Tuesday Spetember 6, Kapellan

Setting off for our last ride on the bikes.

 

It’s been a few days since I have written my blog and we have had quite a few ups and downs.

We left the Rhine River after a beautiful misty morning and took the 1 ½ hour journey to meet up with Hitten at the Edeka carpark in Neukirchen. Their road is very busy and no room to park, so he drove us back to their house for a coffee and a catch up before showing us the way to a campspot I had found in the nearby village of Kapellan. What a find it has turned out to be. It was only opened 4 weeks ago and it is on a small farm on the outskirts of the village and you park under mature trees. Just so beautiful and with days nudging to almost 30 it was very pleasant, and there was no one else here.

We set up the camper and Hitten met the buyer on the Autobahn and brought him to the camp. He and his wife spent two hours looking at everything and talking to Hitten in German and then to a friend on the phone…and we waited, and waited. Finally he started talking money as he wanted to buy it. Eventually we accepted his offer and shook on the deal. He then talked to another friend about the paperwork and realised that as it is UK registered and UK are no longer part of EU, he would be required to pay 10% Customs Duty and 19% Tax. So the deal was off and boy did we feel flat, and realised that it was not going to be possible to sell in Europe and we would need to go back to UK for a sale. We ended up returning with Hitten to their house where Conny had some cold drinks ready for us, we certainly needed them. Picked up pizzas for dinner and later Hitten drove us back to the van.

Yesterday we set to and worked out about selling the van, doing quite a bit of research. I walked down to the little village and picked up some supplies. Spent ages loading it on eBay but then it was taken off as we didn’t have a UK Bank Account nor a UK phone. Not impressed but guess they are trying to stop scams. We have decided to leave our bikes in Germany and Hitten and Conny will sell them next spring, so we took our last ride on the bike paths around to their place. It felt rather sad as we have really enjoyed riding in Europe. Conny cooked dinner for us and Hitten drove us home.

This morning I arranged for a NZ roaming package for my phone, and then I set to and spent ages loading the camper onto Auto Trader, only to find I need a UK phone number. Another issue to sort out. Everything seems to take forever. Sitting outside having lunch and Hitten calls, our buyer from Sunday wants to know if we are still here, and he is going to ring with an offer. Oh boy! As I write this we are still waiting, 3 hours later for him to call! And I can’t settle to anything so time to do the blog. Will add to this blog if we hear anymore!

Beautiful early morning light on the Rhine

This sign at Edeka in Neukirchen advertising
NZ kiwifruit. Huge, we were impressed!

Our host arrived with these figs and tomatoes
from her garden.

Such a peaceful spot.

Even did some washing!