Sunday 30 June - Englischer Garten, Munich

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at the Englischer Garten on the east side of Munich (exact location: 48.16324, 11.606)
Weather: Another day without a cloud. Hot (mid-thirties).

Contrary to expectations when I posted yesterday's blog, we didn't spend last night in the car park at Riemer Park. At just gone 8.30pm I suggested that maybe we should travel on to our next destination. Arriving at 9pm there would certainly be space available, and I suspected it would also be quieter than at Riemer Park. A flurry of activity and within ten minutes we were packed away and on the road.

It turned out to be a good decision for a number of reasons - notably because: 1) even at 9pm there were only a couple of spaces available and at the time we would have arrived this morning there were none; 2) the parking here is fully shaded so was much cooler; and 3) it gave me more flexibility to change my mind about today's plans.

On the basis that today was forecast to be in the mid-thirties and tomorrow only the high twenties, I decided yesterday afternoon to postpone today's run until tomorrow. Today we would sightsee in the city.

That plan changed when I checked the detailed forecast this morning and found that until 9 today it was predicted to be cool (17 degrees rising to 21), whereas tomorrow's night/day variation is much smaller, with an overnight low of 21. Suddenly, bringing my run back to today seemed like a mighty fine idea.

I was teaed, breakfasted and out the door by twenty past seven and soon came to appreciate two things. Firstly, the Englischer Garten (a very large area of parkland with a multitude of paths) is gloriously shaded by trees over most of its expanse - ideal for hot weather running:

And secondly, there was clearly a running event going on here today:

I kept to the outer edge of the east portion of the park, giving a lap distance of just over 5 miles. It was on my second lap that the bikes leading the event runners overtook me, shouting information I couldn't understand (but presumably "You're about to have some fast runners come past on your left. You'd be advised to maintain your line."). The same front runners came back past again later - I'd clearly taken a significant short-cut on their route. I later learnt from the event website that this was the half marathon.

The same website also told me that only people wearing the official race t-shirt would be given water and bananas at the aid station. It wasn't true. The first time I ran through was well before the first runners and I was offered water. The second time I was in amongst a group of front runners and I was offered both food and water - all in excellent humour and with applause and encouragement, even though I was clearly not in the race.

Back at Bertie, once I'd rinsed about eighty gallons of sweat off myself and had ingested second breakfast, we headed out to the area where a percussion band was drumming out good running rhythms ...and arrived there just as they stopped. The half marathon had just about finished and the 10k race was yet to start.

After a bit of wandering around, we positioned ourselves by one of the smaller rivers (a number of watercourses run through the parkland), where we knew the 10k runners would pass and where, by way of intermediate entertainment, we had a good view of a group of chaps having a game of 7-a-side football:

Just behind our waiting point. The fire crew had just set up their hoses, pumping from the river, to spray water over the course. It was gone 11am by now and was HOT!

The informal football match (shirts vs skins). Mick appointed himself as ball-boy on this side of the 'pitch'.

Our chosen spectating spot transpired to be less than a mile from the finish, so we waited a long while for anyone to come past. Only when the masses reached us did we realise the error in our location: there were so many runners, we couldn't cross the path to get back to Bertie until they started thinning out well after the 60-minute pacers had gone by. We then arrived back at Bertie to discover that he was parked about 10 paces from, and within unobstructed sight of, a slightly later bit of the route.

Our afternoon was quieter (except for the live band that has been going on all day!) with much sitting around. Initially indoors, until the heat got too much, then we grabbed the deckchairs and lugged them into the parkland to join what appeared to be half the population of Munich. We didn't join those in the river, but I have to say that jumping in the fast-moving river and riding it until it joined the big slow-moving river looked like great fun.

Afternoon view

Saturday 29 June - Munich

Where's Bertie? He's still in a car park at Riemer Park, Munich.
Weather: Hot and still not a cloud to be seen.

Our car park, which didn't calm down until gone 11 last night, suddenly became a riot of activity at 5.30 this morning, with so much manoeuvring going on that I was tempted to get up and peer out of a window. Tiredness won, I stayed put and dozed on as best I could until 7.

When I did get up it was to find a car parked just over a foot away from Bertie's main door. Surprising as there wasn't a space that side of us - we were parked at the end of a row. The lack of space is obviously why they had snuggled up so close - rather ignorantly in that they had blocked our door from opening more than a slither.

It took me a while to put together bits of information I'd gleaned since our arrival and Google then confirmed my suspicions. It turns out that Europe's largest outdoor trade show* (held in Friedrichshafen for the last 25 years) has moved to Munich and opens tomorrow. The exhibition centre - right across the road from our car park - must charge for parking, hence those being employed in the set-up stage (most of whom were migrant workers from what we saw) were all intent on squeezing into this free area, leaving it more than full before the park-users even started arriving.

