Day #: 5

Date: 02MAY2025

Location Visited: Löf Germany

Overall Impression of Location(s): 3

4 -added to our favorite list and we would return again
3 – a great place to visit
2 – OK for one visit, but we would not return again
1 – we wish we hadn’t wasted our time here  

Distance Driven on Leg/Trip (km): 73 km

Weather/Temperature (°F): The nice weather continues with highs in the mid 70s (°F) during the day and mid 50s (°F) at night. We have only used our heater a few times in the morning to help get us going, but no heat was not needed at this location.

Road Conditions: The lovely German interstates continue with more driving on an Autobahn. The roads into Löf were more indicative of what we previously encountered in France with narrow roads and steep hairpin turns.

Chickpea Mechanical Status: No issues. We are still using (babying?) our original 13 kg propane cylinder from when we bought the van over a year ago. We hope it lasts a bit longer until we get back to France to switch it out for a new one. It is only used for cooking as our heater and boiler are powered by either electric or diesel, but we are still crossing our fingers.

Highlights:

• Löf was a cute little village on the Moselle River and not somewhere we probably would have traveled to, but we are glad we did. Easy walking along the cobblestones streets and almost no tourists in this town with a population of ~1300 people. On the opposite bank of the river are the ruins of the Thurant Castle. We got a nice leisurely stroll through town on the night of our arrival.
• This section might be TMI, but it is the reason we traveled to Löf. In a nutshell, our cassette toilet reaks. Badly. We have used the standard black sewage tanks in most American RVs, composting/separating toilets in our US van and now a cassette toilet in this van. We would never get another blank tank but prefer the cassette toilet in Europe as that is what they are set up for and what everyone mostly uses. I have tried taming our revolting cassette toilet odors using the popular blue/green deodorizer packets (which Tony calls Cancer Packets as they can’t be good for humans or the environment), enzyme digesters, lavender sachets, essential oil diffusers and most recently the toxic Glad Plug-ins. Nothing helps the smell of sewage being emitted from our cassette toilet and it just smells like lavender sewage. Ugh. It is disgusting. Previously, our friends (Fred/Denise and Ron/Ton) told us to get a SOG installed so we are finally heeding their advice and getting it installed at the SOG factory.
• The SOG company provides camping at their factory for next day installation appointments which includes electric and chemical disposal site. An hour after dropping off our van, their very efficient technician had a new SOG system installed and it is a game-changer. Odors Begone! It is quite a simple system (click link for short video explanation https://youtu.be/BVRxTbfbaVs?si=y9Q60nwVXfm-l7Ji) but quite effective. No more sewer smells.
• The technician assumed Tracey spoke German as she spoke a few greetings to him and then he launched into a 10 minute demonstration and explanation of our new SOG. There was no good moment to tell him her command of German is basic, VERY basic, and so she just kept nodding, “ja”ing with an occasional “gut” really only understanding about 10% of what he was saying. He did not speak any English when Tony asked him earlier. We watched some YouTube videos on the system operation later to make sure we understood its simple operation.

Lowlights:

• While sitting in the showroom, we saw a sign that said cash or EC card only. We didn’t have enough cash and we don’t have an EC card (it is a debit card issued by a German Bank). We took off at fast power walking pace down to Löf to withdraw the needed funds from an ATM and arrived back (very sweaty) to the factory just in time. We forgot many Germans don’t use credit cards and prefer cash. Oops, but at least we got our steps in for the day. 🙂
• We forgot that May 1st is a national holiday in Europe called May Day or International Workers’ Day and everything is closed and most people don’t work. Luckily, we had all of the groceries we needed, but the roads were busier than usual due to the holiday.

Up Next: Luxembourg

Onwards! Vorwärts immer, rückwärts nimmer! Allez on y va!