Knickhagen Fulda
Valley Hessen Germany
7 October 2014
Dear Friends
Marquis Motorhomes: Life Goes On
Before
Marquis we had wintered on the south coast of Sicily and enjoyed springtime in
the Greek Peloponnese. We returned to the UK in June 2014 in order to exchange
our VW mwb Crafter van and Lunar Quasar caravan for a 3.5 ton motorhome. In
sharp contrast, Riverside Caravan
Park in Worksop (Notts) became our home for the month of July while we
extricated ourselves from the clutches of Marquis
Motorhomes. Conned by their false advertising and their initial sales lies,
we found ourselves with the motorhome we had wanted but which could not be
driven.
By August we found a much better motorhome at Brownhills of Newark, spent some time
equipping it, tried it out in western Scotland and then took the overnight ferry
from Newcastle to Ijmuiden near Amsterdam. From then on, life has settled down
into the normal but ever varying rhythms of travel.
Having now moved on
from the Marquis episode, we did find some satisfaction in writing a detailed
account of the events, putting the internet to one of its better uses. We
remain amazed that large organisations such as Marquis ignore the exposing power
of the internet and still believe they can mislead and cheat individuals with
impunity. Yet their business is one in which the loss of a single sale can cost
them thousands!
Barry had a working life in a Polytechnic/University with
a cast of several hundred; Margaret was Branch Secretary and then Chair of the
lecturers' trade union in a large technical college. We became accustomed to
organisational games and how to play them; in fact, we came to enjoy them and
Barry's MBA helped with the theory as well as the practice. The Marquis
management consists of amateurs, mechanics in suits, playing in a small muddied
pond which is slowing draining away beneath them.
Marquis already had ten branches when it bought up South
Yorkshire Caravans, a bankrupt business which occupied a desolate 50-acre site
along a back road into the former mining town of Dinnington. There is no sign of
any phoenix arising from those sad ashes; in fact there are no signs at all
around the site, except one for 'Reception' over the entrance to a single
building. Inside, there are no customer facilities except the shared use of the
small staff toilet and the motorhomes have to be taken elsewhere to be serviced
and prepared for sale.
A large number of caravans and a small number of
motorhomes occupy the otherwise empty site, with no clear indication of which,
if any, are for sale. Or which, if any, are open to inspection. An advantage is
that any putative customer is unlikely to be disturbed by a 'sales
executive'.
All this is in marked
contrast to the reincarnation of Brownhills on its Newark site, following the
change of ownership and management. With easy access from the junction where the
A46 crosses the A1, the site is clearly signed outside and within. There is
defined parking for visitors and a warm welcome from all the staff you may meet. Brownhills
deal only in motorhomes and the advantages of this specialism are immediately
obvious. All the motorhomes that are for sale, used or new, are open for
inspection with information to hand and the knowledgeable sales staff are
immediately available but not intrusive.
Other facilities open to the public include an
excellent and reasonably priced bistro/cafe, a well-stocked accessories shop,
good modern toilets and a machine dispensing free drinks (tea, coffee, soup or
fruit juice) inside the large indoor motorhome showroom.
Buying a motorhome at Brownhills is a pleasure,
working through a competent and transparent process that is well explained and
documented at every stage. Motorhomes are thoroughly prepared, serviced and
repaired in one of several specially built workshops on the site and accessories
can be fitted at any stage before collection.
All motorhome purchasers
qualify for automatic membership of 'Club Brownhills' with the following
benefits: unlimited free overnights with a hook-up and free WiFi; water-filling
and toilet-dumping, use of a swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna, washing-up room,
toilets and showers, TV lounge with books and games, and a coin-op washer and
drier. All this plus a 10% discount at the café and the accessories shop. As
long as you continue to own any Brownhills-bought motorhome!
Our
VW Crafter van and Lunar caravan were taken in part exchange at very good prices
compared with other offers. So we drove in with a total weight of 5 tons and a
train length of 12 metres (= 40 ft), then drove out in a German-built Carado motorhome weighing 3.5
tons with a length of 7 metres (= 23 ft). That's what we call
'downsizing'.
