Tuesday 21 to Thursday 23 August - Izegem (Belgium) and Wissant (France)

Where's Bertie? Tonight he's at the Aire at Wissant, where he has been quite a few times before. On Tuesday and Wednesday night he was outside the Hymer dealer in Izegem.
Weather: Cooler, slightly murky starts, gradually clearing and warming up, but still mainly overcast days.

With the saga of the design fault on Bertie's bed having dragged on for 17 months, and with the customer relations at the dealer where we bought Bertie being seriously lacking, we had little faith that we would come away this week with a properly functioning bed*.

Things did not start well on Tuesday morning. Having been present, back in June, when the timeslot was found where three technicians would be available for two whole days, and having delayed our return to the UK to make ourselves available for that timeslot, we soon learnt that there were actually only two available, and one of them only until lunchtime. Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh!

Two days were spent sitting at a table in amongst brand new motorhomes, waiting, waiting and waiting some more and, to our great surprise, by the end of yesterday the necessary bits of the bed frame had been replaced, plus the only other major issue (a drivers seat that moves from side to side whilst driving isn't ideal...) and a few more minor ones had also been addressed. Hopefully we'll only need to make one more visit to get the last few things sorted, and hopefully nothing else will be found amiss during the warranty period.

I did get a couple of runs in whilst I was there, took a walk around the local area (remarkable for how uninteresting it is) and did a fair amount of crosswording, knitting and internet surfing.

Being 7.30 by the time we had Bertie returned to us last evening, we drove him all of two spaces along the car park (from a sloping slot to a flat one), plugged into the dealer's electricity supply and stayed another night.

This morning we left Belgium, stopping only for LPG on our way (49.8c/litre - bargain!) and drove straight to Lidl in Coquelles (by Calais) to do the traditional 'leaving France' shop consisting principally of wine, beer and cheese. Now, every time the fridge door is opened, Mick accuses me of having smelly feet. I'm not sure he believes me that it really is that camembert he chose.

It was coming up to quarter to one when we pulled into the Aire in Wissant and, having not had elevenses, we were ready to eat a scabby dog. No time was wasted in heading into the village for Moules Frites. Last year we opted for the most expensive eatery. This year we went for the mid-priced one next door, whose menu contains two options: Jambon + Frites ou Moules Frites. Like us, every other customer had opted for Moules and the servings were not small:


Walking down to the beach afterwards, the scene was a contrast to last year. That was a hot, sunny day, the tide was out, the beach was crowded and the sea full of people. Today there were a few families dotted around on what little beach wasn't under water, but the sea was full of wind- and kite-surfers. It was a bit breezy.


Tomorrow morning we'll be up early. We're booked on Eurotunnel at 0750. And that's it. The end of another trip. I have no idea how it went by so fast!

Monday 20 August - Harelbeke

Where's Bertie? For the fourth time this year, he's sitting at the Aire at Harelbeke. It's still €5 per night, including electricity, water and waste.
Weather: Overcast but warm. One very brief shower whilst we were driving.

My day started with a half marathon. Just over actually. I ran 13.2 miles along the Canal de Centre between Thieu and Mons, half of which was against the wind, which, fortunately, was blowing less than it was yesterday evening.

I was finished by quarter past nine, and it seemed to me that I had good justification for doing very little for the rest of the day. Thus far I've succeeded in that, although there's a little strollette, over to the nearby lake, on the cards for later this evening.

The only other exersion of the day was a quick grocery shop, to give us enough supplies to cobble together tonight's tea.

Oh, and a big spring clean of Bertie, seeking out as many dust traps as I could find and giving him a good vacuum too (as in, more thorough than my usual once or twice weekly whizz around with the Dyson). Even his underfloor lockers have been de-gritted (the migration of grit/sand/dirt into Bertie's interior is something to behold).

Oh, and I had to wash about six gallons of sweat and a few handfuls of concrete dust out of my running gear.

In fact, now that I think about it, I've not been as lazy as I thought!

Sunday 19 August - Luxembourg City (Luxembourg) and Thieu (Belgium)

Where's Bertie? He's five metres away from the canal at Thieu, where he previously spent the nights of 9&10 June.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine.

Arriving in Luxembourg City this morning, we thought our visit was going to be over before it started, just like our visit to Ghent back in March, and for the same reason: the huge car park in which we had intended to leave Bertie was closed and full of a funfair. I knew of no other Bertie-friendly car park that was a short-enough walk from the city centre, and we weren't going to drive around aimlessly trying to find one. So, we pulled into some roadside parking for a rethink and, after a bit of manoeuvring, decided that Bertie fitted into that space well enough to leave him there whilst we looked around. Hitting the city on a Sunday morning was definitely a good bet, with the roads quiet and little competition for parking spaces (which also happen to be free on the weekend).