On another day we might have immediately extracted ourselves from the madness around us, but today we were here for a reason. As I mentioned last week, our original intention had been to be on the west side of Munich this weekend. That was due to the location of Munich's parkrun. Then, a week ago I checked the parkrun Tourist Tool, to see if any new runs had started up, to find one was starting in Riemer Park, on the east side of Munich, this very weekend. As we were planning on being in the city anyway, we weren't going to forego the opportunity to be present on an inaugural event, hence our destination was changed from the west side of the city to the east.

The temperature was already up into the twenties by the time we set out to walk the mile through the park to the start point, and it was warmer still by the time the participants toed the start-line. It turned out to be a good course (wide paths, single lap figure-of-eight, about as flat as they come), but lacking in shade save for two patches of 20 paces apiece at the one end of the lake - and even they weren't cool. Accordingly, I took it easy and had an enjoyable run. (Alas, no run for Mick; he still has a poorly back.)

This is currently the Riemer parkrun's cover photo on Facebook. Not a bad snap of me in action, as long as you don't look too closely at the facial expression!

The run was followed by cake (celebrating the inaugural event), and after everyone had finished, off went about half of the field (including us) to a nearby bakery for breakfast.

Dodgy breakfast shot. Mine was the pastry; Mick's was the bread, bagel, hams and cheese.

It was noon by the time we had said farewell to everyone and walked back to Bertie and on the way we'd decided that our best bet was probably to stay put today. Our next intended night-stop is also in a park that features water, and on a sunny Saturday we didn't want to get there to find the parking every bit as busy as here. Holding the space we already had seemed the safer option.

Laziness ensued. It can be entertaining just sitting in a busy car park watching the world go by. Or not go by. There was gridlock, at least one bump (right in front of us), a *lot* of tooting of horns and all principles of where it's acceptable to park went out the window (disabled bays, footpaths, turning circle, suspended bays: they all became fair game to park visitors today).

We did eventually stir ourselves for a bit more activity. Swimming costumes were donned and off to the lake we went, first finding a patch of shade for some under-tree crosswording. By the time we'd done that the urge to throw ourselves in the lake had deserted us. Hmmm, might actually have to shower if I'm not going to immerse myself in some fresh water!

<sup>(*We did give thought to spending tomorrow at the outdoor show, until we saw the price of tickets. For non-trade attendees it's €99 a head. Ouch! I can live without knowing what outdoor gear manufacturers are launching for this/next season.

As an aside, at the parkrun we met a representative of one of the Outdoor show exhibitors. By small-world coincidence, he was the chap who arranged the provision of Berghaus technical t-shirts to TGO Challenge finishers this year (not as random a topic of conversation as it may appear; Mick happened to be wearing his).</sup>

Friday 28 June - Andechs and Munich

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at Riemer Park on the east side of Munich. (Exact location: 48.13189, 11.70848)
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine. Not quite as hot as the last couple of days, topping out at around 30 degrees today.

As we readied ourselves for a final walk around Hohenried Park and the shore of the Starnberg See at around 9 this morning I commented on how lovely and cool it was. Then I turned on Bertie's ignition to check his thermometer and confirmed that, at 22 degrees in the shade, the early 'lovely and cool' was what I would consider a nice summer's day at home.

Final view along the Starnberger See

Completely failed to notice this sculpture the first time we walked past it.

A quick stop at Lidl broke up what was already a short-hop to Andechs. It turned into a longer than expected pause when I discovered that I couldn't fit the tub of ice cream (which I'd only bought because I was in need of a container of that shape and size) into the freezer, so we had to eat it before we moved on.

Andechs, a detour off the obvious route to Munich, was included on the itinerary purely because there's a service point at the Stellplatz there, but as there's also a monastery we thought it would merit a look around.

With Bertie duly serviced, we discovered the flaw with the parking arrangements. Outside of the motorhome area is a massive, free and largely-empty car park, but if you read (in my case via Google Translate) the list of motorthome-related regulations at the entrance, it makes clear that motorhomes are not permitted to park anywhere but in the motorhome area. We clearly weren't going to pay the Stellplatz fee of €14 just for a quick walk around the monestary, but seemingly we weren't allowed to park anywhere else. Have they really failed to think about people in motorhomes who just want to pop by for a quick visit? What to do? We came down on the side of ignoring the regulations and having a quick look around, sandwiched between elevenses and lunch.

The elevated monastery complex as viewed from the car park. 

As it went, our monastery visit didn't take long. All of the information boards were monolingual and the tourist leaflet in English was spectacularly uninformative, telling us nothing about the history of the place, bar a few snippets about the brewery (one of the largest remaining independent monastery breweries in Germany). The main point of interest was the church, which was immaculate outside...

