We do have a porter available but I have asked if the passengers can bring their cases down to the coach by seven. Those that can’t manage I will ask the porter. By doing it this way I should have the luggage when I want it rather than relying on one porter making many trips in the lift and finally having the luggage just before we leave. Then the poor hungry driver misses his breakfast! And we can’t have that now can we!
All the cases are down at seven.
By the time I have my breakfast I am a little hot and sweaty but reassured by a full locker of luggage.
Just before we depart we all pose for a group photo outside the hotel and are then away by eight.
It is another glorious morning and I have decided to go back to the motorway via Kutzbuhel, which is no longer in distance but is 25 minutes longer in time. It such a lovely day that I think the views will be worth it.
Once we join the motorway at Kufstein we stop at the first service area in Germany for a welcome break! I have to park a couple of hundred yards from the main building though it doesn’t take long to walk over. They come back a lot quicker though!!
I am one of the first out to walk back to the coach and seem to have timed it right as it starts to rain as I reach the coach. It then absolutely chucks it down and most of the passengers are in the toilets two hundred yards away!
They run across the car park at varying speeds, with various forms of headgear, at a rate some of them haven’t reached years!
From here we rejoin the motorway, drive around Munich, and head towards Stuttgart. So far so good, the traffic has been light.
At lunchtime I am about five minutes away from the service area I want to stop at when a police van pulls out from a lay-by and follows me. Why is it when followed by the police you always worry when there is nothing to worry about!
Sure enough as we approach the service area he pulls in front of me and a flashing sign in the back of his van tells me to follow him.
I follow.
Once I have let all of the passengers off the policeman wants to see my German tax form and waybill. To travel through Germany in a coach we have to pay a tax calculated on the miles driven, passengers carried and cost of travel. This is done quarterly and on top of that I have to pay a solicitor to correspond and calculate with the Hannover tax office.
The waybill is a green form that I fill in before travel that indicates the coach and driver details as well as the company operating coach and trip, the journey by dates and also passenger numbers.
They were interested in passenger numbers (or rather that I had filled in the numbers) and the tax form showing my tax number and that I was paying my taxes.
All was in order and I enjoyed a relaxing lunch.
After leaving here we had a tortuous journey with heavy traffic all the way.
A short stop at Hockenheim services broke the journey up but we still didn’t arrive in Bruhl for our overnight stop until 20:00. About an hour and a half later than I wanted.
I have to park at the rear of the hotel and then we all walk around the building to the front and the entrance. By the time I am there so are most of the passengers.
At the reception desk I am given the room keys and then have to negotiate our dinner time. The food here is all buffet so I don’t think it vitally important that we all appear at the very same minute.
The young lady at reception wants us to go into the restaurant immediately and I want the passengers to have the opportunity to have a chance to freshen up after such a long day.
The receptionist is not too impressed when I say we can’t go in straight away and explain we have all had a long and tiring day and would appreciate some time to relax before dinner.
When I tell her straight away is a non starter she says they have five groups in the restaurant tonight and are very busy.
I ask what time the restaurant shuts (10pm) and say we can do 20:30. She throws her arms in the air and says whatever you want!
Once I have handed the keys out I go back to the bus to do a little cleaning before returning to the hotel.
I went back to the receptionist and apologised for being late and that there really wasn’t anything I could do about the traffic. She in turn couldn’t apologise enough to me and sent me on my way with a smile and a wink!
I didn’t have time to shower so just dumped my bag and made sure all were okay in the restaurant before enjoying a nice cold beer.
As I said earlier dinner is all buffet and a decent spread has been put out.
A quick drink after dinner and I am ready for bed. Let’s hope tomorrow is a lot easier.
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