With the shops shut on a Sunday, I had expected that we would have the city streets almost to ourselves. What I hadn't anticipated was that the place would be so multi-nationally touristy. Almost everyone we did see was clearly there for the same purpose as us, and a large number of them were speaking English.


Fountain of the day, front and back views.

We spent a couple of hours wandering, with the highlight being the city walls...


...and, if we weren't on a schedule and there had been somewhere suitable to park, we probably could have filled at least a day, and maybe two.

I'm not sure how we came to leave Bertie without arming ourselves with any food, water or even our hats (on a clear-skied day - careless!), but at least the first two issues were easy to resolve:


The only other thing to divert our course back to Bertie was the sound of music from somewhere nearby. A band, making proper use of a bandstand, was providing an excellent performance:


The afternoon consisted of driving, with just an interlude for diesel and for lunch, both birds killed with one stone at the last motorway service station before we left Luxembourg (fuel prices are uniform across the whole of the country, even at motorway services). Had we known we would only be buying diesel (their LPG pump was closed) we would stopped at one of many quiet petrol stations on our way out of the city, instead of queuing five vehicles deep (at 20 pumps!)* and having to deal with a really badly designed payment system.

Back in Belgium there aren't a huge number of dedicated motorhome parking areas, from which to choose, so we opted for the space-guaranteed option of returning to Thieu. Being right on the canal, it also serves to give me an easy location for a run in the morning.

^{(*Diesel currently costs 111.9c/litre in Luxembourg, compared with an average price of 154.9c/litre in Belgium. It's understandable that people are willing to queue, having nipped over the border to fill up.)}

Saturday 18 August - Mannheim (Germany) and Mondorf-les-Bains (Luxembourg)

Where's Bertie? He's at an Aire in the town of Mondorf-les-Bains which sits on the Luxembourg side of the border with France (exact location: 49.50537, 6.2754).
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine

There's some initiative on in Mannheim at the moment to promote sport in the park (it's called 'Sport in the Park' in that bizarre way that European countries tend to adopt English when they're after a slogan). It's not that there's a lack of people exercising in the park, as I discovered on our previous visit there in June, but there can't be any harm in a promotion that gets even more people out and about. For today's ParkRun it meant a record attendance of 88.

I don't know what the newbies made of it, but if today had been my first time ever, I would have been thoroughly put off. Happily, I know that a 15 minute full-on mass-participation aerobics session (a thing of my nightmares) by way of a warm-up is not normal. Nor is starting 12 minutes late.

Once we did finally get underway, things went better than I had expected, with me bettering the PB I set on the same course in June by 1 minute 34 seconds, coming home in 25.34. Annoyingly, I crossed the line with the knowledge that I could have gone faster, on the basis that I was nowhere near the state I was in when I finished at Stuttgart last week.

Equally good is that Mick also managed to finish without his calf exploding again. That's the first (and possibly last) time I've ever beaten Mick at a ParkRun; I'll gloss over the fact that he was intentionally taking it steady and in so doing, found himself acting as pacer for a first timer.

Then things got even better, as the city of Mannheim had paid for a coffee, at the nearby cafe, for every ParkRunner today. Mick supplemented his with a small breakfast, which I kindly helped him consume:

Contrary to appearances, we weren't on the deck of a boat.

Leaving Mannheim post-breakfast proved to be an incredibly stressful experience. I've been having problems with Google Maps (again!) recently. Unlike the other four mapping apps on my phone, it really struggles to hold a GPS signal and to keep track of exactly where I am. So, over breakfast, I took advantage of the free wifi and updated the App in the hope of improving its performance. It was at the point that we needed to take an unsigned diversion*, around the bridge roadworks with the 2m width restriction, that I discovered that Google Maps was now refusing to show me any roads at all. Not helpful in the slightest!

Clearly, we did finally escape and 240km later, we arrived in Mondorf - chosen because it was the most convenient location I could find, with an official motorhome parking area, for a visit to Luxembourg City tomorrow.

We took a look around this afternoon and as far as we could see, the main attraction here is the thermal baths complex and the surrounding parkland, through which we walked a pleasant circuit.

Fountain of the day

The final joy of the day: they speak French in these parts. After two months of language ignorance, I can understand again!

