Allgäu 🇩🇪 - Family, Parachutes and the First Frost
Sven Walther
The aftermath of one button press
Anyone who read the last post already knows how things went for us shortly before Kempten: one click on that friendly-looking “update me” button in the Victron VRM - and the inverter stopped doing anything at all. No 230V, no battery, only whatever happens to be landing on the solar panels right now.
The Allgäu was our destination anyway, so we simply carry on. Solar covers a surprising amount if you hold back a little - and if the sun plays along during the day.
Something like this is not fixed at the roadside, though. So we drive the entire way to Krug in Schladming - and all the way back again. Those are the few hundred extra kilometres promised in the last post. For a button nobody needed to press, that is probably exactly the bill you deserve.
Afterwards everything works the way it should again. The lesson for next time: an update is rarely as urgent as the button makes it look.
Family time
The best reason to drive to the Allgäu was never on the route plan anyway - it is our daughter. And she had something lined up for our visit: we stand on an airfield and watch her jump out of a plane. You stand down there, spot a tiny dot in the sky, and manage to be proud and slightly nervous at the same time.
Our daughter is somewhere up there
After that it gets practical: her snake gets a new and considerably larger home. Somewhere in between we celebrate a birthday - and you notice quickly how much you miss these completely ordinary family days when you otherwise wake up somewhere different every morning.
The highlight then happens spontaneously. Friends we have known for over 15 years - though so far exclusively online - come all the way from Switzerland to visit. And through Instagram a couple from Kempten gets in touch, travelling in their own expedition truck. In the end we all sit down to dinner together. This is exactly why we do this.
Kempten
Between appointments there is time for Kempten itself - one of the oldest cities in Germany, which you can definitely tell standing on the market square.
The St. Lorenz Basilica, with a market in front of it
The town hall with its fountain
And because it is September, one or two shop windows have already switched over to traditional Bavarian dress. Some decorating decisions you just have to leave standing.
We have questions
The first frost
And then comes the morning that makes it clear summer is done. We climb out, look up at the roof - and everything is white.
First frost on the solar panels
For a vehicle currently living mostly off solar power, a layer of frost on the panels is a distinctly unfunny sight. And for us it is a clear signal: time to head south.
So we pack up. Next stop: France - and this time, the city of love.