A day of mishaps

Today was a day where if it could have gone askew then it did!!

We relocated from Ulm to Nuremberg today and leaving Ulm should have been easy but we made it less so.

Coming out of our hotel carpark there was a very low nib wall which our driver did not see but did hear a loud scrapping noise down the right side of the car so quickly came to a stop before reversing up and having the noise repeat. It was decided to leave the viewing of the damage until our next stop so giving the wall a wider berth we bid the hotel tschüss and drove off.

It was only around 250 metres later when we met a tradies van on a narrow blind corner and a collision was only avoided by the very quick reflexes of both drivers.

5 minutes later we were on a rural road approaching a roundabout with another road branching to the right and the GPS was not definitive enough to direct us onto the right road and as luck would have it we took the wrong one, however it soon became apparent to us that we needed to do a U–turn so pulled to the right as far as was able and swung the car around but unfortunately the turning circle on the 308 was not sharp enough to get us around before the right front wheel rim graunched against the kerb.

Consoling ourselves that things happen in threes and the worst was behind us we ventured on and when approaching a roundabout to enter the A7 motorway he who knew best overrode both the GPS and the in-car navigator and promptly took the vehicle down a no exit road chalking up the 4th incident in the first 20 minutes of driving.

At our first stop, a morning tea break, the car was inspected and apart from gouges in the rim there was no sign of any damage to the side of the car but I did choose not to get on my knees to view the underside of the sill!!!

On the trip up to Nuremberg lunchtime was quickly approaching so pulled off into a Rashof (motorway service stop) but they had nothing to our liking so it was back onto the A7 to find another lunch stop.

Apart from striking another traffic jam which added around 50mins to the trip the remaining drive was uneventful until we arrived in Nuremberg and misunderstood the hotel‘s instructions and parked the car in a neighbouring hotel’s carpark which was going to sting us €34 a day so we quickly got the vehicle out of there and into our hotel’s carpark.

On checking into our hotel we were then informed that the aircon in the hotel was kaput (Hilton if you please) and  did we still wish to stay. After looking quite put out and being offered free parking for the 4 days of our stay, a fan, unlimited bottles of water and a 20% reduction in the room rate we signed in.

With all of that behind us we did a quick unpack and walked into the centre of the city to get a feel for it. Our first impressions are very favourable as the old town area has a vey nice feel to it, the shopping area is nicely maintained and significant and as usual many of the buildings are “beautiful”.

After dinner in a very nice Keller restaurant we returned to the hotel to do some research on how we will spend the next 3 days.

Inside the restaurant 

Since we have been over here on numerous occasions when entering or exiting a retail shop one of us has set off the door security alarm.  Being sleuths we have been successful in tracking down the cause - firstly we determined that it was Sherry who was activating the alarm and after some further trial and error (removing her watch before crossing the doorway for example) have determined that the culprit is a Kathmandu jersey she has being wearing - what is in that product to activate the alarms remains one of life’s big mysteries!

Kms driven to date 1611

Kms walked to date 204.8

Spent on diesel €65

Spent on tolls €0