^{(*The SatNav does have a 'take me around a roadblock' function, but Bertie's dashboard is about half a mile longer than my arms, so operating the SatNav whilst in transit, and whilst trying to make immediate directional decisions through city centre streets, with nowhere to pull over, is not an easy thing to do.)}

Friday 17 August - Heidelberg & Mannheim

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at Neckarau Park on the south side of Mannheim. It's the same place he spent the nights of 15 & 16 June.
Weather: Sunny for most of the day, with cloud, rumblings of thunder and a bit of rain coming in late afternoon.

Having surveyed the options for where we could spend tonight, so as to position us reasonably well for a quick visit to Neckarau Park (Mannheim) tomorrow, I set the SatNav for a walkers' car park that sits up above Heidelberg. It was an 'interesting' drive up there, involving a closed road, a diversion and some streets made a bit tight by cars parked on both sides. Then we arrived to find the whole car park to be on a bit of a slant. There were a couple of spaces (not free at that time) that would have been acceptable, but we decided that we would stay there only for lunch and a walk, then would continue on to Mannheim today.

It was a pleasant short route, through old, mixed woodland, although it was lacking viewpoints. Not that today's air clarity made for good views where we did find a break in the trees:


Back at Bertie, the SatNav (with Google Maps as a sanity-check back-up) took us back down to the River Neckar via a much better route (minimal tiny roads and no closures), and half an hour or so later we were installed in Mannheim, where I'm hoping to go for another little strollette later, assuming that this rain passes.

Snapped out of Bertie's window when stopped at traffic lights.

The only other not-really-news of the day is that, after spending a few days watching Bertie's 'miles to empty' read-out, and comparing it with how far away from Luxembourg (land of cheap fuel), we decided today that the numbers were a little too close for comfort, so pulled in to put €10-worth of diesel into the tank. Hopefully that will see us over the border, and as far as a fuel station that doesn't have a big queue of border hopping fuel-tourists. We will find out tomorrow...

------
Later...
The rain barely lasted any time at all and wasn't too heavy, which is a good thing as I've only just remembered that I opened the roof light above Bertie's bed when we arrived here. A late evening stroll has just been had through the wooded park and along the river. At the Strandbad (riverside leisure area) the car park was heaving, and we expected to find great groups of people picnicking and barbecuing. That wasn't the case, as the dry weather has caused barbecues and open fires to be banned. The river itself is rather smaller than it was in mid-May too:

Thursday 16 August - Obrigheim and Mosbach

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz in the town of Mosbach (exact location: 49.36087, 9.14760).
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and hot.

Whilst walking along the river yesterday afternoon we came upon an information sign that told us that we were just 500m away from the start of a heritage trail that visits the few visible remains of a Second World War aircraft engine factory, and its supporting infrastructure. The factory itself was situated within 56000 square metres of underground tunnels, which had been commandeered from an old gypsum mine.


With information provided in English, we thought it might be moderately interesting, and we seldom object to a walk through the woods, so this morning that's what we did.

It turned out that the only sign with any English on it was the one photographed above, advertising the route. Those situated on the route itself weren't even set out in a Google Translate-friendly way. We made do, and it was, as we'd hoped, moderately interesting.


Down there are the sites of the four concentration camps from which forced labour was taken to create the factory and then to run it. It started in early 1944 and ended with the war in 1945.

This tunnel was a very effective air conditioning system today. From a couple of hundred metres away we could feel the cold air eminating from it. The tunnels were very firmly closed off to prevent access.

There had been a bit of dithering before our walk as to whether Bertie should stay put on our riverside pitch today, or whether we should move a few km up the road to Mosbach. By the time we were back from our walk, we had decided to move - something we nearly regretted when we ran into yet another road closure blocking our way. Our perception is that the Germans don't often employ temporary traffic lights, but instead operate road closures. It feels like not a single journey goes by without us seeing at least one.

Even on arrival, I wasn't convinced we'd done the right thing in moving, as rather than being parked on a river bank, with nothing between us and the water, we were now in a compound of other vans, with wooded slopes around, but no particular view.

Then we walked into the old town, about 1km away through parkland, and soon decided that it was most definitely worth visiting.

It's another historic town full of half-timbered buildings

I'd already picked up a leaflet at the Stellplatz which set out a tour of the town, taking in the most historically interesting buildings and features (plus the old people's home, built in the 1980s, which was a bit of an odd inclusion in the tour, even if it did win a design award for how well it integrated old with new). We'd managed to find our way to Point Of Interest No 3, unable to understand any of the information about them, when I noticed that I was standing outside of the Tourist Information Office. They had a copy of the town tour leaflet in English, allowing us to get much more out of the rest of our visit.

