One of the things that made us look forward to attending the EU Airstreamers’ gathering was that we would be able to be regular old attendees, instead of running the thing. It has been while since we had the opportunity to do that, and it has been a nice change. Nobody is asking me for my opinion on anything, and I got the impression that everyone is happy I’m not here to sell something. This is a laid-back group.

Since nobody was going to notice or care if we disappeared for the day, we made plans to drive west to the Mosel River valley for a leisurely tour of that scenic area. The road winds along the Mosel, and the hillsides are lined with grape vines, and every once in a while there’s a castle and a quaint village. There are even quite a few nice riverside campgrounds.

But before we could go do that, it was our day to try the European equivalent of dumping the holding tanks and filling up with fresh water. They have a much better system for that than we do. Since many campgrounds lack hookups, campers bring along a plastic barrel called an Aqua-Roll. The Airstream sucks water from this barrel to fill its own internal tank automatically, and when you need more water you just disconnect the Aqua-Roll, attach a sort of giant fork/handle, and roll it over to the water source. It’s dead easy.

We have been scrupulous about our water usage so our supply was still mostly full, but we did take a couple of showers and so there was some water in the external gray tank, which is called a Wastemaster. This is basically the same as our American “blue boy” tanks, but with more drainage points and a special shape that allows it to be slid almost entirely underneath the Airstream, to get it out of sight. The EU Airstreams ride lower than the US ones, so this is a neat trick.

We also decided to try our hand at emptying the cassette toilet, with considerable trepidation. It turns out we shouldn’t have worried; it’s a much nicer and cleaner system than the famous “stinky slinky” that we use in America. The cassette removes from the outside of the Airstream through a special door, and it’s virtually fool-proof. You just open the door, release a catch, and slide it out. It’s clean on the outside so there’s no “ick” factor like there is with the sewer hose.

Also, you can’t spill it unless you really try hard, it doesn’t smell, and it has wheels and a handle like your airplane luggage so it’s simple to roll it over to the designated spot and dump it out. We gave it a quick rinse, added fresh chemical, and popped it back in the compartment. Job done in just a few minutes. No drips, no errors.

Being Sunday, a few people have had to leave the rally to head back to work, but most of us are staying until Monday. We said goodbye to some new and old friends, exchanged email addresses, and promised to get together again in two years when this gathering will be held in the UK. Michael Hold will be organizing it, and he says he’s going to beat this record attendance of 54 Airstreams. We plan to be there to take a careful count in person.

We have a Michelin map of Germany, but some nice folks from the UK lent us their book of German maps, and it has much better detail. With that in hand and a picnic lunch in the car, we finally headed out to find the Mosel river valley at about 11 a.m., two hours after I had thought we might leave.

We didn’t even get 1/10 of a mile before running in to a tiny car show. It was irresistible, so we pulled over and took a few pictures of the Mercedes, Volkswagen, Porsche, Peugeot, and MG cars there. I could see we weren’t going to get very far today. (Note that the Mercedes to the right has a tow bar.)

Still, just about everywhere we’ve driven in Germany has been scenic and interesting. We eventually stopped at a famous castle called Burg Eltz for a tour. Between our picnic lunch at the car, the treasure room, and the castle tour, we killed a couple of hours there, but it was worth it.

If you go, seriously consider paying 2 Euros for the shuttle ride back to your car, otherwise you will be facing a long steep hike. But walking down pays off in more than monetary ways; you will have the opportunity to take some fantastic pictures of the castle from the road.

We continued along the Mosel for another hour of driving, and I can’t begin to describe how fantastic it was. The weather has been ideal all week, and today was the best yet, so we wound our way down the smooth road with all four windows down and all four eyes wide open to take in the scenery.

Eventually we stopped in the town of Cochem and began walking through the old part of town without any expectations. We discovered a vibrant shopping and restaurant district hidden behind the gray stone walls of the buildings that face the road, which completely sucked us in for the next 90 minutes. At 6 p.m. we headed for what the locals would call an early dinner (we were the only people in the restaurant for a while; everyone else was sitting at a pub somewhere), and once again got a surprisingly excellent meal. (Ignore the French Fries, they seem to come with everything. Under that crisply breaded veal is a bed of wild chantrelles in a delicious cream sauce.) I’ve grown cynical about restaurants in tourist areas, but our luck has been fantastic while we’ve been here. Is it just Germany?

We followed the Mosel west for another 30 km or so, and then broke off to head back to the Autobahn for our trip back to base. Just as we were leaving we spotted a sign that said Nurburgring was only 23 km away. That’s a giant raceway that you can pay a fee to drive with your own car. It’s another car fantasy of mine to drive that track with something suitable, and Eleanor was encouraging me to do so, but once again that fantasy did not involve me racing in a Citroen four-banger. So we headed home, doing battle on the back roads with the VWs driven by 20-somethings who obviously (from their driving style) wished they were on the Nurburgring as well.

