up about 10 mins from the motorway and with no hotel in sight, and definitely no parking for Thomas and the Trailer.

So to my chagrin we turned round and headed back the way we had come to the rest stop my Dad had spotted. I HATE going back and I really hate wasting time and energy and this whole rigmarole took about an hour in total and added to already frazzled nerves from all the driving we had done on the bad nights sleep.

We did find the place eventually and pulled up in what looked like a truck stop. My parents went to the motel and checked in and in the ten mins I was sat in Julian about 10 trucks went past, all of them rocking Julian on his suspension. I made the decision there and then that I would be in the Motel that night and I got my Dad to book me in.

 

This is what they call a "regular"

All of us were starving so we went into an American Diner next to where I had parked and had the biggest “regular” burger I have ever seen; my Dad had a small and it was massive. They tasted great and the beer I ordered to chase it down with has done a lot to calm my irritation.

As we popped past the vehicles to get my bags and stuff for the Motel a jobsworth on a little tractor thing came up and said “Hey! Englander!” and in very short order informed us that if we were going to leave the vehicles there, we would have to pay. So now Julian and Thomas are both in the carpark of the Motel (I am sat in my room with the window wide open looking at them) and I am debating whether to sleep in here, or to just use my room for a shower and go and sleep in Julian with Sassy (as I feel tight for having not really given her much running around time today).

My other thought is to get up half an hour earlier tomorrow for my morning checks and ensure she has a good run around then; looking at the bed, this is tempting; I’ve paid for it after all.

Anyway I am gonna go and post this blog now using their free wireless which is so awesome you have to go and sit in reception to use it.... Good thing it is there though, or you wouldn’t be getting to read this...