This was described in the leaflet as the 'Kiwwel Poo Spring'. Initially I thought it a bad translation, but then I read on. In the 19th century, toilets in Mosbach consisted of cider and wine barrels set up in quiet locations, such as in the narrow gaps between houses. This was odd behaviour to the people from outside the town, thus Mosbach residents became known as 'Kiwwelschisser' (Bucket Pooers). Over time this morphed from an insult to an accepted name for a Mosbacher, so much so that this fountain has been built to commemorate it.

Back at the Stellplatz, the rapid progression of summer made itself known when the sun dipped behind the nearby hill at just gone 6pm. That was a welcome occurrence, with a drop in temperature soon following. It's 2030 as I type this and now quite a pleasant temperature to be sitting outside. Perhaps there's time for a bit of alfresco crochet before darkness falls?

Wednesday 15 August - Obrigheim

Where's Bertie? He's 20m away from the River Neckar, at a Stellplatz at Obrigheim (exact location: 49.35039, 9.09959).
Weather: Overcast start, clearing slowly all day, such that there is now not a cloud.

Over the last couple of days of perambulations around the Stellplatz at Lauffen, I'd seen a number of Waymarkers and had gleaned from them that there was a 10km lollipop shaped route. I didn't go out of my way to find the start point (Bertie was parked near the 1km & 9km marks), but today I decided that, rather than simply running up and down the river, I would follow the markers.

It took me meandering through the vinyards and orchards that run up from the river - with the emphasis on 'up'. It seemed when I finally reached the top that I was standing on the highest ground in the vicinity.

Within half an hour of arriving back at Bertie I was (cold!) showered, breakfasted and we were on the move, heading for Obrigheim, 40km down-river.

Given more time, I'm sure we would have been waylaid with at least a night in
Bad Wimpfen, which looked like a place worth visiting, but as we are now on a schedule, we stuck with Plan A.

The Stellplatz here (which is a shared car/motorhome parking area, running parallel to the river) is in mixed surroundings. We've walked in both directions along the river today, and the valley itself is attractive, with a large flat plain, bordered with steep slopes covered in trees, meadows and orchards, with large clusters of houses. That sounds lovely, but there's also a lot of industry and infrastructure nearby, which makes it feel a lot less like we are in an idylic landscape.

Here's an illustration, with my view as I sat outside crocheting this afternoon:

But walk the few paces to Bertie's back bumper and look very slightly right, and the outlook becomes less attractive (and at times, quite noisy!):


As well as watching the huge commercial barges passing on the river, our in-Bertie entertainment this afternoon has come from our neighbouring van. We can't understand a word they are saying, so have no idea what the content of their conversation is, but they come across as Herr & Frau Grumpy, completely displeased with everything they see and hear, including each other. It's a wonder they travel if everything makes them so unhappy! (Or, to give the benefit of the doubt, maybe it's just an accent and mannerism thing and they're really perfectly happy ... although I haven't heard them laugh or seen them crack a smile yet.)

Tuesday 14 August - Lauffen

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Stellplatz at Lauffen.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine to start, clouding over later, before clearing again. Pleasantly warm.

There's nothing to write home about today.

A run for me first thing, along the river and through the vinyards under a clear sky:


A walk into town later...

Looking across the river when standing with our backs towards the 'new' town

...took us past this sculpture, sited on a traffic roundabout:


"What's that about?" we wondered, but not for long, because I spotted an information sign across the road. Google Translate came to the rescue.


A detour was taken on the way back to take us over the new bridge, from where we could look down into the major civil engineering project currently taking place in one of the pair of locks below. I'm not sure whether it's just us, but we do find major building projects fascinating and can often be found paused at viewing points to see what's going on.

We had already stood and watched a digger at work on a different building site, excavating a trench that left just about a foot's width of earth between the hole and the adjacent river. This lock project was by far the most interesting, though, as we watched a massively long drill being retracted and dismantled.

Mick tried a little jogette this afternoon, to see how his calf is doing. He came back in one piece.

News from the Stellplatz is that there are 11 vans here so far tonight (10 of which are parked sensibly). Mick noted today the inconsistency I had missed yesterday: there's a stated maximum of 4 vans allowed, yet 8 electric points have been provided.

