Sunday, 11.09.2022 - Bike tour through the Bardenas Reales

Whats Oli doing with a bike in the desert? A bike tour! Today I'm at the RV park in Arguedas in front of the Bardenas Reales natural park. The plan - a one-day bike tour through the semi-desert in Navarra in northern Spain. I usually take my small folding bike with me in the camper. It squeaks and groans as soon as I approach it or even ride around on it - which puts me in a constant state of readiness to roll off to the side of the road onto the next grass verge in case of a possible collapse. Thus it is conceivably unsuitable for the planned tour, since there are neither roads nor grass verges in the semi-desert. For this reason I decided to rent a bicycle...

People used to live here
View full article Comments

Sunday, 13.05.2018 - Time to go home

We slept relatively poorly and the weather today is also not good. But it basically doesn't matter, because today we're going back home. Not a good day for me anyway. Claudi, on the other hand, is happy that it is finally over.

But first we have to tidy up the motorhome. It has to be returned in a clean condition and quite some dirt has accumulated during the journey. Especially in the shower cabin, because one always have to stand there with the shoes when using the toilet. At the supply and disposal station there is an automatic toilet cassette cleaning machine. That sounds cool! Just insert the full cassette, press a button and the thing comes out freshly rinsed and smelling like spring. But of course, the machine is defective. So we have to do it all in the conventional way. We also already pack our suitcase so that we can move out as quickly as possible when we arrive in Stuttgart.

View full article Comments

Saturday, 12.05.2018 - The last day of our trip

We get up relatively early today and ask at the campsite reception how the check-out actually works. We might want to leave around 1 pm, exactly during the lunch break of the site. And during that time, the barrier is closed. We are given a green card with which we can open it on departure. And we even get a refund on the late checkout fees because we leave so early. That's really nice! We reinvest part of the money to buy two baguettes which are still lying around at the reception - our breakfast for today.

We abandon the idea of going back to the Luxembourg city for shopping. The effort seems to be too high. Also, the city is quite nice but we were not really excited. So we quickly put away all of our luggage and set off on the journey to our last station near Saarbrücken. About 130km from here. Bye bye Luxembourg!

From the pitch you can already see the thermal spa
View full article Comments

Friday, 11.05.2018 - Visit to Luxembourg city

The sun shines through the roof window and it looks like it will be another warm day. The penultimate day of our so far very relaxed vacation! I don't want to imagine that we have to return the motorhome the day after tomorrow. If it wouldn't have been so expensive and almost all campers weren't fully booked, I'd like to cruise around for a few more weeks. Without Claudi presumably, because according to her she is already looking forward to returning home.

But first we go to Luxembourg…

Our first impression of Luxembourg
View full article Comments

Thursday, 10.05.2018 - A day in Trier

As we wake up it is very fresh in the motorhome and not much light falls through the ceiling windows. That doesn't look good! We push the blinds of the windows to the side and see that it is cloudy and grey outside. Looks like the perfect sofa and TV weather! On the other hand we want to visit the city and it isn't so disadvantageous if it isn't too hot. Besides, we don't have a sofa and we don't have a TV with us.

We have the obligatory morning coffee and skip breakfast again. This time we also take the bus, which leaves not far from the pitch, into the city centre to the main station. There we pick up some pretzels and sandwiches for the walk and continue towards Porta Nigra ("The Black Gate").

The Porta Nigra
View full article Comments

Wednesday, 09.05.2018 - Arrival in Trier

We slept very well again, but not quite as well as the night before. Immediately after getting up at 9 o'clock we have a quick coffee and then start to get the motorhome ready. That means everything that can fly around must be stored in the cupboards and the closet, the dishes must be washed and all windows closed. There is a checklist in the rental vehicle which proves to be very useful for this. Depending on what you forget before you start the journey, it can get quite expensive. For example, if you do not close the roof hatch and it is torn off by the wind while driving. Before we start there is also a big event coming up: the first use of a supply and disposal station!

The market place
View full article Comments

Tuesday, 08.05.2018 - A day at the Ohmbach reservoir

We wake up shortly before 9 o'clock after we have slept really well – probably because it is so abnormally quiet here on the pitch. In Stuttgart we are used to a lot of noise. I would have thought that we might even miss moving trains in front of our apartment at night. It is still quite cool in the motorhome and we urgently need a coffee. The first time that we use the stove in the kitchen and our espresso pot.

Afterwards we go out and explore the surroundings…

The Ohmbach reservoir
View full article Comments

Monday, 07.05.2018 - Let's go

Today is finally here! We pick up our rental motorhome at Mi-Mobile in Remshalden to start our journey into the unknown. Instead of 4 pm we are allowed to get it already at noon. Of course this is very convenient for us because we imagine that we can already use the day extensively for the journey to our first tour destination. Since the weather forecast for northern Germany was not very encouraging, we changed the plan for the route at short notice. Instead of going to the Baltic Sea, the first stop on the agenda is now Trier, followed by Bonn and Essen. This should be possible within seven days. Even if many travel blogs state that travelling with a motorhome is rather leisurely and usually takes longer than planned.

I am already curious whether everything works out well. Can the large vehicle get through anywhere? Will we leave a path of destruction with the long overhang at the first turn? Are we going to have problems with the pitches? After all, we didn't reserve anything and just want to travel without a real plan. How long will the water supply last on board and can we really live in the motorhome for a week? Or will we be fed up and book a hotel room instead after two days?

On the Lidl parking lot
View full article Comments