We had our TÜV appointment right on August 1.
All the work we put in last week paid off.
Catching up with old school friends. We’ve all gone our separate ways. We haven’t seen each other in a long time. My friend lived in the Philippines for years, my friend has been living in Norway for years, and I’ve been traveling around Europe. But when we all happen to be back in our old hometown at the same time, we absolutely have to get together on the spur of the moment.
Thank you both for the wonderful afternoon.
In the first week of August, our friends from East Frisia, Kirsten and Rainer, came to visit us.
We were both incredibly happy to see each other again, and we had another wonderful time together.
It was great having you there! We really enjoyed our time together. And thanks again for the beautiful flowers, the teddy bear, and the chocolates 😉
With the high temperatures, you don’t really feel like sightseeing or taking long walks, but cooling off in our Brenz River is always a good idea.
However, we didn’t miss the chance to take a walk through our picturesque and biodiverse Eselsburger Tal nature reserve. We walked right along the Brenz River, taking in the view of the “Steinernen Jungfrauen,” the hillside forests, and the juniper pastures. According to legend, a proud damsel once lived at the former Eselsburg Castle who rejected all suitors. As she grew older and suitors stopped coming, she developed a deep hatred for men. She forbade her two maids from having any contact with the opposite sex. However, when she caught the girls secretly talking to young fishermen, the lady of the castle, in her anger, turned them to stone—and that is how our two “Stone Maidens” came to be.
Back in the valley, we enjoyed a well-deserved refreshment at the Talschenke.
To wrap things up, the two of them invited us out to dinner. Thank you so much for that 🙂
Our last get-together with our kids, Alex’s mom, and his brother was on the second weekend in August.
Even though we were actually home for four months, time flew by.
As always, it’s very hard for me to say goodbye to family and friends—especially our children. But I’m also really looking forward to continuing our journey and new adventures.
We’d like to head to Italy in September. WENNE has been ready to go since early August and is just waiting to hit the road again.
Alex is also starting to get impatient; he doesn’t want to spend any more time working on WENNE right now and just wants to hit the road. So we decided to put any further ideas and modifications to WENNE on hold for the time being and travel around Germany a bit more until September.
We decided to visit a few more friends, so our first stop was in Mosbach in the Neckar-Odenwald district, with a very lovely couple we had the pleasure of meeting in Portugal during our winter stay in 2025–26.
But first things first—we weighed WENNE!
For comparison: since we set out in 2023, renovations and additional equipment have made a difference. In 2023, we weighed 6,480 kg, and this time, in 2026, it was 7,070 kg.
When we arrived at the lovely free parking spot in Mosbach, our friends came right over to visit us. Later, they took us to their home, where we were treated to coffee and cake. In the evening, we walked the nearly 2 km back to the parking spot. It was very hot, so we decided to make the heat more bearable with a Kneipp bath.
We sat in the park for quite a while before heading home to WENNE.
The next morning, our friend picked us up for breakfast, and we spent the whole day together. After breakfast, we went on an interesting guided tour of the town.
Mosbach is located on the southern foothills of the Odenwald in Baden-Württemberg, on the border with the Bauland region in the Elz Valley, a right-bank tributary of the Neckar.
A tour of the Old Town, with its picturesque half-timbered houses and Mediterranean charm, is highly recommended.
One of the oldest buildings in the city is the Old Hospital. It dates back to the second half of the 15th century and served not so much as a place to house the sick, but rather as a facility for the needy, the poor, and the elderly.
Today, it serves as a cultural center and city museum featuring exhibitions of regional ceramics and faience.
The power plant is more reminiscent of a lighthouse or a castle. Since 1891, it has utilized the then-nascent technology of electricity generation.
In the 20th century, extensive renovations were carried out, and today the historic facility serves as the headquarters and office of Municipal utilities Mosbach GmbH.
The Kickelhain House is one of the smallest freestanding half-timbered houses in Germany, with a floor area of 26 square meters and 52 square meters of living space spread over three stories. It offers a glimpse into the cramped living conditions of the 18th and 19th centuries and is now part of the City Museum.
In the past, the Kandelbach stream flowed freely through the city and powered mills.
In the 1930s, the stream was channeled underground.
But as part of the Old Town renovation, the stream’s course has been made visible again at this spot through the open fountain.
The water is truly refreshing for cooling off in these 30° temperatures.
Some people even use the very cool water as a “refrigerator” for beer and Maultaschen. And why not? 😉
The Kandelbach also feeds another fountain, the Kiwwelschisserbrunnen.
It serves as a reminder of the time when the people of Mosbach relieved themselves in buckets (= Kiwwel) and, when the time came, carried them out to the fields.
The Palm House is located right on the market square. It is considered the most magnificent half-timbered building in the city. According to an inscription, it was built in 1610 by master builder Abraham Lenger for Johann Schragmüller, the wealthy castellan of Lohrbach and deputy elector, and remained in the possession of this influential family of officials for a long time.
The building owes its current name to the merchant Anton Palm, who married into a Mosbach family in the late 19th century and later purchased the house.
Extensive restoration work was carried out from 1981 to 1982.
Today, the ground floor houses commercial spaces and stores. The upper floors contain, among other things, offices and rooms used by the Mosbach city administration.
The collegiate church was built on the site of a Benedictine monastery dating back to 976.
The current building was constructed beginning in the 14th century in the Late Gothic style.
In addition, this church is a “simultaneous church,” meaning it has both a Protestant and a Catholic section.