Monday 13 August - Lauffen am Neckar

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz, on the River Neckar, just outside of the town of Lauffen. (Exact location: 49.06967, 9.16292)
Weather: Rainy from around 1030 until 1430, with a bit of blue sky appearing later. Still pleasantly warm.

Having tootled 22km down river this morning, we arrived to find four vehicles already within the Stellplatz, and two parked outside of it. There was, however, a free space within the marked area, so we slotted Bertie in, only then to find that there is a 4-vehicle limit here (same as the last place). We weren't worried. How can it possibly be policed without knowing who was here first?

Soon after our arrival, one of the other vans left anyway, leaving just four of us within the official area for most of the day. As I type there are five within, and three without. I wouldn't be surprised if more turn up later. (Incidentally, the Stellplatz is a corner of an absolutely massive - and otherwise completely empty - car park next to the outdoor swimming pool complex. I would guess that said complex has had a very busy summer, and given how many fine weather days there have been, it's unsurprising that no-one has chosen to visit on a rainy day like today.)

A five-minute stroll along the river was managed upon arrival, but as the first spots of rain hit us we declared it to be coffee time and paused only to say hello to a very friendly cat as we scurried back to Bertie.

At 1400, with the rain still continuing, albeit lightly, we decided that getting wet was preferable to being cooped up, so into the town we went. Our starting point was the old fortified town, sitting above the east side of the river (the opposite side to the Stellplatz). It's all cobbles and olde worlde, set within the remains of the town walls.


Narrow, bulging old buildings featured, as captured in the first two of these three snaps. On the right is one of the town gates.


This sign had us all excited - the first English language sign we've seen, if not all trip, then for a long time. Although there were plenty of other information signs, this was the only one with a translation.

The new(er) town, on the west side of the river was less interesting, and quiet too, even in the commercial centre, with many of the businesses currently closed for two weeks for their summer holidays. It didn't hold our attention for long.

Brief consideration was given to having a swim after 1730 (when the entry fee reduces from €4.20 to €2.50), although the main attraction was the thought of a mains-water shower afterwards - something we've not had for 9 weeks now. But we'll be home within two weeks (yikes, where did all that time go?!), where showers consisting of more than 5-litres* of hot water will soon cease to be a novelty! (*Bertie's hot water tank capacity is 10 litres. We can both get a shower from one tank, with some left over for dishes or laundry.)

^{(An aside, only slightly related to today: A couple of years ago I bought a wifi booster. It wasn't a cheap bit of kit, and in buying it I knew that if it ever paid for itself (compared with using mobile data) then it would take a *very* long time to do so. However, it is convenient, especially in Scotland where so many houses host a BT Wifi hotspot. It's proved even more useful in Germany, as the FON hotspots here (which can be used with a BT log-in) limit you to one device at a time. The booster is one device, but via its own router, ten devices can be connected to it. Today it has proved its worth by giving us access to the free wifi at the swimming pool, which is incredibly fast - probably helped by there being no customers using it at the pool today. I downloaded three newspapers today in five minutes, versus two in an hour in Stuttgart.)}

Sunday 12 August - Steinheim an der Murr

Where's Bertie? He has not budged an inch. He's still in the Stellplatz at Steinheim.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and hot (as I type, at just gone 7pm, it's still 34 degrees inside Bertie. It is starting to cool down outside).

An excellent start to the day for me: a 12-mile run along the River Murr and then the Neckar, almost entirely on dedicated cycle/foot paths (mainly shaded too), with a bit of off-tarmac here and there. All was quiet when I set off, on a much cooler morning than any of the previous few weeks, but by the time I was approaching half way, other runners and cyclists started appearing. I'd seen lots of both by the time I returned to Bertie, but the runner that wins the award for a hard workout is the chap who I followed for a short while, before he suddenly disappeared up into the vinyard terraces. As I passed the gap in the lower wall, he was storming up the steep stone staircase.


Gorgeous morning for a run along the river, and for floating in a hot air balloon above it.

My pace was exactly what Mick had expected it to be, so he was waiting for me at the bridge at the end of the car park when I finished. He then took the role of chief photographer as I went and sat in the river. Much colder than my previous two river immersions, but very nice for the thighs.


Hopefully it's understandable that the rest of my morning involved eating, drinking and reading, but we did take ourselves off this afternoon for a walk along the other nearby river (the Bottwar - much smaller than the Murr, and for most of the time it wasn't within sight anyway).

That was a sweaty business, so shade was sought when we returned, which has equated to sitting behind Bertie, under a large oak trees, which is regularly dropping acorns. It's a wonder neither of us has yet been hit.


I'd my translation amiss? Women's parking places?!

