We did not conclude with Off-road- Motorhome services near Frankfurt on Tuesday as expected in my last blog post, as one of the devices we needed for ongoing support had not arrived by courier as expected. We arranged therefore to stay locally at Aschaffenburg until Thursday when it should arrive.
The handy stellplatz in Aschaffenburg alongside the river Main met our needs perfectly. However, the very frequent rain less so. Also, for each job we tick off with the truck, we seem to add another. Firstly, I managed to throw myself down the new steps whilst carrying the (empty) Starlink box due to the slippery wet aluminium checker plate. So one new job to add some extra grip. Next, the Starlink which had been working nicely through the newly installed roof cable, stopped working. We had been getting 140Mbps+ speeds as long as we considered where we parked (clear view to the north). There was the faff of putting up up and packing it away each time but we had already a plan to resolve that.
It seemed to be the connector into the dish that was failing to connect. It has been a poor connection since we got the dish, more than once we have had to be reinsert the cable to get a connection. However, on this occasion, even after an hour or two of rebooting / cleaning / resetting etc the Starlink failed to get a connection. Thankfully it is possible to recrimp a standard RJ45 connection onto this end of the cable instead. Therefore, this is also now on the list for next week, when we will also roof mount the Starlink when we get home. At least for now, we could pause our Starlink membership until we get it working again. We also have a 5G Wifi Router so we were able to restore service quickly.
After a bit of a run of disappointments / accidents, we decided to console ourselves with a nice German beer at a beautifully preserved wood framed pub up the road with smiley welcoming hostess and pleasant midweek hum of activity. After a couple of beers even the bump on the back of my head from my rapid horizontal ladder descent, did not seem so bad.
The morning brought a welcome respite to the downpour and we took the dogs out for a pleasant walk along the banks of the Main, past the imposing and impressive red brick facade of Johannisburg Palace. Built between 1605 and 1614 for Archbishop-Elector Johann Schweikard von Kronberg as a second home, it remained in use by the archbishop-electors of Mainz until 1803. The massive four winged complex was mainly funded by taxes from the fiefdom. Its impressive architecture standing in testament to the luxuries enjoyed by the few at the cost of the many.
We decided not to visit the interior, as one of the biggest attractions they could recommend was apparently the world’s largest collection of cork architectural models, which seemed odd for the setting and not of great interest. Luckily as we made our way to the town centre, we found a lovely farmers market which are always interesting to browse around. We even decided to stop and have a coffee and breakfast out at a busy cafe. I think breakfast is always an interesting meal to sample in a new country, it’s seems one area which has remained quite localised and traditional.
Thursday morning soon arrived and it was time to return to O-MS to get our additional connection device. We now have an OBD connector which connects into a Dell laptop. This contains some software which allows us to perform 90% of the functions needed. However, recent changes by Mercedes around security for access to their diagnostic computer system, plus also some more complex settings related to Ad-Blue require us to have an additional device connected to a mobile phone which allows OM-S to connect our truck directly to the Mercedes central diagnostic system via their office. The research we have done suggests we would not have been able to access the European Mercedes system outside Europe without this capability, so now we should be able to access diagnostic support when we ship to the Americas.
After quite a bit of faffing trying to get connections working at O-MS, we were back on the road. Finally, the last of our scheduled truck appointments done and finally we were free to go our own way! Happily, as it was my birthday in two days, I decided it would be great to finally get to visit the Champagne region of France. It was still quite a drive to there after an early afternoon departure from near Frankfurt though. There we drove to just before the French border, to a little village park up in Gräfinthal.
I got throughly soaked walking and feeding the dogs in the pouring rain. There were welcoming lights from the pretty little Italian restaurant literally 50 yards away from where we were parked and after a long day, we decided to we start my birthday celebrations early with a quick bite to eat there. However, having spent quite a bit of time in Italy earlier in the year, this meal really could not compete.
The next morning we were on the road early keen to get to Epernay, the home of Champagne. I recently read The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel, set in WWII in a Champagne House which gave lots of interesting history about the vast limestone caves, champagne making process, the occupation and requisitioning during the war. It intrigued me to go and visit, that and obviously the opportunity for a bit of tasting 😁🥂🍾. There were long straight roads on flat lands on the approach to Epernay, where the hills suddenly appeared on the horizon covered in vines.
The dogs were desperate for a walk after a lot of driving, so as soon as the truck wheels stopped in the last space in the town Aire, in Epernay, we were off. We headed to the tourism office first and got some tips before heading down Avenue de Champagne, the very grand street housing the home of all the major champagne houses. I assume they have stayed in these locations due to the caves below, the steady temperature ideally suiting the champagne maturing process. One of our favourites is Pol Roger, also a favourite of Winston Churchill and how fitting the road beside is named after him, although that may also be because he was such a good customer!
The beautifully paved wide boulevard contains all the big names of champagne, starting with the biggest of all Möet & Chandon. I had looked online to try and book a cellar tour there but there were no spaces for a couple of days. So after a long walk round the town, somehow clocking up 7 miles before our final return that evening.
As we could not manage to get a tour, we decided to do some tasting instead. We opted for a bar, rather than the more pressurised tasting at Champagne House, getting to try all the different grapes and regions of the Epernay area which were all delicious but quite different, plus two rosés, one made with red wine, one with red grape skins apparently.
We returned to the truck to drop off the dogs, shower and change before a delicious meal, with yet more champagne, what a fabulous birthday 🍾🥂
We had pre-booked the dogs in at the vets on Saturday for their pre-return tape worm treatments, plus renewal of the rabies jabs. Despite an efficient nod helpful vet, rather short staffed reception and paper based systems took over an hour to achieve these relatively simple tasks. When we emerged it was pouring with rain again, our time was nearly up on the Aire and we decided we did not want to do more sightseeing in the wet, so we decided to hit the road.
It was still another 3 hour’s drive to Calais, where we would be taking the Eurotunnel back to the UK ready for some up coming appointments we have before we can continue our travels. We therefore decided to get a bit closer on Saturday afternoon before crossing on Sunday. It’s quite a bit of effort to keep finding nice places to stop, so this time we decided to make life easy by returning to an old favourite, Bergues near Dunkirk. A lovely walled town with a pretty central square dominated by a big tower, the first stop of our first European motorhome trip.
We had a pleasant evening and a relatively leisurely start, as we had to wait 24 hours after the dog’s tape worm treatment before we could enter the UK. The cold and wet of the last few the days and the opportunity to drive on a quieter Sunday traffic meant we decided to go for it and get home that day. We hope to get out on the road again soon, subject to appointment timings etc and have a few truck modifications we want to make before then.
In for a Penney 