Central Germany

After Nuremberg we steadily made our way up through central Germany tracking through many small villages and the rolling countryside of northern Bayern

Pulling up at a stellplatz at Bad Windsheim we had a real shock as it seemed all of Germany's vanners were here and we were lucky to get a spot without reservation. Our intention was to visit the Kaiser Therme next door and just chill for a few days. Re-unification day, a German holiday, meant that the spa was full to bursting with folks just aching to get in the several salt pools with concentrations up to 26%. How weird was this, to be able to lay back in water and float totally unsupported 

The spas here are just superb but every pool was like a scene from Cocoon! Far too overcrowded so we later broke out the bikes and went off exploring

I fancied a go at this and nina egged me on......common sense prevailed

Its not a toy!

After a few nights drifting along, spoilt for choice and somehow selecting stops adjacent to gasthauses and country parks so we could ride next day we arrived at a real peach of a stellplatz

At Aschbach near Sclusselfeld there is a stellplatz outside the Concorde Reisemobile production factory which offers free overnight stay and we even bummed free Wi Fi for the weekend we were there 

Added bonus here was a huge showroom open to the public for us to gaze in wonder at what "we might have won"

Too obvious to take a photo of the stellplatz as some do but we felt dwarfed by the numerous Concorde motorhomes that pulled up throughout our stay. We watched like 'curtain twitchers' the unloading of cars from within the rear of the bigger Liner models and with a little awe as the majority of them once arrived set about deploying automatic levelling systems where rams push the entire truck off the ground and self level

No pushy salesmen here and not that smug look when they put a rope across the door at motorhome shows to deny access

Don't get too comfortable dear, and yes the answer's NO

Yes, you're not seeing things, the base price really is more than the price of many houses

There is a rival called Morelo just down the road in Schlusselfeld which make similar models, one being called 'Palace' which is aptly named

Perhaps one day............

Birthday breakfast

Birthday elevenses

Birthday beer

Birthday steak

Have I mentioned what day it is?

8th October and we are a year in to our travels, where has it gone?

A little further north and we wander back in to what was the DDR and see a little bit of history here

More dedicated museums to the Border Life and a sense of pride everywhere at achieving re-unification

Just a little TLC surely

Good value here as it saves on diesel....

Most days we are on the bikes making the most of the time we have left before winter sets in

Time to lift the boats for winter storage (Hoxter)

These are really tasty (Backfisch in batter)

We've really enjoyed this part of Germany with its excellent cycle routes and hospitality

Its so easy to enjoy this place and the pace of life for us at the moment is just great

Get up when we want (after the ritual tea in bed) and plot the days activities, trundle 20 or 30km exploring where we can and then settle in somewhere nice for the evening. How different this way of life is to what we had before and its great to just drift along

Alles in Ordnung !