Saturday 11 August - Stuttgart and Steinheim an der Murr

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz at Steinheim an der Murr (exact location: 48.96387, 9.27980).
Weather: Mainly sunny, but some cloud around. Warm.

Our parking space last night was about 6km from the Stuttgart ParkRun location, so only a 10-minute drive away. All the same, we set out early (at 7am, for a 9am run) so that we could nab our preferred parking space for Bertie and have breakfast once we arrived. Forty-five minutes later, after a vast tour of the roads of Stuttgart, we finally found our way around the closure of the road upon which the ParkRun is located (or at least, we found a way that only required us to drive a few metres up the closed road). Then we found that, due to the re-astro-turfing of the all-weather pitch at the sports stadium, 'our' space had been closed off. All's well that ends well: we found a slot into which Bertie more-or-less fitted, and I discovered that even though most of my runs over the last seven weeks (since I last ran at Stuttgart) have been pretty flat, the longer distances have paid off. On the remarkably hilly course, as ParkRuns go (150m ascent over the 5km), I managed to achieve an overall ParkRun Personal Best. Much chuffed, was I.

With the running done, we joined about half of the participants at a cafe a few km down the road, where I should have ordered two breakfasts and two cups of tea. By the time I decided I needed more, the queue was prohibitively long. After an hour or so of chatting, sitting in the sun was getting a bit much, so saying goodbye until next time we should find ourselves in Stuttgart, off we toddled.

To Steinheim an der Murr we came (via a Lidl and a service point). It's not an interesting town, from what we found on this afternoon's wander...

It's Saturday, so of course we ran across a wedding.

...and, as I discovered when looking at the map this afternoon, it's not where I intended us to be today. Seems I got confused between the town of Murr and Steinheim an der Murr, which are only a kilometre or two apart. Ne'er mind, this location will suit us just fine. Steinheim sits (as its name suggests) on the River Murr, but it also has the River Bottwar running through it. They merge just to the west of the town, then further merge into the River Nektar a few kilometres further to the SE. Geography lesson over, what that means for us is easy access to riverside paths.

The Murr, which runs about 30m to the left of Bertie.

Friday 10 August - Stuttgart

Where's Bertie? He's back in the same location he spent the night of 22 June: in a public car park at Stuttgart University (which is a lot nicer than it sounds from that description!).
Weather: Sunny intervals and warm - much warmer than the weather forecast suggested.

After tea last night, just as Mick was on the phone to his mum, the wind picked up. Then it picked up some more. Within minutes, Bertie was bouncing around (even though it was coming from behind - Bertie's most wind-stable side) and trees were bending over. Then came the rain, which lashed and lashed. Half an hour later, the sky was clear and all was calm. The rest of last night's forecast rain didn't arrive, which is perhaps why it hasn't been as cool today as forecast.

Again, there's not a lot to report from today. The best news is that I won't need to trouble myself to do laundry (other than maybe rinsing through my running gear) again this trip. It was a double bonus that I hit 'happy hour' at the laundrette (it's cheaper between 6-11am) and that there was a sale* on, so it cost just €2.90 to get a load washed and dried, which offset the €1.30 we had to pay to park nearby. The parking location was a bonus too, as it meant I could nip back to Bertie for a quick cup of coffee during the wash cycle.

It was lunchtime as we made our way back out of Stuttgart, to come and park at the university. I took a walk around the campus earlier and from the number of student-aged people around, I'm guessing that term has started, although our little corner is as quiet as it was on our previous visit.

The only other activity of the day was a walk down through the adjacent forest, to a set of three lakes, making a circuit of one of them. A pretty (and quite popular) place:


^{(*A laundrette having a sale?! I've run a number of rationales for such a thing through my head, and most of them don't stand up to the logic of price vs demand. My best guess is that they're undercutting the next nearest laundrette, which (based on Google's photos and reviews of the two establishments) is the one I would have gone for, if we had been able to park near it.)}

Thursday 9 August - Neuffen

Where's Bertie? He's in a Stellplatz just outside of, and slightly above, the town of Neuffen.
Weather: Sunny until about 1530, when a bank of cloud drifted in, but thus far only one 2-minute shower has hit us. Hot and humid.

There's not a lot to report today.

My run this morning involved the phenomenon (psychological, I should clarify) of being 90% uphill, even though it was circular, comprising two laps of the town. I'd set out late again (8am), incorrectly believing it was an overcast day. It transpired that we were just parked in the shade of the early sunshine. Unfortunately that shade was very localised and didn't extend to any bit of my route.

