Day 6: Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria
Yesterday was a very long day, and a lot of it was taken up by sitting in traffic jams. I went on a little German road adventure.
After leaving my hotel, my first destination wass the Hockenheimring, just over an hour South and over the border in to Baden-Württemberg.
Traffic was quite heavy on the way out of Wiesbaden, I was using the main Autobahn routes going South towards the Swiss border at Basel… but the delay wasn’t too much.
I went on one of the ‘Insider Tours’ of the Hockenheimring, which they do every day at 11am. You drive your own car, following the minibus, to all the key points of interest around the site: We went up to one of the viewpoints so we could get a glimpse of the start/finish line and over much of the rest of the track.
Then we drove round to Race Control where one of the controllers explained all their screens and what they do! We then went to the Winners’ Podium and then drove round the outside of the track using the emergency lane – there was an even on so we couldn’t go on the track itself. Finally we went up to the Mercedes Grandstand from where we got a good view of the section of track where F1 cars reach speeds of 300 km/h.
After the 90 minute tour we returned to the starting point at the Motorsport Museum – my tour ticket also included entry to the museum so I went to wander around that for a bit.
Then it was on to my second destination of the day: Lohr-am-Main in Bavaria. It was a long drive – almost 2 hours – to get there but I knew it would be worth it. Traffic was quite heavy for the most part. 4 lane Autobahns are no fun when HGVs outnumber the cars (or so it seems) and they’re all trying to overtake each other. It wasn’t until after I’d crossed in to Bavaria that things started moving more freely and I was able to get up towards 90mph on an unrestricted section.
All this effort was worth it though as the drive of the last 20 or so kilometres after leaving the Autobahn was great! Lohr itself had a lovely Altstadt with interesting buildings, I also walked down to see the river.
I had a late lunch in Lohr – a Wurstplatte with bread and butter – then I moved on to one of the Eiscafés where I sat with a drink and read my book in the sunshine.
After 17:30 I returned to the car, paid my marking ticket and set the sat nav for my hotel in Wiesbaden. It was a 90 minute drive back which for the most part was relatively clear: On an unrestricted section of Autobahn between Lohr and the Bavria/Hessen border I managed to achieve 110mph (indicated) – although admittedly I was going downhill at the time.
Most of the way – apart from sections with speed limits and when going through the roadworks, I sat above 90mph most of the way, the journey in total taking 90 minutes. I arrived back at the hotel just after 7.
To recover from my day of driving, I went in to the Mainz Altstadt and went to find somewhere to eat.
Today, I’m heading back in to Rheinland-Pfalz. Bernkastel will be my first stop, then on to my overnight stop in Trier.
FH.
Today’s Mileage: 249 Miles
Accumulative Mileage: 945.6 Miles