We left the relatively small Luxembourg City easily enough, straight out to the countryside and made our way east. An unusual blue sky made the fabulous autumn colours in first French Alsace, then Germany even more beautiful. Our first ever day of visiting three countries in one day, passing through the seamless borders of Europe.
We planned to park up by the Rhine, as we have enjoyed many a riverside spot on the major rivers of Europe, but we had not as yet, camped beside the Rhine. We found three potential park-ups on the Park4Night app, the first was lovely but heavily overshadowed by trees, which was no good for solar charging or Starlink satellite reception. The second turned out to be a restaurant carpark, which was very busy with people celebrating the French national holiday for All Saints Day.
However, finally our third option just outside Neuberg am Rhein, which actually took us into back Germany again, even though it was only 10 minutes drive away, we found a little rough ground by a river. There were lots of locals enjoying a walk / cycle / run along the river or another group sat with their deckchairs apparently watching the impressive working boat traffic go by. The wide and navigable European waterways being much more occupied by commercial traffic than rivers in the UK. We even passed by a large new car compound in an area by a riverside port, all set up apparently to be ferried downstream.
A peaceful night by the river with just the occasional boat to be heard quietly passing by. The next morning we were up early for dog walking, this time in full waterproofs as the winter storm which had been battering our home in Cornwall had reached us. We decided we may as well get a little further east, hoping to clear the more industrial area around Stuttgart, making over 250km, an unusually long driving day for us. We have passed through this area before a few times in our previous truck research having stopped in Ulm (Apr 23), Friedberg (Oct 21) we decided to try somewhere new in Königsbrunn.
When we parked up, we had every intention of going exploring, but the torrential rain which had stayed with us all day, did not subside. So other than another damp, cold and soggy dog walk, we hunkered down in the truck and watched a few vlogs of other people in far sunnier places on their travels and dreamed of future trips. We saw a very small amount of Königsbrunn in the morning whilst hunting down dog biscuits at a local shop, but decided not to prolong our stay, preferring to push-on.
As we made our way back to the toll-free motorways of Germany, quite by chance we passed Landsberg am Lech. Kevin pointed out we really were re-treading the route of Band of Brothers now as this was where the Kauferung IV concentration camp was, that was liberated by 101st Airborne Division (plus 12th Armoured and 522nd Field Artillery divisions). We had no wish to visit somewhere which was the source of such unequalled suffering and death though. However, obviously the motorways of today were built along the same main transport links of that era.
Finally after another fairly long drive in the rain we arrive at a brand new Stellplatz in the beautiful mountains of Bavaria in Aschau im Chiemgau for the weekend. There was newly built facilities, including laundry which I had been seeking, but also a vending machine filled with beer and sausages this being Germany 😂.
The pretty little town sits in the valley, which was shrouded in low cloud when we arrived for the weekend. The following morning thankfully brought some sunshine and we could see the mountain tops had what looked to be the first snowfall of winter on top. It made a wonderful setting with the multicoloured autumnal forest around its base for a lovely walk with the dogs.
We enjoyed a lovely light lunch outside in the sunshine in a sheltered spot of a cafe in town. Kevin had spotted his favourite of the ribs at the Rathaus restaurant in town though which was not open for lunch, so we had to venture back in again after the rugby for dinner. It was nice to have a day off from driving and stretch our legs.
However on Sunday morning, being scheduled in to drop-off the truck on Monday morning and still being 2 hours away, we thought we should hit the road again. We found a service station on route where we could buy the dreaded Go-Box for Austria (mandatory over 3.5t), minimum €70 to charge up. We had successfully returned and been refunded for the one we bought for our previous motorhome though.
It meant we could easily pass through the border, the non-toll roads here are not so easy. Despite the endless roadworks, there were queues of traffic thankfully going the opposite way, as tunnel after tunnel was made single lane. We were pleased to finally make it to the now familiar ground of Schladming, where we bought our truck for our third visit.
Although, as seems to be usual for us, we were visiting out of the summer hiking / biking season and before the skiing season. We had our choice of accommodation for next week whilst our truck is being upgraded, even with the dogs. However, for a night in our truck on Sunday, there are signs everywhere around the town saying no camping and all the official camping areas where closed. We finally called one at a hotel just out of town to see if they were open, they said they weren’t but thankfully let us stay for the night anyway. They told us to go and park up and they came along a little later so we could pay them.
Finally, Monday morning came quickly round, another date which was planned so far ahead, but now arrived. It seemed a big job to pack what we needed for us and the dogs for a week, empty the fridge, clean up the truck and hand it over so we were up early. The truck was scheduled for its roof rack / tree protection and Aircon to be fitted plus we added some new retractable steps after we saw what they looked like on another truck and knew they would they would make life much easier.
We have now checked into a gorgeous modern chalet / apartment on the edge of town, just us and one other family in for the week as it is so quiet in town now.
In for a Penney 