Our move today was another short hop, 8km down (down, down, hairpin, hairpin, hairpin) the road to Neuffen. We'll only be here one night, which is a shame, as it's a very nice Stellplatz* with a cracking view over the ruined castle on the other side of the valley:

View from Bertie

I'd really like to walk up to the ruin, but I also really need to rest my legs for Saturday morning.

So, aside from a walk down into town, around and back up again...

Quite a striking town hall

... we've done a lot of sitting around in the shade. Even in the shade, and with a stiff breeze picking up, it's been uncomfortably warm, but if the forecast holds true I'll be complaining tomorrow that it's too cold and digging out some long sleeves and legs.

^{(*The only blot on the Stellplatz is a British chap who has put down roots here, spreading his stuff around him, and generally treating the place inappropriately. We often see vans who seem to have taken up residence (there were a couple at our last stop), but usually it's just little hints that identifies them as long-termers, rather than obvious visual evidence - it's rare to see a German van with their stuff strewn all around. Mick did have a brief chat with said Brit, as it would have been rude not to, what with their being so few of us around, but he abandoned his efforts when he realised the man was incapable of speaking without the use of strong expletives every other word. )}

Wednesday 8 August - Bad Urach and Hülben

Where's Bertie? He's back exactly where he was last night, at the Stellplatz at Hülben.
Weather: Rainy start, then a good few hours of clear sunshine, then a thunderstorm later afternoon, before the sky cleared again.

For weeks we have slept with all four roof lights open and thus have been disturbed early each morning by the arrival of daylight. Last night was cool enough to shut them at bedtime. It felt like such an indulgence to sleep soundly until 7am.

Soon after came the sound of rain and it continued to pattered down as we drove back to Bad Urach and out the other side, to P23 - a vast car park that sits at the start point of the walk we had chosen for today. The walks leaflet hadn't mentioned that it was a pay car park, but having gone out of our way to get there, and with the next nearest car park having a prohibition on motorhomes, we paid up (only €3 so not an unreasonable charge).

By the time we'd had an early elevenses and got ourselves ready, the rain had stopped. We set out with fingers crossed that it would stay fine until we finished.


Disappointing waterfall, one of two on the route. The other was even more so but, in fairness, maybe this hot summer isn't the best time to be viewing waterfalls.

Far less disappointing were the cliffs and the views therefrom

If we had another day at our disposal here, we would have visited the ruins that can be seen atop the prominent lump in this snap.

I've written more words and included more snaps of the outing on our walking blog

The weather did stay fine not only whilst we walked, but also all through lunch and whilst we nipped back into Bad Urach to post some postcards. We were then faced with a decision: to return to Hülben, or to go straight to the next Stellplatz along our route. Hülben won only because it looks the better location for a not-too-hilly run in the morning, although to achieve that I think that laps are going to be involved.

I did try to recce a route this afternoon, but had only found unsuitable paths (dead-ended in the forest; became a nettle-fest) before the sound of thunder had me scurrying back to Bertie. What ensued was one of the few proper thunder storms of the trip. We've had plenty of rumbles over the weeks, many of which have brought us showers, but this was proper flash-bang stuff, right overhead, accompanied by heavy rain. It's all passed again now and we are gently roasting in the sunshine that is now hitting Bertie's front window.

Wednesday 8 August - Wasserfallsteig

During a visit to the town of Bad Urach yesterday, we popped into the Tourist Office and picked up some information, including a booklet of local walking routes (in English!).


A panoramic (i.e. bent out of shape) shot of part of the market square in Bad Urach - an attractive little town of half-timbered houses.

We had moved on from Bad Urach by the time I perused the walking options, but they sold them so well that we resolved to return today to sample one of them. The Wasserfallsteig trail looked the joint most interesting, but it won on the basis of having been awarded first place in one of the categories of Wander Magazine's 'Germany's Best Walking Routes 2016'. I have no idea what the quality of that magazine is, but it seemed like a reasonable recommendation.

It must be a popular choice too, as the car park where we left Bertie (€3 per day - the leaflet didn't mention that!) was huge. It was also completely deserted at 10am, although a smaller car park slightly nearer the falls was filling up.

I had to nip back and change my footwear at this point ;-)

To give the first set of falls the benefit of the doubt, this dry summer may not have been the best time to view them. That said, it did rain yesterday afternoon and again before we set off this morning, so maybe they are never impressive. They were more 'dripping moss' than 'impressive fall':


I'm sure a lot of people only walk as far as the falls, and if I'd paid €3 for that, I would have felt a little cheated. Happily, we still had other features to see and they made up for the disappointing falls.


