Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at a place called Schattenmühle (Exact location: 47.84327, 8.31925).
Weather: Rainy start, then gradually clearing to give some sunny periods later this afternoon, interspersed with threatening skies.
Our car park for the last two nights, up in the woods by Schluchsee was delightfully peaceful, with the main sounds being tweeting birds and the occasional cowbell drifting on the breeze. Comings and goings of cars were relatively few. So, whilst it was surrounded by trees and boasted no view, we would happily have stayed there a third night, to return to Schluchsee (the town) tomorrow for the football, except that by elevenses time this morning we were going to run out of drinking water*. And if we were going to move to find a tap, then we may as well move on.
Via a quick stop in the motorhome Stellplatz in Schluchsee to fill and drain Bertie, we headed the 20km to where we are now sitting.
All I knew about the location prior to arrival was that it was a car park, located by a gorge and that there were nearby walking routes (although I'm not sure it's possible to park in this region and not be near to a walking route). That the car park was fairly full when we arrived was a good sign - to attract this many people there must be something interesting nearby.
The presence of an information board with a map setting out the local walks was handy, as we had no mobile phone reception at all to download maps or routes. Of the European countries we have visited, Germany stands out as having the poorest mobile phone service - a complete contrast to Spain, where I can only think of one occasion when we couldn't get a signal, and it's almost always 3G. In Germany, except when we're in a town, it's normal for at least one of us (and very often both of us) not to have 3G.
The walk, whilst 2km longer than advertised, with a bit more ascent, was good and interesting. I've written more about it over at http://gayleybird.blogspot.com.
Engineered walkways and a modest waterfall as we made our way up the gorge
A field of cultivated wild flowers was buzzing with bees and aflutter with butterflies.
Crossing a river before following an undulating path alongside it, on the retirn leg of the circuit.
By the time we got back to Bertie the first of the day's World Cup semi-final matches had kicked off and I gave Mick the option of decamping to the nearest town so that he could either find somewhere to watch or follow along on t'internet. The decision made was to stay put, but I did manage to find a French-speaking radio station, on which one of the two commentators spoke clearly enough for me to be able to get the gist of what was going on.
This evening two other vans have joined us in the car park (which is, otherwise, now empty), and there was a brief visit by a man and a woman, both dressed in work clothes, who arrived in separate cars and disappeared off up the footpath for a while. There could have been many an innocent explanation for the meeting, but I stand by my first assessment of "They're having an affair!".
(*As we have owned Bertie from new and can peer into his water tank to check there's no algae growth, it's questionable why we don't just drink water from his tank. Colin had no such access to look inside his tank, and he had been a hire vehicle before we bought him, so we always carried separate drinking water in four 5-litre containers. We've continued the same regime in Bertie.)
Weather: Rainy start, then gradually clearing to give some sunny periods later this afternoon, interspersed with threatening skies.
Our car park for the last two nights, up in the woods by Schluchsee was delightfully peaceful, with the main sounds being tweeting birds and the occasional cowbell drifting on the breeze. Comings and goings of cars were relatively few. So, whilst it was surrounded by trees and boasted no view, we would happily have stayed there a third night, to return to Schluchsee (the town) tomorrow for the football, except that by elevenses time this morning we were going to run out of drinking water*. And if we were going to move to find a tap, then we may as well move on.
Via a quick stop in the motorhome Stellplatz in Schluchsee to fill and drain Bertie, we headed the 20km to where we are now sitting.
All I knew about the location prior to arrival was that it was a car park, located by a gorge and that there were nearby walking routes (although I'm not sure it's possible to park in this region and not be near to a walking route). That the car park was fairly full when we arrived was a good sign - to attract this many people there must be something interesting nearby.
The presence of an information board with a map setting out the local walks was handy, as we had no mobile phone reception at all to download maps or routes. Of the European countries we have visited, Germany stands out as having the poorest mobile phone service - a complete contrast to Spain, where I can only think of one occasion when we couldn't get a signal, and it's almost always 3G. In Germany, except when we're in a town, it's normal for at least one of us (and very often both of us) not to have 3G.
The walk, whilst 2km longer than advertised, with a bit more ascent, was good and interesting. I've written more about it over at http://gayleybird.blogspot.com.
Engineered walkways and a modest waterfall as we made our way up the gorge
A field of cultivated wild flowers was buzzing with bees and aflutter with butterflies.
Crossing a river before following an undulating path alongside it, on the retirn leg of the circuit.
By the time we got back to Bertie the first of the day's World Cup semi-final matches had kicked off and I gave Mick the option of decamping to the nearest town so that he could either find somewhere to watch or follow along on t'internet. The decision made was to stay put, but I did manage to find a French-speaking radio station, on which one of the two commentators spoke clearly enough for me to be able to get the gist of what was going on.
This evening two other vans have joined us in the car park (which is, otherwise, now empty), and there was a brief visit by a man and a woman, both dressed in work clothes, who arrived in separate cars and disappeared off up the footpath for a while. There could have been many an innocent explanation for the meeting, but I stand by my first assessment of "They're having an affair!".
(*As we have owned Bertie from new and can peer into his water tank to check there's no algae growth, it's questionable why we don't just drink water from his tank. Colin had no such access to look inside his tank, and he had been a hire vehicle before we bought him, so we always carried separate drinking water in four 5-litre containers. We've continued the same regime in Bertie.)
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