Happy to be back on the road!

Saturday was a driving day with the goal of picking up our bicycles that had been stored at Frankfurt airport. We didn't get going until about 10:00am and we had to do about 300 kms (186 miles), which for us is a fairly long drive.

We took the main highway, which has a 130 km/h (81 mph) "suggested" speed limit on most sections. Of course Max isn't going anywhere near that speed. For the most part I had the cruise control set somewhere around 95 km/h (59 mph). 

So, we spent most of our time in the slow lane, but even then we had to pass someone else occasionally. You have to be really careful pulling out to pass because many cars are going faster than the "suggested" speed limit and it's amazing how quickly someone can come up behind you in the fast lane when they are moving at perhaps 180 km/h (112 mph)!

The first part of our drive before we got to the main highway.

Some kind of autumn farm display.

The rest of the drive was like this.

Heading downhill.

Scenery along the way.

We stopped at a roadside rest stop at about the half way point and had a rest and some lunch. 

There were quite a few sections with narrowed lanes and road construction.

More scenery.

We arrived at the busy Frankfurt airport at about 3:00pm. We had a bit of a hard time finding parking because of our height, and most of the parking areas had height restrictions. We finally found one lot for oversize vehicles, but it was quite far from where our bikes were stored. We decided we'd be better off getting a luggage trolley for the €1 cost, but as we were walking to the storage area, we came across a trolley that someone left behind so we saved ourselves the €1.

Someone mentioned in the comments yesterday that the cost to bring the bikes wasn't that much. Sure, it was only $50 CAD ($40 USD) per bike charge as a handling fee, but there was a lot more to it.

The $50 CAD handling fee, plus $126 CAD to change our routing because bikes wouldn't fit in the small plane on our original route. Plus the longer train fare from Frankfurt (instead of Dusseldorf on our original booking) of maybe $40 each. Plus the bike storage at the airport of €30 ($44 CAD, $35 USD) each. Plus the oversize vehicle parking of €16 ($23 CAD, $18.50 USD).

So, the real cost to bring the bikes was probably around $540 CAD ($428 USD).

The alternative would have been selling these bikes back in Canada and buying new ones here in Europe. Probably just as much hassle and the end cost might not have been much different, and could have actually been higher. 

So, we got the boxes to Max and started unpacking things and putting the bikes together. 

I'm just happy it's not raining!

Ruth's bike is next.

Fortunately there was a big paper and cardboard recycling bin in the parking lot so that we could get rid of the empty boxes and packaging. Lucky that it was so convenient!

It took me a while to figure out the new rack.

It was also not easy putting the cover on because we don't have a ladder or even a step stool.

Finally got it all done by about 4:45pm. Then we had to make our way out of the busy airport area and find somewhere to overnight. I had marked off a free motorhome parking area in a village about 30 kms (18 miles) south of there, so that's where we headed. I didn't have a "plan B" in case that didn't work out, but we would figure something out.

We took the back way in through this narrow laneway.

But, we didn't need plan B. The place only holds about six rigs, but there were still two empty spots. It's nothing special, just a parking lot reserved for motorhomes. But that's all we needed.

Relaxing with a glass of wine!

It's been a pretty hectic three or four days, but we are now relaxed and back to our regular schedule. Happy to be back on the road! Although, today is another fairly long driving day as we are still on track to meet friends Glen and Steve. Hoping to be caught up with them tomorrow. We plan to be somewhere just north of Munich tonight.

Only one problem! We never stopped at a grocery store yesterday and we forgot that they are almost all closed on Sundays here. Might be having eggs on toast for supper because that's about all the food we've got.

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