Limestone cliffs, across the top of which we were later to walk

Beyond the falls, the path lost its surface and became a narrow dirt line, clinging to the side of the steep hillside, as it cut through the trees. It seemed for a while as if trees were going to obscure all views, but we did find a couple of viewpoints along this section, including one that required a small out-and-back detour:

Mick caught me edging my way cautiously to peer over the edge

Whereas Mick just had a sit down, with his legs swinging over the abyss

We only had a bit more ascending to do from there, before we found outselves at the top of those impressive limestone cliffs. Viewpoints abounded along that section of path...


...all of them bearing some type of bench:


I've mentioned before the number of benches we have found on all of our walks in Germany, and this paragraph in the walks booklet clarifies that they (along with picnic areas and Grillplatz) are officially essential ingredients for a good walk:


A zig-zagging descent through another patch of forest took us to the second waterfall of the outing. This one was even more 'drippy moss' in its nature than the first - so much so that I couldn't even get a photograph that shows anything that looks remotely like a waterfall.

The leaflet didn't make it look like there was anything to see bar one more viewpoint on the rest of the route, so we chose to take a short cut, to take us past something marked as a point of interest on the map:

A grand farm of half-timbered buildings

We weren't entirely sure whether we trespassed a few paces to get onto their driveway, which we followed along its avenue of apple trees, back to our start point.

Our version of the route came in at 8km with 300m of ascent, and it certainly was attractive and worthwhile, even if it was not, even in our limited experience, the best Germany has to offer.

Tuesday 7 August - Bad Urach and Hülben

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz just outside of the small town of Hülben (exact location: 48.52587, 9.41212).
Weather: Overcast start, sunny and hot middle of the day, then a rainy (and cool!) afternoon, before clearing again.

Our neighbour told us last evening that today was forecast to be the hottest of the current fine spell, so once again I set an early alarm, to run before it got too hot. The problem with these early starts is that it's not cooling down until late, so I'm not getting early nights to go with them. It's taking a bit of determination to get out of bed on these mornings, and only the thought of running in 30 degree heat later, versus 22 degree heat early on, is motivating me.

As it goes, our neighbour had duff information. As I sat with my customary pre-run banana and hot drink, rumbles of thunder were heard. It was the first of many such rumbles throughout the day and I ran under a cloudy sky.

It was still warm enough for me to take a dip in the stream once I'd trotted up the valley and back. 'Frisch?' said the old chap, taking a break from his bike ride, eating an apple at a nearby bench. He became the second person in 12 hours to tell me how abnormal this summer is. I'd only been saying during yesterday's walk that next time we come to central Europe during the summer, there's a danger of packing clothes based on this year's experience, forgetting that this is not normal.

With breakfast eaten, we packed everything away with great efficiency and, with no further ado, waved goodbye to our neighbours. Towards Bad Urach we headed. I'd read that the town was worth visiting (possibly in the 'German Half Timbered House Route' leaflet that I accidentally threw away last week and have been unable to replace) but even so, it surpassed expectations. It's an incredibly attractive little place:


Both of these snaps are of the market square. The second is a panormaic shot, thus has bent it out of shape.

The church, however, was unusually plain and unblingy. It was also, like so many, covered in scaffolding on the outside.

I'd not planned to stay in Bad Urach, because the Stellplatz there hasn't got good reviews (charges €9 to sleep right next to a busy road), and I hadn't seen any great need to stay as, per our usual experience with towns, we'd comprehensively walked its central streets, and adequately oohed and aaahed at the buildings, within an hour. We did, however, pop into the Tourist Office before we left (half of our wanderings had been in trying to find it) and picked up a few leaflets, to check there wasn't anything we'd missed. The leaflet I didn't even glance at before we left was the walking one, and now that I've read it, I want to go and do all of the 6 routes described. That's not going to be practical (hot date in Stuttgart on Saturday morning...) but as we're spending tonight only 6km up the road, I'm minded to return tomorrow to sample one of the routes.

Returning to the subject of the weather: it was roasting as we walked around Bad Urach and we returned to Bertie to find it a sauna inside (we'd forgotten to open the roof-lights before we'd gone out, during which time the sun had emerged and was shining straight on the windscreen). By the time we got to Hülben rain was imminent and the temperature collapsed. I think we might even need a blanket on the bed tonight, to supplement the sheet. I doubt it will be cool enough to warrant a duvet.