Sunday 17 June 2018

Sunday 17 June - Mannheim and Schwetzinger

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz in a car park in a retail area, just outside of the town of Schwetzinger (exact location: 49.37788, 8.5581).
Weather: Glorious start, but soon clouding over. Still warm.

As yesterday morphed into evening people started returning to their cars from the strange allotment-esque area next to where Bertie was sitting, many pulling folding trolleys, and within an hour or so the car park had almost emptied. That set me thinking a bit more as to what that area really was, and the conclusion I reached was that it is the inland German city equivalent of British beach huts. Many people in cities live in flats without gardens - these are their gardens, complete with substantial mini-house-like 'sheds'. That theory was backed up when I re-read the entry in Park4Night, which said the car park was next to the 'gardens'. I had originally thought that was just a poor translation of 'park', but when I switched to the German and French text my theory was supported.

By nightfall there were just a few cars left and we suspected, from seeing the manner of dress of their owners earlier, that they belonged to people attending some sort of a do nearby. That do finished sometime just after 4am and twenty minutes later, after we'd been woken by various chatting people passing by on the street, we witnessed the phenomenon where a car parked nearby will suddenly grow extra doors, all of which need to be opened and closed before the owner can drive away. I reckon the two nearest cars had at least eighteen doors each.

It was probably only a quarter of an hour before the chatting and door slamming stopped, so far from the worst disturbance we've ever come across (and as I've said before: if you're going to sleep in public car parks, you can't complain about other members of the public using those car parks at any time of day or night).

Opening the curtains this morning, a little later than intended, it was a clear blue sky that greeted my eyes. I made haste: a long(er) slow(er) run was on the agenda for me this morning and I wanted to get out there before the day hotted up too much. As it goes, Neckarau Park is a fantastic location for exercise on a hot morning, as so much of the extensive path network has a heavy canopy of trees overhead, meaning I was seldom in the sunlight. Even at 8.45 on a Sunday morning, there were hundreds (and I don't think I exaggerate at all there) of people out exercising. The Nordic walking contingent were particularly noticeable, as it's unusual to see so many people independently undertaking the activity.

It must have been knocking on for noon by the time we dragged ourselves away from Mannheim and we didn't come far. Ideally we wanted to visit a service point today, and that we could achieve here in Schwetzinger, a whole 14km of driving from our start point. We weren't sure if we were going to stay here, but arriving to find plenty of other vans in residence, we thought it couldn't be as bad as the couple of reviews I'd read had implied (their only complaint was the road noise and perhaps Sunday afternoon isn't the best time for us to be a judge of that).

The map told us that just along the road are the castle gardens, so after lunch we ambled along for a look. It turns out that one has to pay for entry and the only entrance is right on the other side. When we finally reached it, we discovered that it's not just gardens, but also a Palace. Unfortunately, there is only one English language tour of the building each week and it takes place on a Sunday at 2.15pm. We arrived at 3pm. So, we won't be visiting the Palace.

We will take in the gardens, but we decided to leave that for tomorrow, instead taking a stroll around the castle square and the bit of old town nearby.

I'll leave you today with a selection of the many sculptures/art installations we saw around the town:

I've no idea!

The town is famed for its asparagus, which is the subject of this sculpture. The market stall behind was an asparagus vendor.

Of the four corners of this junction, three contained art installations (two are visible in this shot).

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