My first of 2 mornings in Bavaria started with a good breakfast in the hotel, various rolls with a choice of jam, ham, cheese, honey, etc, an egg, yoghurt – the normal German breakfast.
Today not as much driving as the last 2 days. The Sat Nav estimated I should be able to get to Sindelsdorf in under 3 hours. Sunday is also a good day to be driving on the Autobahn – no trucks!
Before I left Rothenburg-ob-der-Tauber I went for a walk in the old town and a little way round the outside of the City Walls, signposted as the Tower Rail. Selection of photos below…
I had time to browse one of the tourist shops, and before getting on the road I sat in an Eiscafè with a nice cold drink. Then I got on the road – filling up with yet another tank of fuel (I’d got through 2 tanks in 2 days) before getting on the Autobahn.
The roads were quiet and free-flowing for most of the journey. There were 2 traffic jams, one on the A7 caused by roadworks, and one on the A8 just outside Munich – a car was on its roof in a field next to the Autobahn. A reminder that, while the accident rate is no higher in Germany than it is elsewhere in Europe, despite the higher speed, when things do go wrong they go badly wrong.
But that only added half an hour to the journey time the Sat Nav estimated when I set off from Rothenburg. I made up for lost time when the roads cleared; When the roads were clear, when traffic flow and speed limits allowed, I went fast. Going downhill I briefly got to a GPS speed of 183km/h (113.7mph according to Google) with an indicated speed on the dashboard of 119mph – and still people would overtake me as though I was standing still!
Getting round Munich was easy enough; From the start of the A95 at
the München-Kreuzhof interchange on the outskirts of Munich, it was a simple 30 minute drive to Sindelsdorf.
A few km after joining the A95 I went round a corner, got my first glimpse of snow-topped Alps less than 30 miles away, and at the same time it clouded over and started to rain.
I got to Sindelsdorf at 15:10 and despite the rain it was warm enough to sit on the (sheltered) terrace with a drink while we talked; I unloaded the car after the rain stopped.
In Sindelsdorf I stayed the night with Alison and Dieter; Alison is Grandad’s cousin, but until now we have never met. It is useful to know that there are little pockets of friends and relatives around the world where I can go and be welcomed by a friendly face.
For dinner we got the BBQ going to cook the beef and lamb (New Zealand influencing the choice of meat), then went in to the sitting room to watch the TV – Death in Paradise and Lewis (both dubbed in to German – It wasn’t the German which put me off, but rather the characters all having the wrong voices). This was followed by a bit of Tatort, the German Police drama which I watch in England (sometimes with and sometimes without subtitles), while we looked through the family photo album.
Tomorrow, I’m heading in to the Alps to stop at Innsbruck, in Austria, before continuing to Sterzing in South Tyrol – an German speaking region of Italy.
Gute Nacht.
FH.
Today’s Mileage: 182.6
Accumulative Mileage: 866.4
Journey Map