We had a problem with the gas supply to the fridge in the
Carado whilst in Scotland (on the banks of Loch Lomond) and had to call out a
mobile repairman, John Allan, from
south of Glasgow. His wife Fiona came with him on her day off: she is a
policewoman of arresting appearance in a very Gaelic manner. The point is that
Brownhills repaid the cost quite promptly and without argument: £75 for the
repair and £25 to cover the cost of a night on a nearby campsite while the work
was done. All this turned a problem into a pleasure. On the road since
1995, initially in an American Ford E350-based Four Winds motorhome, followed by
a similar Chevrolet-based Fleetwood Flair (interspersed with three
round-the-word journeys each taking one year), we have returned to what we do
best – motorhoming. We did give the caravanning life a good run over the last
three years, trying two towing-vans and three caravans through about twenty
countries. Now, with a motorhome equipped with a solar panel, two leisure
batteries, an inverter, a large water tank, 36 litres of refillable LPG, extra
security locks, a good alarm/double immobiliser and the bikes safe and dry in
the garage, we feel ready for almost anything! Our initial focus is on
regaining cycling fitness on the long-distance cycle paths of the Netherlands
and Germany. Quite serious rides in the spring of 2014 in the Greek Peloponnese
were followed by the fallow summer months in England, where to cycle is to risk
all for very little return. We did ride the short stretch of a miserable
pretence of a cycle path alongside Loch Lomond and that was enough. Compared
with the long-distance cycle routes of northern Europe, the 'West Loch Lomond
Cycle Path' was a travesty.
How sad it is that most people in the UK
have no idea what can be achieved for and by citizens in countries with
social-democratic values. Instead, too many subjects of Her Majesty live
passive, inactive and sheltered lives behind walls of state and capitalist
propaganda. One might say 'screened from reality'. No surprise that Scotland
tried to make its propaganda more effective by enlisting stories from a history
that never was.
This is the third time in as many years that we have
ridden the cycle paths that parallel the great rivers of Germany: the Rhine,
Danube, Mosel, Weser, Fulda, Werra, Main, Lahn, Tauber, Neckar, Saale and Spree. During September
in 23 day-rides we have built up our distance to 45/50 miles (72/80 km): not
what we used to do but then we are not what we used to be! What still weaves its
magic for us is the combination of the motorhome as a movable base, carrying the
bicycles to ride on long-distance traffic-free paths.
Cycling helps to
avoid simply being 'tourists'; we avoid tourist objects and we are too often
bored by the accounts of other motorhomers hopping from one Rough Planet
'must-see' to another, seeking only a free place for the night. We also aim to
give our journeys a theme and this time we are accompanied by the Professor
Richard J Evans trilogy: 'The Coming of the Third Reich', 'The Third Reich in
Power' and 'The Third Reich at War'. It is only in such detail that one can
begin to contemplate how this great and industrious nation at the heart of
Europe could descend into such dreadful barbarity, and how it still struggles to
find itself a place in contemporary Europe.
Barry's search for
understanding builds on a childhood of night-time German air raids, of months
sleeping in a back-garden air-raid shelter and of a 6-month evacuation to safety
from Britain's
second-heaviest bombed city: Hull.
Margaret's interest comes from her
knowledge of the German language and literature that she studied at degree
level, a love of the country, its traditions and folklore, mixed with
bewilderment at its 20th century history.
Moving on from
Germany in due course, our overall aim will be to travel through mainland Europe
in a Great Circle, the size of which will depend on our speed, its radius and
the centrifugal forces which we encounter. As far north and east as we can, then
south through the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria into
Turkey and/or Greece.
It would then be good to return to the UK in
springtime, island hopping via Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica and so into Genoa and
over the Alps. Other things being equal (to what?), we can be out through the
winter, free of the Nanny State and the all-pervasive unforgiving eyes of its
countless cameras. One thing the Germans have learned after years of the SS, the
Gestapo, the Stasi and all their informants, is to eschew all forms of
surveillance. So there are very few cameras here and Edward Snowden is their
hero. Compare and contrast!
Go well.
Barry and
Margaret
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