The idea was to make a trip home in two stages. Well… that did not work out after all. We had made reservations at a campsite, to stay for one night. We booked for a large trailer + a small tent. We booked a pitch for 12-16 people to accomodate those two things.

In the morning we packed our tent, as we camped the night before in the beautifull countyside of Austria. We could not enjoy much of it, since we drove there the day before and that took us about 12 hours, followed by putting up the tent, eating and sleeping. After packing up our stuff, we drove to the airfield or ‘flugplatz’ of Scharnstein a few kilometers away. This airfield is located at the base of the Alpes, I hope I can fly there one day. This is where she and her previous owner were waiting for us.

We had agreed to meet at 10 a.m. Checking the glider, packing her for a long journey, reading (in a foreign language) and signing all the documents took a few hours. The journey back home could then really start at a little bit past noon.

We aimed to drive a bit further than Frankfurt on that first day. (About 600 km). The next day would be a Sunday, with relatively little trucks and traffic. That would be a great day to drive past a lot of larger cities (i.e. Bonn, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Duisburg) and we would be able to do the remainder of the trip, about 400 km. It was a long stretch but after 8 hours of driving we indeed managed to reach the campsite. It was in a small town, and I can now tell you that I can drive with the trailer on roundabouts, steep hills, hairpin bends (we encountered a few in the Alpes as well) even after 8 hours and a lot of excitement.

And there it was… the campsite. We were ready for a good night of sleep. The owner at the campsite -which we by the way called at 6 p.m. to inform him that we were getting there a bit later- laughed at us. He was attending the bar and simply said to us that there was no room for such a large trailer. We could however get our money back, after my wife insisted…

It might not surprise you, but trying to find a parking spot, a pitstop, another campsite or another place to stay when it was 9 p.m. already was nearly impossible. And we were… exhausted. We are still unsure in what kind of place that we arrived that night. But we found ourselves trying to manually turn a 12 meter (nearly 40 ft) long trailer around in the middle of a busy terrace.

We had a great trip for the next five hours. We enjoyed a lovely meal at the local McDonalds, and we drove past all these cities during the night. We became very good at manoeuvring the trailer by hand, which was convenient, as we had to park the 12 m long trailer together with the car on a driveway of also exactly 12 m. At 2 a.m. in the morning! Thanks again German-bartender-camping-owner-and-I-can-come-up-with-more-names-for-you.

The next morning I got to drive her to her new house. That was a very short trip of only 50km! She was happy to be home, and when I had parked her in the hangar, I could return home and sleep.