Slinking Southwards

Long gap since the last update : spent a week in NL/BE doing family stuff with 4 generations of Verdaasdonks, all very wholesome but not all that blog-worthy.

Ooh, though actually –  Lianne got a surprise invite to join some local lads for a kick around later in June –

Sadly we couldn’t hang around for that – had a 2 day drive down to Austria, splitting the journey near KARLSRUHE in Germany. Found an urban campsite ( DURLACH,) surrounded by railway and main roads which somehow managed to be one of the quietest overnights we have had – and a surprisingly attractive old centre to the town.

That first day’s drive had gone very smoothly, which we then discovered was because all the delays had been  deferred to the second day. We lurched from congestion queues , to closed sections of autobahn , to constantly changing bright ideas from the Sirius Cybernetics beta version of Google Maps ( ” Hi there, this is Eddie your shipboard computer, and wait till you hear the WILD alternative routings I’m going to be throwing out there to keep things fun ! ”  ).

The appearance of the Alps ahead of us, as the natural physical separator of Austria from Germany, was a welcome sight.

The ( completely friction-free !) entry into Austria from Germany is followed by some spectacular mountain scenery. Unfortunately this scenery is viewed from a snaking, single carriageway which is a favoured uphill training ground for road cyclists. Managing 20mph up a 20% incline for a few miles is impressive , but doing so without the safety of a cycle lane seems lunacy.

Anyway – we finally made it to Campingplatz Judenstein, SE of Innsbruck – and it is a cracking spot . We are right next to the church tower, affording an unrivalled position to appreciate its mellow chimes ( every 15 minutes)

On the other side of the site are restful views up to the still snowy peak of Patscherkofel

And we got to meet up with Max on Thursday night , which was lovely. 

BDO Updates – Bumper Holiday Edition

A few good ones this week –

Fridge

Fascinating combination of beeping fridge errors on both mains and gas power. Removing the covers suggested that the gas was not even arriving at the burner, nor were there any indications of ignition attempts.  The error state could be cleared – but fridge stayed resolutely off.

On mains electricity, it was the opposite – we could never manage to remove the error light, but the fridge cooled down regardless.  It’s probably quantum.

Mirror

A whole new species of BDO : slight side swipe with a parked car as we tried to dodge a bus in narrow city street resulted in the extension mirror being wrenched from its frame, and crashing to the road. I ran back to rescue it,  and with a combination of Duck tape , glue and old-fashioned craftsmanship, made an almost invisible mend.

Water

Turning on the pump now causes water to spray out of an outlet at the side of the van. Probably a perished washer or something, but I can’t access it. Workaround is to turn pump on for a few seconds, rapidly use the tap, and turn it off again before the tank empties.

Control panel

This one is a bizarre entry in the less common category of  BMFT  ( Bits Mysteriously Fixing Themselves ) :

The LCD master control panel in the van has been basically buggered ever since my APFF  ( Amateurish and Potentially Fatal Fiddling ) with new solar power / lithium battery in 2024. It went completely dead last year, which was a relief really.   Well, after a lengthy session of even more APFF to try and get the fridge working, blow me if the panel didn’t spring back into life, in much the same way that the fridge didn’t .

So that’s something.