SATURDAY, 9th SEPTEMBER : BRUCHSAL to KAISERSLAUTEN

We're basically doing a road trip now, the motorhome is due to be returned to the rental company on Tuesday so we have a plan to steadily work our way back to Frankfurt, without causing ourselves any last minute panic.  We left Bruchsal at 9.50a.m., were on the A5 motorway shortly after and stopped for coffee at the first services we came to.  

Twenty minutes after leaving the services, we encountered today's roadworks

which entailed a 15 minute crawl, part of which was past Hockenheimring where many motor events, which previously included the German Grand Prix, are held and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performed there in July this year.  It apparently seats 120,000 people, unfortunately, because of all the roadworks I wasn't able to take a decent  photo.

Leaving the roadworks behind, this bridge across the Rhine loomed large ahead of us

and we crossed the mighty Rhine once more.

When we pulled into the parking area on the right to have a break and to eat the pastries Mike had bought this morning when he visited the bakery to buy our breakfast rolls, a young couple in a motor home pulled in behind us and we chatted.  They were on their way home to the Cologne area after a 3 week holiday in Lake Garda, Italy.  He had worked in Perth and Melbourne and hopes to go back to do in our country what we've been doing in his, i,e. motorhoming.  We gave him lots of advice of course!

From then on it was easy travelling with just light traffic on the motorway.  There were more roadworks but they didn't impede our progress and we arrived in Kaiserslauten at around midday, chose our parking spot, paid our 10 euros for the 24 hour stay which included free bus tickets into the town which we put to good use

on the bus, just a 10 minute ride which was a good thing as the buses are not airconditioned and have only a couple of small windows that open.

We did our usual walkabout in the town, it was very busy with many people out and about, the shops were all open as were the cafes, the centre of the town is closed to traffic so it's a big pedestrian mall and we spent a couple of hours there taking the usual squillion photos.  (The cafes were all full, eating and drinking seems to be a national pasttime in Germany, should be more of it!)

An Irish pub

The markets were in packing up mode

Volksbank Building

A sign near the bus stop

Returning to the parking place we decided to move the van to a more shady spot, Mike plugged the lead into the power column but a token is necessary, to be collected from premises 700 metres away, however, on Saturdays and Sundays, the premises are closed!  He looked at other columns and found one which still had 2.50 kilowatts of power available left by the previous camper, which will last us the night.  

Alles ist gut!