In 1708, the Elector ordered the physical separation of the two sections. Since then, a solid dividing wall has split the building into two separate areas.
However, for the 300th anniversary in 2008, a connecting door was installed in the wall.
Unfortunately, we were only allowed to tour the Catholic section.
By coffee time, we were back at their place. Since none of us was really hungry, we decided to have a light snack together and let the evening wind down in a cozy atmosphere.
With bags full of treats, we were driven back to the campsite.
Thank you both so much for the wonderful time we spent with you. We were really happy to be there and enjoyed the weekend together. It was great getting to know you.
We started Sunday with a leisurely breakfast in the RV and took a walk in the nearby forest, which gave us a chance to see Mosbach from above.
On the way back, we made a long stop at the Kneipp facility in the city park.
We spent the rest of the day relaxing at the RV park.
After our friends came back to the campsite on Monday morning just to say goodbye, we headed over to my aunt and uncle’s house, which is only about 30 km away. After a lovely Monday together and a delicious breakfast the next day, we drove on toward Bad Arolsen to visit our friend Renate.
It was a surprise visit that turned out really well. Renate was just as happy to see us again as we were to see her. We stayed two nights at a nearby campground and had another really great time together.
On the last weekend in August, we paid our final surprise visit to friends we’d had the pleasure of meeting on our trip to Namibia. We’d already planned to visit our two fellow self-drive travelers from Namibia. But before we could find a good time to do so, I happened to learn from another couple (also a great friendship from Namibia)—whom we’d actually planned to visit as well—that they were heading over to Britta and Andi’s place on the last weekend in August. We wanted it to be a surprise for Andi that Katrin and Jörg were coming to visit, so we spontaneously thought that maybe we could surprise Andi and the other two as well. So we got in touch with Britta right away, and sure enough, she was thrilled and loved the idea.
But before that could happen, we still had just under a week to spend in the area.
Our first stop was just one night in Katlenburg-Lindau in Lower Saxony.
We continued on to Oschersleben, Saxony-Anhalt. We stayed there for two nights.
The campground wasn’t anything special. The water fees were way too high, and there was only one small trash can. But it was a great place to go for a walk. Unfortunately, it was very windy, a bit chilly, and it rained on and off.
Here we ran into some very inconsiderate fellow campers. The site is actually designed for 8 RVs. There’s a huge public parking lot across the street, and yet there was a lot of “cuddling up” because some RV owners insisted on squeezing into the small gaps between the others, making it difficult for some people to open their doors. Why don’t they park in the large lot across the street? No one would mind if they were just staying overnight. On top of that, some people arrived in the middle of the night—which surely not everyone appreciates—and then spent ages maneuvering their RVs while loudly setting up supports, chocks, or other equipment.
We find it hard to understand when people desperately try to cram their trash into the overflowing trash cans or, in the end, just leave it next to them. When in doubt, I simply have to take my trash back with me.
At the next campsite, the local municipality provided both fresh water and electricity free of charge. Aside from glass recycling, there was no other way to dispose of trash. However, it took us nearly two hours to reach this campsite, which was originally just under an hour away. We had to take detours again and again due to road closures caused by construction sites.
In the end, although the site was at the entrance to the village, it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms and fields. It was just right for us, so we set out on a walk of about 10 km…
The next day, our first stop was a place to do our laundry. We found one in Braunschweig, right next to a few shopping options. It did a great job washing and drying our clothes. Places like this are ideal for us, since there’s usually good parking and we can pick up groceries at the same time.
We then found a place to spend the night near Celle.
We stayed there for two nights.
On Thursday, we headed over to the area near our friends’ place so we wouldn’t have such a long drive on Friday and could start the morning at a leisurely pace.
The campsite was great! We really liked the town of Rodewald, and it’s a wonderful place to go for a walk. You can pick fruit in the orchard meadow, and it tastes delicious!
At the campsite itself, there’s plenty of open grassy area and benches where you can relax and enjoy your time.
In Namibia, we became friends with two couples. As luck would have it, we all met up at Andi and Britta’s place in Lower Saxony.
For Andi, our visit—as well as that of the other couples—was a surprise, and it was a complete success.
We arrived on a Friday and were warmly welcomed by the two of them; we spent the rest of the day together. Thanks to WENNE, we were able to stay overnight at their farm.
And since Andi is self-employed and didn’t know anything about our visit, he had, of course, made other plans for Friday and Saturday.
We ended up pitching in right away on Saturday morning. We had a blast, and it helped him finish his work faster. It was just in time for his second surprise visit.
He was absolutely thrilled.
It was so nice to see everyone again and to be able to give them a hug.
Together we spent a wonderful Saturday filled with lots of conversation, coffee and cake, a barbecue in the evening, and a cozy get-together with wine, beer, and Amarula.
On Sunday, after a delicious breakfast together, there was a village flea market. So while we women strolled through the village from house to house, our men had set off to pick blueberries. Then, unfortunately, it was already time for Katrin and Jörg to say goodbye.
We stayed a little longer and spent Monday with our friends. After we were done with work, the two of them took us to the Lüneburg Heath. It was a magnificent display of colors and a great hiking trail. Unfortunately, it started raining after we stopped for a break, and we came home soaking wet.
A heartfelt thank you goes out to our two friends, Jörg and Katrin, for the little goody bag. What a great idea!
A big thank you also goes to Britta and Andi for the wonderful days we spent together and the glimpse into your daily lives, for the meals, the laundry, the great trip to the heath, and for letting us stay at your farm. It was so great to see the four of you again. Thank you for the time we spent together!
