Leaving
Mittelbergheim, we headed north. We have to get the camper back to Friedberg,
north of Frankfurt on Sunday, so as long as we’re travelling in a northerly
direction, we’ll get there in time. I spotted a place called Landau that
sounded familiar, so we made a beeline for it. Simon (GPS) located a Macca’s so
we programmed it in. As we drove into Landau, we could see the McDonalds, (who
could miss those huge golden arches?) but Simon advised us to go in the
opposite direction! I thought you mustn’t be allowed to do a left-hand turn so
dutifully obeyed. He took us round and round the mulberry bush till eventually
I turned him off and Ross drove there directly. This is not the first time this
has happened. I have come to the conclusion that a GPS is a necessary evil. You
can’t do without one, but it will drive you stark-raving mad!
We finally had the
perfect Latte Machiatto, and I enjoyed it so much I went back for a second. We
moved the camper into the MediaMarkt carpark as there was a lot more room, and
settled down for the night, after a couple of games of cards. I found a bottle
of Douro red that I had bought in Elvas and forgotten about, so I slept well. I
cooked up our bacon and eggs and white pudding and ate a late breakfast.
On a whim, I
searched for Kaiser Friedrich Therme and found it was only an hour and a half’s
drive north. I could do with a day relaxing in a hot spa! I had imagined it was
out in the country like so many of the thermes we had visited on our last trip,
but no, it was right smack in the middle of quite a big town called Wiesbaden.
Ross parked quite
close in a wheelie spot before deciding to move the camper and park at the
stellplatz and catch a cab the 3km back. By a stroke of good luck, we found a
spot in a centre street parking where the van not only fit perfectly, but it
was free to park on the weekends! We asked the lady at the bookshop for
directions to the Kaiser Friedrich Therme, and walked down the hill to a very long
pedestrian street and eventually found the entrance. On approaching the desk, I
saw a sign that clearly said (in pictures) no clothes, but I had walked so far,
and had so much trouble actually finding a place to park, I thought, “What the
hell, I’m here now, I’m just going to do it!” Ross was not so convinced. He
decided he’d walk back to the camper and bring me my boots and jacket so I’d be
warm when I finished in the spa.
I chose a locker,
and loaded all my gear in it except my towel, and headed for the showers. Well,
actually I walked round and round looking for the showers, feeling very
self-conscious that I didn’t have any thongs on. I had left them in the van.
Everyone was wearing footwear of some description, but not much else!
I hung my towel on
the closest hook to the first pool, and stepped in. The water was comfortingly
warm (36-37C) and I stayed submerged much longer than the recommended 10
minutes. If I wanted to soak in the hotter pool, I would have to climb out of
this pool and walk a few metres, starkers, to enjoy the 38-39C water of the
second pool. It was a little daunting, but everyone else, old and young, were
doing it without a second thought, and no one was looking at anyone else
anyway. Once in the hotter pool, I picked a great spot under the waterfall (for
my shoulders) and with a strong massage jet on my back, and really started to
relax.
Suitably cooked, I
climbed out, quickly wrapped my towel around me, and went searching for the
loo, but came across the most delicious smell of hot bread baking. The hot
water had stimulated my hunger so I asked where the aroma was coming from.
“Bread baking,” was the short reply, so I asked could I have some, and a
pretzel was presented to me on a plate with butter and enough cream cheese for
10 pretzels. Well, I’ve never been fond of pretzels; too salty for me, but this
one was just perfect. I won’t judge pretzels so harshly in the future!
There was a single
girl sitting at a table drinking a beer, and since I didn’t have a clue which
beer to choose, I said, “I’ll have what she’s having.” She heard me speaking
English, and we started chatting about anything and everything. When joined by
her friend, they both moved over to my table and we all chatted lots more. Both
very lovely American girls, who had just popped into the therme on a whim,
after dropping one of their husbands off to the airport to return to duty.
Consequently neither of them had suitable footwear either. I did not feel quite
so out of place. After another soak, I had to shower, and wash my hair before
getting dressed. Very strangely, there were individual, very private and comfy
dressing cubicles. Getting undressed did not seem to present a problem to them,
but they must be shy about getting clothes on!
Ross was waiting
for me with boots and jacket, which were much needed once we came outside. It
was now dark and very cold. We hurried back to the camper in light rain, and
made our way to our camping spot for the night with only one error from Simon,
well, that’s if you don’t count his trying to tell us our campsite was on the
right hand side on the road when it was clearly marked on the left! The right
hand side just disappeared over the edge of the mountain in darkness!
We settled down
for the night after eating a few of our leftover cheeses and crackers, and
awoke to a winter wonderland of snow covering the ground as far as we could
see, and clinging to bushes and trees in large clumps. As I lay in our warm bed
watching this peaceful scene, it started snowing again, so quietly. It was
really special. The kid in me wanted to get out and play in the snow, but after
seeing Ross come back in after pulling in our power cords, I thought better of
it and stayed in the warmth of the camper. It was almost noon before we drove
off through several inches of snow being squashed beneath our tyres. A really
weird feeling of driving on no road, but Ross has driven in snow many times
before, so knew just how to do it. Amazingly, Frankfurt airport was only a few
minutes away. We had no idea Wiesbaden was so close to the airport, so we
called into terminal 2 to collect Ross’s computer tablet that he had left in
the seat pocket of the plane on our flight over. He was very lucky to get it
back!
We drove on to
Friedberg, checked out our camping spot for the night, and headed off to top up
the tank before having to hand the van back in the morning. We decided to
actually camp in the yard of the depot, so we’d be ready for an early start.
One of the workers came to check on all the motorhomes before locking up the
yard for the night, and was nice enough to show us inside some of them. We
picked our favourite, and decided if we ever do a motorhome holiday again, we
are not going to have a two-berth one with a high bed and a shower curtain!
Ross cooked up the
last of the mince with cherry tomatoes, onion, olives, peas and salami into a
delicious savoury mince just before the gas ran out! It’s going to be cold
tonight with no gas heating, so Ross changed over to our first gas bottle which
may have enough gas left in it to warm up the van. It had lasted 26 nights
already and the new bottle had lasted only 4! The last few nights had been cold
but it just didn’t make sense that one bottle should last so much longer than
another.
The gas didn’t
last right through the night but it was enough to keep the van from freezing!
It was minus 7.4C when we woke up at 8 o’clock. I dressed in as many clothes as
I could as quickly as I could as we had to clean the van before handing it
over, and that included the toilet! The less said about that experience, the
better!
We packed all of
our gear, and waited in the warmth of the McRent office until our taxi arrived,
and of course you guessed it, it was the same lunatic driver we had on our way
here. Thankfully, he drove more to our liking this time so I don’t know if
something was said to him, or he was less angry this afternoon as we were the
ones who had to wait an hour for him!
Our European
camper capers had concluded, and we were on our way back to London. My favourite
moments were visiting the Forte da Graca in Elvas, having a scrumptious lunch
in Mittelbergheim, wandering the Christmas markets in Strasbourg, playing cards
in the camper almost every night, and waking up to a snowy morning in
Wiesbaden. What an adventure we had enjoyed together!
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