Having overdosed on the Romantic Road, we now had more prosaic concerns. Basil has an appointment tomorrowat Dürrwang GmbH in Dortmund, the place where we found him languishing four years ago. In order to maintain Hymer’s 6 year water ingress warranty Basil needs a check every year, which costs a small fortune in England but is much more reasonable in Germany. Hence our appointment at the Hymer dealer where we bought Basil.

The long drive north was long, tedious and tiring. Most of the journey was in torrential rain, making life very difficult. Although the drive was almost entirely on motorway, Germany is undertaking an extensive upgrade to their roads with the result that large sections of the motorways were subject to roadworks.

One characteristic of German roadworks is that there are extensive sections where the carriageways are narrowed considerably and separating the working area from the highway they put a very low, but very solid, metal divider. Unfortunately, well into the journey I managed to nick this metal barrier in one narrow section and inflict yet another scar on Basil. Luckily it has just damaged the plastic wheel arches, which merely bolt on so, apart from the likely extortionate cost of the damaged parts it will be easy to fix. 

We were distracted on our route by a huge sign by one of the motorways saying “Erwin Hymer World” and pulled off to investigate. It turned out to be nothing other than a large showroom for the Hymer stable of motorhomes and caravans and didn’t detain us long. We were expecting something a bit more exciting. 

Finally we have pulled onto a Stellplatz (51.382456, 7.399153) in the town of Wetter next to the River Ruhr, just 30 minutes south of Dortmund. It is free but not the sort of place you would stop unless you had an appointment somewhere in Germany’s industrial heartland. 

After such a long day we have been naughty and eaten out once again, because there was a pleasant little beer garden overlooking the river not far from our Stellplatz. I tried another German speciality – schnitzel and once again I am stuffed!

Tomorrow we are up early and depending how long Basil takes for his water ingress check, we may or may not be in France by tomorrow evening.