We missed a turn or two on the way back, and ended up pulling in at about 10:30. There was just enough light left for us to see the rest of the group clustered around an open fire, playing guitar and accordion. Obviously they had a nice day too.

Tomorrow we will all have to leave, so we’ll say goodbye in the morning and head off to Stuttgart.

I feel like I’ve swallowed something huge, and it’s not just the great German food. It’s going to take me a while to digest this experience of being with the European Airstreamers. So much is happening, and I’m learning so much that I can’t fathom it all at the end of each day.

Today was again tremendously fun. We rolled out of bed at 8:30 rather sluggishly (at least me) since we went to bed far too late last night. Armin popped by with a tray of warm rolls and excellent coffee for Eleanor, which we added to the Muesli that I was eating, and some strawberries, and some cream cheese.

After breakfast I found Armin outside preparing his quadracopter for another aerial flight over the campground. The light wasn’t ideal, but he got some video anyway and no doubt he will try again. These videos will probably make it to YouTube in a few weeks.

There was no program for the morning, which was ideal for casual conversation. The Europeans seem to enjoy taking breakfast outside, so just by walking down the row of Airstreams I was able to find several people to talk to. I dropped in on Ben and Denise, who were camping with their friend Marcus, and picked Ben’s brain about Switzerland. I left with a full page of suggestions and helpful advice, which I think will make that part of our trip very easy.

Michael Hold dropped by for a chat, and then he grabbed my camera and got a rare shot of Eleanor and me together, which I think will become a cherished momento of this trip.

Then we hopped in the Citroen for a quick drive over to Airstream Germany’s showroom in nearby Merenburg. It’s out on an industrial estate off the main road, really in a fairly rural location that you wouldn’t expect to find an Airstream dealer, but they have a beautiful showroom and seem to do a good business in both Airstreams and custom mobile catering trailers.

Eleanor took to one of the custom catering Airstreams that Airstream Germany (Roka-Werk AG) makes and began explaining exactly how it worked to Pete and Tracey. I think she’d like one for Christmas, but I can’t figure out how to get it in my checked baggage allowance at Lufthansa.

The workshop was equally impressive. I particularly liked the fact that they can lift an Airstream up in the air like a car and work on the underside. Since EU Airstreams don’t have full belly pans filled with insulation like the US ones, there’s easy access to the wires, gas plumbing, and chassis. (They aren’t cold at the floor though, because the floor itself is multi-layered with insulation.)

We met up with our friends Koos and Stefan, from Holland, and went up to the Weilburg altenstadt (old town) to have lunch and tour the Schloss (castle). We had a remarkable private tour since nobody else was there at 3 p.m., and then got back to the encampment to find the total number of Airstreams had swelled just a little bit more. That’s when I wandered around to take these two photos of Buicks that towed in Airstreams for the event. These are posted on the blog in response to a request from a blog reader.

At 6 p.m. the mayor of Weilburg came by to offer a little speech, but it was entirely in German, alas, so we didn’t understand it. Everything else at this event has been conducted in English, thanks to the bi-linguality of most Europeans, for which I am grateful. We are trying to use a little German here and there but we’ve been indebted to our friends who have helped out in translating things.

After the barbecue I was supposed to speak at 9 p.m., but we’re quite a bit further north than I’m used to and we are getting close to Summer Solstice. So it was far too bright for the projector to be seen. We postponed my talk until about 9:40 (and it was still light out). When I finished talking about America’s National Parks at 10:15, the sun had finally set but it was still light enough to see clearly.

I think the most invigorating aspect of the day has been all that I have learned about European camping, EU Airstreams, and the people. I feel like a newbie here. All of my preconceptions rooted in American experience are being challenged and expanded. It’s fun. They have a lot of good ideas here and I plan to bring a few back with me, along with the contact information of the new friends we have made.

It’s a bit chilly out again tonight so the hydronic heat is on, and I have to say I love it. I’d seriously consider retrofitting this to the next Airstream I’m working on, but it does require a “clean slate” of flooring and room for the radiators in order to fit. Still, it’s just wonderful: silent, even, efficient.

Well, that was all we could do for one day. We called Emma to say goodnight and now are back in our comfy Airstream looking forward to hitting the sack. Tomorrow we have a long scenic drive planned, so we’ll try to get an early start. I can only hope that tomorrow is as wonderful as today has been.

It’s already a great trip to Europe. We started off the day right with a breakfast of chocolate chip cookies with nuts and some more of the fresh strawberries, in our hotel room while the fresh air wafted in from the open doors on the balcony. Right there you’ve got the makings of a good day.

