 and found an empty supermarket carpark. Thank goodness for Sundays abroad! I could see nothing wrong, even when I held my shaving mirror behind the wheel to check. We got going again and all was well for a while. Just past the German border we discovered the A6 was closed and there was a diversion in place. Not really our day so far. We were heading for Ladenburg and the Camper Stop there only to discover it was full!!! So plan B had to come into operation but what was plan B? I knew that Neckargemund was not far away so I plumed for Camping Friedensbrucke where we had stayed some years earlier. This change also involved driving through the centre of Heidelberg!!! It was interesting as we drove along the river for miles and everyone and their granny was out on the banks of the river enjoying the sunshine. Fortunately when we got to Neckargemund they had room for us and we even decided to pay the extra two euros fifty for a riverside pitch! I can’t claim to have seen all the rivers in Germany but I am convinced the Neckar is one of the prettiest not dissimilar to the River Thames.
Monday 9th May. Another lovely day here at Neckargemund. Unfortunately not such good news on the door front. We have discovered that the key will not lock the door from the outside although it can be done from the inside by manually pushing the locking flap closed but you obviously have to exit via a cab door. The dilemma now is to decide what to do, if anything? If it gets no worse we might manage.
Habitation doors aside we did walk into Neckargemund this morning to have an explore. It seems quite a busy place in parts, I suppose due to being close to Heidelberg. We purchased a couple of post cards, not something we usually do but whenever we are in this part of Germany we like to send one to some friends back in the UK as Anne comes from Stuttgart which is not far away. Back at the campsite I had another look at the door but did not want to go too far in dismantling it just in case I got into more difficulties.
Tuesday 10th May. Not quite so nice weather wise today, in fact, in the afternoon it rained. The lock situation had been playing on my mind so I decided to give Red Pennant a ring and spoke to Roseanne. Previously I had done a search for local motorhome dealers and discovered that there was one about half an hour away. I explained the problem to Roseanne and she suggested that she should contact our local dealers, White Arches but she would also contact the German company. In a very short length of time I got a call from Craig at White Arches and we talked through the problem. He seemed surprised I could not manually lock the door with the key and it seems I was using the key the wrong way!!! Apparently it should be turned to the left to lock rather than the right!!! My excuse is that I don’t recall ever locking the van manually before. Craig did say that he would book the van in for a more wide ranging repair of the electrics in the door when we get home. He suspects there has been a break in the connecting wires that has stopped the locking mechanism working. A little later Roseanne phoned to check on progress. She had rang the German company who had apparently said they would be happy to look at the door but as they don’t carry spares its possible they wouldn’t be able to undertake a repair.
Somewhat relieved that we now have a proper method of locking the habitation door we set our minds to other things. We had been away a week and still not used the electric bikes. We needed some shopping but the shops were a bit far to walk and carry stuff back so it seemed an ideal opportunity. It seemed so easy just to whiz up the steep access road to the bridge and cross the river with little effort on our part. In fact the most exercise we get is lifting them on and off the bike rack! We chained them up outside the supermarket which must have seemed strange to any of the Germans watching our efforts as they just seem to leave their bikes anywhere without locks. We could do with a tad more storage space although I did have my rucksack which was hardly used. By the time we got back to the campsite it had started to rain a bit so we just put the cover over them whilst we had lunch.
We are moving on tomorrow. We will have to start getting used to paying for sites with cash as it seems unlikely we will find many sites in Germany and Austria that accept payment by card. Some of the sites we will be using won’t be the cheapest as many are not in any of the discount schemes. At home we are so used to putting everything on a credit card and paying it off at the end of the month it seems so strange to have to carry so much cash. But when in Rome as they say!
Wednesday 11th May. We continued our journey south today. With the rain yesterday Margaret was a bit concerned that it might cause a problem with traction when we left the pitch. There was a bit of slip but we managed OK. The weather had cleared up and whilst not as sunny and hot as the past few days it was pleasant enough. The initial part of the journey was across country to Sinsheim on the A6. En Route I took the opportunity to fill up with fuel. People in the UK often complain about the M1 and the M25 and speak of them as every journey is slow moving. Having used both motorways quite frequently I would contest that view. However here in Germany, certainly on week days hold ups are par for the course on a daily basis. Whether it’s just volume of traffic or poor management of roadworks/delays it’s hard to say but the reality is that they are difficult to avoid. Eventually we got to our overnight stop just to the north of Augsburg. I was a bit concerned about some of the reviews I had seen about Camping Bella Augusta. Fortunately the reality was much better. I suspect many would have complained about the closeness to the motorway but fortunately the touring area is the furthest away. The facilities were certainly very good and we both used the showers so they must have been good.
Thursday 12th May. A bit dull when we got up this morning and not as warm. We head into Austria today to Salzburg. It did not take us long to hit a hold up and that was to be the story of our day, hold up after holdup. We travelled 140 miles which took the best part of five hours and even allowing for the odd comfort break that is slow going. The problem often is that you start queuing before you have any idea what is causing the problem. The ironic thing was that we were making quicker progress through the roads of Salzburg than we had on the open motorways!!!
We eventually arrived at Camping Nord Sam, a campsite we last used some 24 years ago. Initial impressions are that not a lot has changed with regards the pitches. They do now have WiFi which was unheard of all those years ago. We found ourselves a pitch as per the instructions at the gate. We even had the opportunity to sit outside with a cup of tea as the sun was struggling to come out. A bit later we walked along to the nearby SPAR supermarket for a few bits. Back at the campsite we booked in and provisionally said we would stay three or four days. We had another little explore outside the site and went to look at the restaurant suggested by the guy on reception. By the time we had started our evening meal it had started to rain which was amplified by water dripping of the trees.
Friday 13th May. I think someone should have reminded me of how much it rains in Austria. Since about 5.00pm yesterday evening it has been raining non-stop and over 24 hours later it is still raining. Not just drizzle but real serious rain!!! I have even put the canopy out part way to provide some shelter from the wet. As you can imagine it’s been a pretty lazy day. In order to prevent us going completely stir crazy we decided to walk along to the restaurant recommended by reception for a meal. They managed to fit us into the corner of the bar where we had our very nice meal. The main restaurant was hosting a party. It’s not a particularly big restaurant anyway. The young lady who welcomed us spoke a little English which was a great help. I suspect it’s mainly used by the locals rather than having a big tourist trade. When we said we had been recommended by the campsite she seemed very pleased.
Saturday 14th May. Did I mention the rain? Well it was still going on when we woke up. By late morning it did start to ease so we made the decision to chance a trip into Salzburg as we had already purchased the bus tickets! The rain had all but stopped as we walked the few yards to the bus stop. We got off at the Hauptbahnhof and we walked from here to the centre as we did 24 years ago. It didn’t seem so far then but it seemed further than we remembered! We found the Mirabelle Gardens famous for that scene in the Sound of Music where Maria and the children run up and down the steps. Despite being 50 years since the film was released it is still a big draw for tourists, a surprising number whose parents weren’t even born when the film was released! It’s strange in a way that the Austrians have only just started to accept the story and it has only as recently as 2011 been performed in German as a stage show in Salzburg. Different views abound as to why this was ranging from the Nazi associations to a degree of snobbery about it being a