Yes, its 2 for the price of 1 this week!
Part 4 is a tad uneventful. After the last show in Budapest, our next show wasn’t for another 9days, and was
only a short drive away in Vienna.
As we were unable to stay over at the Budapest venue, and the next venue had events on all week, we
opted to park-up for a few days at the Hungarian/Austrian border at Nickelsdorf. We parked at the Shell
station on the Austrian side, which had all the facilities we would need:- cafe/bar/shower/toilets. Also it
was only a quick hop over the border to the Hungarian side, or a 3km walk to Nickelsdorf village if we
fancied a change of scene. Food was the usual schnitzel/sausage variations, plus my favourite,
Leberkasemmel in its various styles.
On the final night of our stay there, we repositioned the trucks to ensure we could get out easily on the
Sunday morning. This caused quite some consternation amongst the other drivers parked there, as they
couldn’t understand how we were able to drive on a Sunday when they couldn’t. Fortunately, we have
Sunday-driving permits, which they were most interested in when shown!
Leaving on the Sunday morning, it was only a 1hr drive to the Gasometer in Vienna.
Following the luxury of such a short drive, after the Vienna show we were faced with a 775km drive to
Frankfurt. After a week sat about, we again had a day off to get there, so there wasn’t too much pressure, although we wanted to get to the Frankfurt venue early so that we could get into town for a proper day off.
The Jahrhunderthalle sits out of town.so its easily accessed from the Autobahn, and we were parked-up
10hrs 30mins after leaving Vienna.
The load-in there is particularly awkward, as you have to access it by going up a ramp onto the roof of the offices and conference centre. It wasn’t designed in the days of low-ride trucks, so it requires lots of
adjustment with the suspension to avoid damage to both the vehicle and the ramp.
From Frankfurt, we then had a 400km overnight drive to Kempten, down in the South of Germany.
This wa followed by yet another day-off, or travel day to be truthful, up to Trier. We broke the journey up
by stopping off at Toni’s Autohof at Geiselwind. We’d intended to put the trucks through the wash, but
it was broken at the time of our visit, so they’ll have to wait a few more days.
We did, however, manage to have a big plate of ruerheieren & bratkatoffeln each (scrambled egg with
fried potatoes), just to keep us going.
After Trier, it was another overnighter to Emden, up in the Osterfriesland region of Northern Germany, a drive
of 550km. Sitting on the bank of the River Ems, there was a bitterly cold wind blowing in from the sea,
so it was night-heater on and straight to bed after loading-in.
That concludes the last 2weeks of the tour, only another 7 weeks to go if you’re still interested!
