Tonight is my last night abroad and I am staying back in the area of Germany I came to during my first trip to Germany in 2006 (in the same hotel even); the same place I came to when I first drove to Germany 2 years ago.
I started with a good breakfast at my hotel in Bregenz. After checking out I took the Pfänderbahn to a viewpoint above the city – 1064m in height. The views from the top allowed me to see all the way to the Swiss Alps in one direction, to Germany’s Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in another direction, and across the city of Bregenz and the Bodensee Lake in another direction.
I also enjoyed wandering around the free-of-charge Tierpark (animal park) at the top of the mountain, home to a range of Alpine animals. The deer were too far away to see properly but I did manage to get this photo of them…
I got on the road I think at around midday and set the Sat Nav for Stuttgart. I had a good 4 hour journey ahead of me and Stuttgart was roughly half way between Bregenz and Boppard.
Arriving in Germany I was back on the Autobahn, and going fast. The Autobahn today also gave me the first big traffic jam I’ve had since the M25 3 weeks ago.
In Stuttgart I stopped off at the Fernsehturm (the TV tower), to enjoy the views across Baden-Württemberg and to enjoy a drink and a light lunch in the Panorama Café.
My arrival in Boppard marked the first time since Lefkada that I have seen other British cars in any great number. There was the odd British camper van in Switzerland and I got a thumbs up from a bike on GB plates who overtook me in a traffic jam on the Autobahn today.
After I had checked in to my hotel and then walked in to town enjoy my last evening meal abroad. By dinner time tomorrow, I’ll be back in the UK. In some ways I’m so close to home, yet so far away at the same time! Driving on the left will feel weird after 3 weeks.
The last couple of days haven’t been without their problems; Somewhere along the lines my passenger side wing mirror has been damaged – I don’t know by what, but I think it happened while I was parked in Italy, it is like something has hit it.
I’ve patched it back up as best I can and it seems to be holding OK but I’ll want to get that fixed sooner rather than later. I’m still not 100% happy that the alignment of the mirror is totally correct, so I’m being extra careful when changing lanes.
The other problem is I have another warning light which has been on since Athens (it did go off briefly this afternoon but then came back on). The light is telling me a bulb has gone. The only trouble is I can’t figure out which one, everything which I think should work, does.
Other than that so far so good and I’m now within a day’s driving of the UK on roads I know fairly well, now that I’m back in an area of Germany I know well. It’ll be a long day on the road tomorrow – Maybe as many as 14 hours including stops – so I will need to stop plenty of times, drink plenty of water, eat a good breakfast/lunch etc.
So given that I’ve got a long day tomorrow, I’m going to have an early night, I’ll go in to my room and stick the TV on for a bit (I can get some BBC programmes out here, albeit dubbed in to German, but that doesn’t bother me) and I did manage to get a BBC channel in English last night, which was showing W1A and Live At the Apollo – I think it is one I’ve seen before; Josh Widdecombe talking about going on holiday and being asked by friends and colleagues “can you get me…” which turns the last day of his holiday in to a day of going round looking for things, like in an episode of The Apprentice. Somehow I felt this was quite accurate!
Gute Nacht,
FH.
Today’s Mileage: 304.5
Accumulative Mileage: 3288.9
Journey Map
