Progress towards France wasn’t as good as hoped for so I went to Germany instead. After consulting an app (Park4Night) which provides details of parking/stopping places for motorhomes I’d discovered a stellplatz just over the border in Bad Säckingen.
A stellplatz is a dedicated overnight stopping place for motorhomes with fresh water supply, toilet emptying and waste disposal facilities. In France they’re called “Aires de Camping Car”. They also exist in Spain and in other countries.
The intention was to continue my journey into France the following morning to visit the railway museum at Mulhouse but a friend living and working in Germany popped up to say that he’d be working in Rastatt on the Monday and Tuesday. Not seeing any good reason to let him off buying me dinner I thought it a good plan so that’s where I headed.
It was good driving along the L126 through Todtnau with lots of up hill and down dale and a great deal of steering practice.
It was while approaching Kirchzarten, a little east of Freiburg, that the fuel warning light came on so I found a petrol station and filled up. Having had enough steering practice for the day I decided to complete the run on the motorway and encountered not one but two major tailbacks. The first for a shunt where they’d closed one lane to recover a car that looked as if it had gone down the embankment. The second was for roadworks in the process of being set up. The joy of the latter being increased by the fact that there is a junction in the middle of the lane closure.
Discussing possibilities over dinner both my host and I had the idea of my crossing the Rhine on the ferry from Plittersdorf to Seltz in France. I’d been to Plittersdorf over the weekend and seen a height limit sign but couldn’t remember the max height. When I checked it’s too low for my motorhome so I had to cross the boring way.
The ferry is powered using the river’s flow against a cable secured to the river bed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_ferry
Deciding to return to the UK I headed for the Channel Tunnel for a change passing through Luxembourg and Belgium on the way.
Some steady driving,
well, until I hit the Brussels ring motorway that is, with a couple of breaks
and I arrived at Cite Europe, the large shopping centre adjacent to the
Eurotunnel terminal, in the early evening. If you happen to be an aficionado of
sitting in motorway traffic queues I can recommend the Brussels ring motorway
during the evening rush hour. Sensible people should make every effort to avoid
it.
When I looked on Eurotunnel’s website I discovered, much to my surprise, it’s
cheaper to use the Tunnel during the day than it is overnight so I booked for
mid morning the following day.
Having woken a bit early, I didn’t fancy sitting twiddling my thumbs for an extra three quarters of an hour or so and went to check in. As luck would have it, I was in time for the previous train and so arrived in Blighty half an hour earlier than expected.
That concludes this little adventure. What’s next? Dunno but sitting on my backside for the next umpteen years is not an option.
Really interesting article of happy travels. Thankyou