...and ridiculously opulent and ornate on the inside:

Back at Bertie we had the choice of finding an intermediate stop on the way to Munich, or just accepting that it was going to be a journey made slow by needing to get across the city on a Friday afternoon. We did the latter, knowing that we would arrive after schools had finished for the day - a key point as I knew our destination car park to be next to one and busy at school times.

The only other thing I knew about the car park was that it sits next to a park that is a disused airfield. What we didn't know was that within that park is a swimming lake complete with a large beach. We are currently in the grip of a heat wave. We had arrived after school (and probably work, for most people) had finished for the week. We thus arrived to find the car park full and whilst there were regularly people leaving, even more were arriving. It was a pointy-elbowed free for all and cars beat us the first couple of times we tried for a space.

We therefore decided to break the rules for the second time today, in a manner that I would usually find indefensible. I can only justify it by saying that whilst we were parked in a disabled bay, there were two empty ones next to us, and we remained in the cab seats, facing forwards, ready to move if our spot was needed. It was probably only twenty minutes before we saw people returning to one of the cars opposite us and this time we manoeuvred in a way that blocked anyone else from nipping in before us.

As it turns out, it's a perfect slot we've got here (level, end of a row with door opening onto grass), except for one detail: from tomorrow at 8am, for five days, there's a temporary ban on parking in this bank of five slots.

I had thought that come 7pm the car park would empty, but as I type this at 8.30pm, people are still arriving (notably quite a lot of eastern European white vans (Hungarian, Romanian and Bulganian; they've been coming and going all afternoon but now at least a dozen have parked up, presumably for the night). Hopefully everything will quieten down after dark, but we have to acknowledge that we are in a city on a weekend so there's every likelihood that it will be a disturbed night.

The beach at the lake in the park. When I took this snap 15 emergency vehicles (mainly fire and water rescue) and a helicopter had just arrived and as I walked back out of the park divers were just driving in. I hope who ever was missing was found safely on dry land.

Thursday 27 June - by Starnberger See

Where's Bertie? He's still in the car park by Starnberger See.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine until late afternoon when a few clouds started to form. Hot.

Over breakfast, as I looked at where we were heading today, I realised that our plan had become flawed. At the point of planning we wanted to be on the west side of Munich on Saturday morning; we now want to be on the east side, and that small change has meant that the next place we were going to visit en-route is no longer en-route. There wasn't any problem with coming up with somewhere else to go today; the problem that then struck me was that there is also no longer a service point sitting conveniently in our way - something we will need before Saturday morning. Another bout of planning (involving all of the books *and* all of the Apps) told me that not only would we need to make a detour, but we would also need to visit a pay-Stellplatz at which we didn't want to stay (I narrowed the possible service points down to two, both at Stellplatz that have no shade - an essential requirement today).

After much contemplation the conclusion was to spend another night here. Parking with a little shade, woodland/waterside paths to walk, a lake in which to swim - if you need to fritter away a day of excessive heat, this is not a bad place to do it.

Our day didn't unfold with much difference from yesterday. Instead of a run this morning, we went for a walk, finding the village of Bernried to be typically Bavarian and meritous of being featured on a chocolate box (I say that, but I can't think of any chocolate selection I've ever eaten that featured a pretty view on the front. Fudge and biscuits, yes, but chocolates, no).

Just a couple of the buildings in the village.

There was no good vantage point for a snap of the Kloster (which I had assumed was a Schloß when I ran past yesterday, based on its size and grand appearance)

Thanks to the German's habit of signposting local commerce, a short detour down a road we would otherwise have ignored took us to a bakery, so we came back from our outing toting some bread for lunch and a couple of nußschnecken for elevenses.

The rest of our day really was a repetition of yesterday, involving a swim in the lake and much sitting in the shade.

Bertie hasn't been entirely without exercise. Last night we took him back across the car park, to our original spot, for a more level place to sleep. This morning we brought him back to the shade. The two minutes of air-con on each journey was glorious!

Wednesday 26 June - Starnberger See

Where's Bertie? He's still in the same car park as yesterday, on the west side of the Starnberger See.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine and hot (low thirties)

It was too hot to close any of the rooflights in Bertie last night. The downside to sleeping with them open is the need to get up at first light to close the blinds. I must remember that for future summer trips and pack a couple of eye-masks.

Even with the heat, I slept well, but the late nights (by my standards) and early mornings are catching up with me and it was harder than normal to get out of bed at 7am. It was worth it. Even at 0730 the temperature was 21 degrees and with the humidity I felt like I was running through treacle. Even so I recognised that my chosen route was absolutely lovely, through shaded woodland and open meadow, along the shore of the Starnberger See to the south of where Bertie is sitting.

