Day 49 of 365 days off and we are traveling for the first time!

After a deep sleep in our refuge in Schmalfeld, which didn't have much to report (because it was pure boredom), here's a sign of life from us, for all those who are still interested.

Since May 18, 2020, you are allowed to travel again in most German states, and we are taking advantage of it immediately. As people who love warmth and the sun, we are heading to southern Germany instead of going to the Baltic or North Sea, where the weather forecast was rather unsettled.

However, one might think that fate is against us traveling (besides Corona and the various deficiencies in our motorhome, but more on that later). After years of traveling, we had our first flat tire now! Shortly after leaving a rest area near Göttingen, we must have picked up something in the tire! Fortunately, the next exit is not far and so we roll down the highway at walking speed and accompanied by a concert of honking cars (relax, people, after all, we have hazard lights on, indicating that we have a flat tire!!!) to get off the highway and reach a place under a highway bridge (somewhere in the middle of nowhere and in the late afternoon).

First, we check that we don't have a spare tire! We haven't dealt with that so far, but there is no space for such a large tire under our vehicle. Now we call the ADAC (German Automobile Club), hoping that they can quickly bring us a tire. Yes, it was naive, we gladly admit it. It would have been a tow with the ADAC, and due to our size, the call to the relevant towing service was a bit overwhelmed and we were unsure. Since we didn't feel like being stranded at just any workshop, we thought of the Mercedes 24h Service, because they should be able to find a tire for us. Thanks to our leveling jacks, changing the tire is a breeze, and towing seemed a bit more complicated (and yes, we admit, we would also be afraid for our brand new motorhome). By the way, the tire repair kit was useless, the damage to the tire was too big. To make a long story short, Mercedes tried to find a tire for us, but since it was already close to six in the evening, they informed us that it would not work on that day. Horror!!!! Why: Janina is a confessed scaredy-cat (in female form), not just because she has seen too many thrillers (of course in the cinema; 0) and also prefers them in book form (a remote highway bridge in the middle of nowhere is the best template for something like that, I probably don't need to explain more about that). With the noise of the highway and the fear at every other sound, it was a long, agonizing night that didn't seem to end. Only the chirping of the birds in the morning helped me to overcome the fear-shock still stuck in my body. Early the next morning, Mercedes contacted us directly from Göttingen. A friendly service employee came, took the wheel with the damaged tire - was delighted with our leveling jacks and was impressed by the easy operation via the mobile phone - drove back to Göttingen, where a new tire was mounted on our wheel, which is not exactly the same as our original tire, but will do for the transition period. So we still have to get another matching tire before we travel for longer. After that, we had to go to Mercedes to clarify what costs would come up for us. Because what the service hotline didn't tell us over the phone, motorhomes are excluded from the Mercedes Mobility Guarantee (only the driver's cab is partly a Mercedes).

Saved and another half day later, we continued towards Koblenz. The good thing is, our wishes for warmth were fulfilled, the bad thing is, we were not the only motorhome enthusiasts who set off (we encountered hundreds on the highway, so to speak) and so the parking spaces and campsites were full!!! At the Wolfsmühle campground near Koblenz (in Lahnstein), there was exactly one spot left, but only for one night, and we happily took it, as exhausted as we were! Since we put ourselves on a waiting list and we were lucky that someone actually cancelled their reservation, one night turned into five!

I don't want to withhold a negative anecdote from you: On Friday (after Ascension Day), we went shopping by bike and took a look at the motorhome parking lot on the way, which is also nice. But still, all 60 spaces were occupied. We had Triene in the bike trailer with us for the bike ride (she is already over 14 years old and a senior dog, and especially in the heat, she should not walk for long). At Globus hardware store, we left her in the bike trailer and went shopping, and everything went well. We did the same at Globus supermarket. When we went up the escalator (the supermarket has three levels!), I said to Thomas 'no one will come up with the idea and let the dog out of the trailer for fun' and Thomas said 'nonsense'! Well, about 5 minutes later, there was an announcement 'The owner of the unattended, black dog should come to the information desk immediately' !!!!! Unbelievable!!!! Someone must have scared Triene out of the bike trailer, which was closed with a zipper 😳 Since the bike parking lot was in the parking garage, she wandered around there. Luckily, she wasn't hit by a car and luckily, she didn't run onto the nearby road 😱 The shock still lingers in our bones 🥺 What kind of idiots are out there 😡 But shortly afterwards, Triene was back to normal and not upset, she just trembled when Thomas picked her up. Of course, that evening she was pampered even more than usual ;o)

Meanwhile, we are traveling along the Moselle towards Trier.

We need to be back in Hamburg on June 2, 2020, where we have an appointment with Mercedes. The reason for this is the extensive defects that we unfortunately have to discover on our "dream" motorhome. It is extremely frustrating and annoying (especially in times of Corona -dealers and manufacturers are located in Bavaria, where the shutdown was and still is the strongest- it was difficult for us to reach someone and get anything done). Unfortunately, in this case, the customer doesn't seem to be king, but just a nuisance. This once again confirms the service desert in Germany or is it just the case nowadays that turnover counts more than customer satisfaction??? It's actually a shame because it makes us less excited about the dream motorhome than it deserves because there are also many beautiful things about the car that we appreciate less because of it!!! I hope this whole thing will end well (very soon) and we will love it more during the course of our time off!!! Before June 15th, we still have to make another trip to Bavaria, where hopefully the dealer will give us another appointment and this time hopefully make sure that all defects are fixed (hope dies last).

As of June 15, 2020, the travel ban for Europe is supposed to be lifted and then we hope to go on our road trip through Europe (instead of going to the USA as planned, which, apart from the fact that due to Donald Trump's non-existent crisis management, is no longer an option for us as a travel destination, they are still not letting Europeans in).

We really hope for that and keep our fingers crossed that there will not be any new shutdowns (2nd wave, etc.). The route will be based on the regulations of the countries. Our rough idea is to start in Scandinavia, especially Norway. Afterwards, we want to continue along the French Atlantic coast, with a much later destination of Portugal. Then we might go towards Croatia & Greece, but that's still a long way off...

To all of you who have read (or endured ;o) this far, thank you very much for your interest. We hope you are all doing well and we are happy if you continue to stay with us and visit us from time to time. When there is more exciting news to report and we are really on our travels, we will report more regularly.

Until then, stay healthy!

Best regards, Thomas, Janina, and Triene