"Vacation" at Rudi

Finally at Rudi (August 8th), where we originally wanted to have some sort of vacation or at least take it much more easier... Well Wolfi's list of repairs and must-do's had grown quite long and the hope of vacation vanished at the moment we arrived!

Arrival at Rudi and girls felt at home right away.

We got nice room from upstairs. My bed on the left and Wolfi's place in the corner :D

Wolfi started with his "body repairs". He needed some dental work and found a dentist nearby. After telling about our journey, the dentist surprised him with a "no charges at all"! In fact he even x-rayed the teeth to see whether there are other deficiencies and he found one potential trouble maker and this was also fixed.

Huge thanks to Dr. M.B. at this point. As he experienced a good deed in his life and carried it on, we will do our best on carrying it further as well! One thing done.

Next was some small things with the Suzi...

Ralph came over to have a "Benzingespräch" and I was rather sceptical about the things they suggested... (photo by Rudi)

Ralph explaining how they were done with his V-Strom. (photo by Rudi)

And the work starts - installing Scottoiler and changing the brake lines.

Shortly after Cornwall Wolfi's POV HD helmet camera went broken. Somehow the camera main unit did not find anymore the camera head. That's what it is with cables and connectors. It seems a connector pin is broken (Wolfi did buy the camera about 13 months ago and so no more warranty and no mercy to open the housing).

Wolfi investigating the helmet camera.

Work continues with the SilberWolf...

The overflow tube was somehow stuck - unbelievable amount of dirt came out

Wolfi's Garmin GPS had served well on many trips, in extreme temperatures from cold (-33C) and heat (+42C) and traveled the world with us already earlier. No wonder the DC connector totally disintegrated at some time. Instead of throwing unused stuff away when we left Finland, he did give things to friends for their usage. Lucky us Ari did not really need the other power cable and he was so kind and send it to us in Germany. Thanks a lot Ari, it saved us a lot of money!

Broken GPS power connector

I took the time at Rudi a bit more easier... My main idea was to go training with the local karate club, but unfortunately they were on vacation the whole time. So I just had trainings by myself, had some fun with Rudi's trampoline (good exercise for stomach muscles!) and especially enjoyed the beautiful and almost never ending forests nearby! I had plenty of good runs with my fabulous Vibram five finger shoes :) Those shoes are really one of the best buys ever, I highly recommend to everyone! Of course I helped Wolfi occasionally, but mostly I was just on his way... So kitchen was again the thing that kept me rather busy and boy did I do some fantastic goodies again! :D

Enjoying the hot summer and nice little garden :) (photo by Rudi)

Magnificent forests in Altenkessel! Finally this Finn could properly breath again :)

Saarland is very religious area and there are churches almost around every corner and they also make them selves noticed constantly! At Rudi we could enjoy the extremely loud "bling-blong" every 15 minutes 24/7!!! So no hope to get proper sleep either and that was also one of the things we were heavily looking forward to :( Well I guess just have to get used to it, because most likely it just gets worse the more souther we go...

Even in the middle of the forest there's always "help" around the corner :D

Delicious blackberries were just in season and on our walks we had often stomachs full of them!

Berry stealer :D

We also had some time to visit "almost" family like Usch, to whom I made the very successful cake and cookies.

Usch, me and Wolfi in Völklingen.

Lyra made instantly friends with the neighbour boy from Usch.

Almost every day we enjoyed some healthy and delicious smoothies, which even Rudi started to like! Thanks to Rudi's enormous mint bushes, we got also plenty of healthy greens into the drinks :)

Green: 2 bananas, 2 pears, huge bunch of fresh mint.

Yellow: 1 banana, 1 orange, 3 peaches, coconut milk.

Following the slogan from Saarland "Hauptsach gudd gess" we had one evening a really delicious meal of vegan burgers, garlic potatoes, salad and beer :)

Happy men with their delicious vegan burgers! :D

~ Ilta