Tuesday 7 August 2018

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.

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