Frankfurt to Czech via Kreuzwertheim

Wednesday 28 to Thursday 29 June

From Berlin we flew to Frankfurt to pick up a Renault Captur that we had leased for 4 months on the Eurodrive scheme. 

We were met at the airport by a very frustrated man, who we later knew as Michael. His problem – no licence plates = no car.  It appeared that our pre-ordered Renault had been delivered to him, but without licence plates.  He told us that this is a very rare occasion, it has only happened once before. Nevertheless his anxiety was evident as the UPS van failed to show at the appointed delivery time.

Phone calls were going back and forth, the common language was English so we could understand the situation. It was finally decided that we should have an Avis rental car and the Renault would catch up with us along the road.

But there were no rental cars available in Frankfurt, only at the airport.

But rental cars are more expensive from an airport.

It took some negotiating and a show of frustration on our part, until we were finally driven to Frankfurt airport where we were given an Avis Opel. Finally we were on our way.

We had booked to stay in Kreuzwertheim, about 100km motorway drive west of Frankfurt. What we didn’t account for was the road works and the horrendous traffic jams.

The GPS system took care of that, switching roads and zig-zagging through the countryside until we finally arrived at Kreuzwertheim. Its a lovely village, set on the Main River across the river from the larger town of Wertheim. which we had intended to visit. But it was too late – all we wanted was a beer and a meal. Our hosts suggested we walk to the other end of village for a typical German dinner of pork and mushrooms.  We sat in the courtyard and enjoyed the balmy evening air.

Next morning it rained. We made a short trip into Wertheim to see what we had missed. It was too wet to leave the car, so we drove along the Main River and stopped at a village called Bettingen where we were entertained by a family of swans, before rejoining motorway.

The traffic was heavy, roadworks were common and the rain pelted down but the GPS kept us busy with diversions.

We finally made it to Pilsen in Czech Republic – the town of beer. Fortunately it is summer and the days are long, so we had time to acquaint ourselves with the town as well as the beer.