We walked back into the shopping district of Weilburg to get a top-up card for the cell phone, and with a little finagling and punching lots of numbers on the phone, I now have the miracle of Internet on my phone. EU9.90 bought me 500 megabytes of data, which should be more than I need for the days we are in Germany. We detoured a bit, stopping in at the Hopfbahnstrasse (train station) for a coffee for Eleanor and then returned to the hotel to pack up our gear.

The car rental people have assigned us a Citroen C3, which turns out to be a rather boxy compact car with not much of the get-up-and-go you’d want for Autobahn driving. Where we were driving the Autobahn was far from being a vast open highway where you can mash the pedal and zoom to your heart’s content. It’s a fairly crowded two or three- lane road filled with trucks and plenty of sudden traffic to cause rapid deceleration with little warning. We managed to reach 140 kph at one point but the rest of the time we were driving at typical American Interstate speeds and often far slower. This has tainted one of my long-time driving fantasies, but to be fair I never fantasized about driving the Autobahn in a Citroen.

50 miles later we were in the charming town of Weilburg. The encampment is just below the old city, which perches atop a hill surrounded by the Lahn river. At the very top is exactly what you’d expect, a castle. Down below is exactly what most people would not expect: 54 Airstreams.

I love the odd (by American standards) collection of tow vehicles that arrived with the Airstreams today. There’s everything from a 1950s Buick to a late-model Mercedes G-wagen. Two Ford F-250s are here, which thrills some of the Europeans because they are so American and weird. My favorite is the BMW X6, which I’ve never seen before and looks drastically cool in black. Other tow vehicles include a VW Westfalia camper van, a Buick Roadmaster station wagon, various Mercedes, and many Land Rovers.

Armin Heun, our host, handed us a chocolate and then introduced us to a new (European) Airstream model 684, which is somewhat similar to an American 23-footer but with many clever enhancements. We knew it would be different from the US models but were frankly staggered by the improvements the Brits (who build all the EU spec trailers) had worked into it.

There are almost too many things of note to list, but among our favorite features are the hydronic heat, electric entry step, the functional kitchen counter, the foot-level blue LED lights, the great roof vent/skylights with double shades (which are also found in the Airstream Westfalias), the clear bi-fold door in the shower, and the awesome electronic control panels that run virtually every system. This trailer also comes with electric power movers to help push it around the tight European campsites, satellite TV, hidden stabilizer jacks, a parking brake … the list goes on. Some of this stuff needs to come to America.


We spent the afternoon wandering the old town and getting lunch at a restaurant across from the castle (Schloss). Lunch turned out to be a two-hour affair but worth every minute. I usually rate cooking in terms of how well it compares to what Eleanor could have done at home, and the restaurant scored an unusual rating of “This is as good as yours!”


Part of the cultural experience of being in a foreign country, for us, is to shop with the locals. We pointed the GPS at a local REVE (grocery story chain) and picked up a few necessities for the Airstream, plus some light food for us. After returning from this errand with plenty of breakfast food, Armin dropped by to leave a full grocery bag of breakfast foods for us. So we have at least double what we need. I may have breakfast twice tomorrow.

I got a quick tour of the Airstream systems, partly from Armin and partly from Michael Hold of Airstream Europe. These trailers have very little onboard holding tank capacity, so gray water goes into an external tank much like the “blue boys” we use in America. Fresh water comes from an external tank called an Aqua-Roll. You roll it over the fresh water spigot, fill it, and then roll it back to the Airstream. The toilet is a cassette style, so later I’ll get the experience of dealing with that, but it should be no big deal.

We also met up with Pete and Tracey Bull, UK full-timers who have organized many Airstream rallies there. Pete is the UK distributor of Airstream Life, but until today we have never met or even spoken on the phone, so it was a distinct pleasure to chat with them in our 684 for a while.

After dinner with Armin, his wife Sandra and his daughter Emma (12 years old), Michael, and a few other guests, we met up with Ben and his party, from Switzerland. Upon hearing that we intended to drive through Switzerland, Ben immediately offered to suggest routes for us. We’ll meet up tomorrow to go over the maps together. Everyone has been like that, offering help, food, and tours. (And nearly everyone speaks English excellently.)


The agenda for this rally is typically light. Tonight’s only official activity was a huge campfire and music until 11 a.m. I have a feeling it would have gone much later if the local ordinances allowed it. Airstream Germany brought over a “bar” Airstream and offered open bar to all (courtesy of Airstream Europe). We headed back to our Airstream after 10 p.m. to call Emma and finish setting up inside, but even now at 11:30 p.m. I can hear people talking and laughing outside by the fire.


Tomorrow looks like it will be another full day. Can’t wait.