Where's Bertie? He remains unmoved, at the Stellplatz at Donaueschingen.
Weather: Overcast, cool start, gradually clearing to a mainly sunny afternoon. Warm in the sunshine, but not out of it.
Something I really enjoy about running on our travels is the absence of boredom, in that I seldom run the same route more than once. Given the lack of repetition, it is perhaps surprising that, until today, I've never managed to get myself lost.
Heading out from Bertie this morning, I paused a couple of miles in to take a photo of an attractive building with a stork's nest on top:
If I hadn't been running I would have composed it better, but by the time I had my phone out and the camera switched on, this was the view before me
Little did I know that I would pass this building a number of times on my return, as I lost my bearings and tried to remember from which way I had come. There was, in fact, a sign post next to the building, pointing the way back to Donaueschingen, but I was inititally (ridiculously!) certain I hadn't come from that direction, so I didn't follow it, but the real problem came from a closure of the cycle way, with a convoluted diversion signed from the direction of my outward route, but not from the direction of my return route. Eventually I had to resort to repeatedly stopping to look at the map on my phone, and I may also have trespassed through someone's garden in trying to find the path that would lead me back in the right direction.
You may spot that around the 2 and 5 mile markers is where my route finding went awry.
Perusal of the newly acquired guide book and maps, to come up with an idea as to where to head next, took up a chunk of the rest of the morning, at which point we were still torn between staying or leaving today. After lunch we headed into town, mainly to use the wifi again to do some domestic admin and to download some maps and walking routes for the next three places I intend us to visit.
Wandering around the town before we headed back, I caved on the second pass of the ice-cream shop that I had resisted yesterday:
An enormous sundae of strawberries, ice-cream, sorbet and cream. Note the two spoons; I wasn't piggish enough to eat the whole thing myself.
Late afternoon entertainment came in the form of a new arrival at the Stellplatz who huffed, sighed and waved his arms around at how badly people were parked. After initially parking where we had originally been, he then decided he could fit into the space next to us, reversed (with some force) into a tree, repaired the damage to his bike rack with some gaffa tape, found he couldn't get a satellite signal there, moved to abandon his van in the middle of the roadway instead, found his electricity cable wouldn't reach from there, so moved again, then again. His shenanigans distracted us wholly from the crossword over which we had been labouring.
This evening a different set of neighbours has popped around to do a comparison between Bertie and their van (a Hymer B504, which is very similar to Bertie, and the model we very nearly bought before deciding the B444 was the way forward for us). In amongst chat of vans, the UK, Brexit and the joys of touring Germany, they've recommended another place we need to visit, so I'll be needing to get the map out again.
Weather: Overcast, cool start, gradually clearing to a mainly sunny afternoon. Warm in the sunshine, but not out of it.
Something I really enjoy about running on our travels is the absence of boredom, in that I seldom run the same route more than once. Given the lack of repetition, it is perhaps surprising that, until today, I've never managed to get myself lost.
Heading out from Bertie this morning, I paused a couple of miles in to take a photo of an attractive building with a stork's nest on top:
If I hadn't been running I would have composed it better, but by the time I had my phone out and the camera switched on, this was the view before me
Little did I know that I would pass this building a number of times on my return, as I lost my bearings and tried to remember from which way I had come. There was, in fact, a sign post next to the building, pointing the way back to Donaueschingen, but I was inititally (ridiculously!) certain I hadn't come from that direction, so I didn't follow it, but the real problem came from a closure of the cycle way, with a convoluted diversion signed from the direction of my outward route, but not from the direction of my return route. Eventually I had to resort to repeatedly stopping to look at the map on my phone, and I may also have trespassed through someone's garden in trying to find the path that would lead me back in the right direction.
You may spot that around the 2 and 5 mile markers is where my route finding went awry.
Perusal of the newly acquired guide book and maps, to come up with an idea as to where to head next, took up a chunk of the rest of the morning, at which point we were still torn between staying or leaving today. After lunch we headed into town, mainly to use the wifi again to do some domestic admin and to download some maps and walking routes for the next three places I intend us to visit.
Wandering around the town before we headed back, I caved on the second pass of the ice-cream shop that I had resisted yesterday:
An enormous sundae of strawberries, ice-cream, sorbet and cream. Note the two spoons; I wasn't piggish enough to eat the whole thing myself.
Late afternoon entertainment came in the form of a new arrival at the Stellplatz who huffed, sighed and waved his arms around at how badly people were parked. After initially parking where we had originally been, he then decided he could fit into the space next to us, reversed (with some force) into a tree, repaired the damage to his bike rack with some gaffa tape, found he couldn't get a satellite signal there, moved to abandon his van in the middle of the roadway instead, found his electricity cable wouldn't reach from there, so moved again, then again. His shenanigans distracted us wholly from the crossword over which we had been labouring.
This evening a different set of neighbours has popped around to do a comparison between Bertie and their van (a Hymer B504, which is very similar to Bertie, and the model we very nearly bought before deciding the B444 was the way forward for us). In amongst chat of vans, the UK, Brexit and the joys of touring Germany, they've recommended another place we need to visit, so I'll be needing to get the map out again.
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