As we were not allowed to bring Cooper into the dining room, we ate our breakfast in the hotel foyer. Some places you can bring the dog, some you can’t. Leaving him alone in the room was not an option. It worked fine and the egg and bacon tasted just as good in the foyer.

From Potsdam it was a day on the autobahn, covering 610 kms to get south of Munich to a gasthaus in the Bavarian countryside called Landhotel Gasthofbaiernrain. It was literally out in the fields but was busy with both dinner guests and travelers from northern Europe overnighting on their way south. Behind the hotel we discovered a very neat and tidy Bavarian village when taking Cooper for a pee. Across the road were open fields and a view to the mountians in the distance and the church tower of the next village.

We had dinner in the restaurant, which was extremely busy. It was a warm evening and we managed to get a table in the biergarten. Thunderheads had been lingering in the distance and suddenly powerful gusts of wind tore through the biergarten and ripped off table cloths and seat cushions followed by a sudden downpour. There was a moment of panic as all the guests scrambled to get inside. The staff were very professionally and we were served our dinner and beer in the breakfast room instead.

After dinner we took a along a road across the field to let Cooper stretch his legs after a whole day in the backseat of the car. The light was beautiful and the setting sun made long shadows over the green fields. The thunderheads that brought the sudden shower had moved on towards the mountains making for some spectacular skies and a partial rainbow in the distance. Cooper spotted a cat chasing field mice and got so excited he started walking upright.

Our room had no airconditioning and only one small window. It was warm and stuffy in the room but we were truly knackered after a whole day of driving so we slept like babies.