From Hamburg to Therme Erding – The maiden voyage

The first tour

Wednesday, 28.05.2014

Nearly a month after having bought the Didimobile the first tour is about to commence. It’s Father’s Day, a national German holiday annually being on a Thursday, so you only need to take the Friday off work for a long weekend. Best conditions for a maiden voyage. Two friends want to make use of the long weekend and dare joining me without knowing what they will get involved in.

Thus, the car’s supplies are filled up on Wednesday (mainly durable foods that do not need to be refrigerated) and a box of FRITZ-Kola is stowed in the “toilet box”; the mobile chemistry loo was outsourced for the purpose of creating storage space without further ado and it was decided that it generally has to work out without a mobile toilet on board.

At about 17:00 we are finally ready to start towards the south. Due to the vanagon’s rather limited top speed of about 95km/h and the weekend-holiday-tourist traffic related  traffic disruptions on the motorways around Hamburg, we opt for the more scenic drive and choose a southern course along rural roads.

To make matters worse, it is now starting to rain and will definitely not stop soon. A circumstance that does not really give us “camping newbies” much courage for the night and the next days. Nevertheless, at around 23:00 we reach the caravan site in Hannoversch-Münden. This consists of about 20 parking spaces right at the top of the headland right next to the Weserstone, the confluence of the rivers Werra and Fulda (here both rivers lose their names and continue as the river Weser).

Worst Road in Thuringia

Thursday, 29.05.2014

It is still raining and cold. Time to make ourselves unpopular with the neighbours by use of the built-in diesel heater. How could we know that the exhaust gases leak out of the driver’s side of the Didimobile and blow exactly into the neighbors’ open caravan door? So we quickly get the Didimobil ready to go and head south. By chance we come along a huge banner with a reference to the “worst road in Thuringia” some thirty minutes later. We do not want to contradict that.

The journey to Oberhof in Thuringia requires the Didimobil to really show its mountaineering abilities for the first time since we want to visit the famous winter sports resort. Unfortunately some clouds also thought that the place was worth seeing and cover it up with thick fog.

After a refreshment with huge Windbeuteln, a German specialities made of dough, ice-cream and whipped cream, we continue our journey through the Rennsteig Tunnel (Germany’s longest road tunnel) and the Thuringian Forest on the low-traffic motorway via Bamberg and Nuremberg to Erding, where we arrive at the camperplace next to the spa in the evening.

In the evening, it slowly ceases raining so we head for the quite interesting city of Erding and let the evening end with Bavarian delicacies and a hearty wheat beer.

Sports-, swim- and wellness-day at the Spa

Friday, 30.05.2014

Today we spend the whole day at Therme Erding, an enormous pool and spa with more than 20 waterslides, poolbars, wellness-pools, saunas and much more. It is absolutely worth a visit. 🙂

Without airplane to Frankonia

Saturday, 31.05.2014

The morning we start with a hearty Weißwurst breakfast at “Erdinger Weißbräu” we have already been to yesterday evening, but this time we can sit outside in the Biergarten in glorious sunshine. Unfortunately, as a motorist, you always have to make some compromises when choosing a beer, but fortunately, alcohol-free wheat beer can be tolerated to some extent.

After breakfast we come across Munich airport where we have a look at a small airplane exhibition.

The journey then takes us via Nuremberg to the heart of the Franconian Switzerland to the RV park at the brewery inn Reichold in Hochstahl. For € 7.50 you can spend a wonderful night there; home-style regional cuisine for around € 7.50 per dish and half a liter of home-brewed beer for € 2.10 should let us head for this wonderful pitch even more often in the future.

Timetravel through the Harzer Mountains

Sunday, 01.06.2014

After a rich breakfast buffet in the inn, we start our home trip today, but not without making a detour to the southern Harzer Mountains to Stolberg. Here in this small mining village time seems to have stopped a hundred years ago.

After about 1,600km we return back to Hamburg in the evening. Maiden voyage passed, everyone is happy and sad at the same time because the tour was over so quickly.