Making my way back to Bertie I espied a spot that looked like it would have shade for more of the day than any other place in the car park and I reckoned Bertie would fit into it. It was a good call; the slope is inconvenient but worth it for the surrounding foliage. We will move again before bedtime.

Even with the foliage and the silver screens, by lunch time, it was starting to get uncomfortably warm, so we made a repetition of yesterday afternoon: shaded bench, crossword, reading books, swimming in the lake, a stroll around the park. Nowt like sitting in the shade in a wet swimming costume to keep cool on a hot day.

Alas, I forgot to pack snacks, so it was the need for food that forced us back to Bertie a few hours later, where I now feel like I'm melting as I type this. So, that's me done with sitting inside at the table - I'm off outside to catch whatever little hint of a breeze there is.

I only took one photo today, so I may as well throw it in.

Tuesday 25 June - Starnberger See

Where's Bertie? He's in a car park by the Hohenried Park, on the west shore of the Starnberger See, just to the north of Friedhof Bernried. (Exact location: 47.87396, 11.28299)
Weather: wall-to-wall sunshine and hot (low thirties) with barely a breath of breeze.

I was surprised to find the riverside and woodland paths at Weilheim so busy at half past seven this morning. Aside from the small children making their way to school and the people cycling towards town in workclothes, I would guess that I wasn't the only person adopting the 'go early' method of heat avoidance.

Breakfast was an al-fresco affair, over which I remembered that we had forgotten to revisit the church in the town yesterday, having found a service in progress on our initial visit. Being in no rush to get away (our ticket didn't expire until gone 3pm) and with nothing better to do with the first part of the morning, we wandered back into town for a look. It was the most ornate(/blingy) church we've been in so far this trip, but the frescos were a bit on the gory side and not as striking as many we saw last year:

Today's destination was only half an hour along the road, with the journey made slightly longer with a detour to a supermarket. It was as we were driving away with Bertie's cupboards and fridge restocked that I looked at Park4Night and saw there were new comments against our intended destination. They were all good reviews, but the most recent informed us that the car park, which used to be free, now costs €8. On that basis I decided it was worth a punt to have a look at one of the other car parks alongside the substantial body of water that is the Starnberger See.

The first one we tried was just fine for our purposes, so we snuggled Bertie up with his nose as close to a tree as we could reasonably get (shade is a definite bonus in the current heat) and went off to look at our surroundings.

What we found, adjacent to the car park, was a fenced-in park, with signs advertising the Buchheim Museum. The gates were open, so in we walked, unsure whether we were in the Museum grounds, intended for paying visitors, or whether it was public parkland. Further investigations (we've walked extensively, revelling in the shade cast by the woodland) have brought us down on the side of it being public. Within the enclosure is the museum, sporting some external exhibits...

...a schloss, where much activity (and many vehicles with company names giving the game away) is setting it up for some filming, and a huge Klinik (lots of people walking around on crutches or with brightly coloured tape liberally applied to bits of their bodies).

We also found the swimming pier:

It was clearly going to be too warm to sit in Bertie all afternoon, and it's not the sort of location where one can get ones chairs out in the middle of the day, so having explored the park at some length we grabbed a bag of essentials from Bertie and headed off to find a shady bench.

Taken from the first bench where we settled. Perhaps too good and distracting a view for a crossword solving location?

Subsequently we moved a couple of minutes further along the shore and positioned ourselves on a bench at the end of the swimming pier. Availing ourselves of the facilities (toilets and changing rooms; all free and well equipped), we then took it in turns to take a dip. I fear this photo doesn't do justice to the dramatic mountainous backdrop:

Mick can be reticent in entering cold water and I have a record of misrepresenting the temperature to him. Today I was kind and warned him that it was surprisingly cold on first entering the water. I did note, though, that the more you went in, the more acceptable the temperature got. Even with my forewarning, he looked surprised as he made his way down the steps:

With tomorrow forecast even hotter than today, I think we will find ourselves in the lake again.

Today's bonus photos - one of the cakes we bought yesterday and ate this lunchtime. We had no idea what was going to be inside of it, and even having cut it in half were little the wiser. After eating it our verdict was that it was very tasty and rich, but we still didn't know what it was...

...A German friend on Facebook came to the rescue and informed us: "What you have eaten is called Granatsplitter, which means Shrapnel in English. It is a traditional pastry which uses bakery leftovers from other cakes. They are mixed with butter cream and alcohol and dunked in chocolate. It is known for its high calories ;-l Because of the left over mix it always tastes different."

Monday 24 June - Weilheim-in-Oberbayern

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Stellplatz at Weilheim.
Weather: Wall-to-wall sunshine, with the most perfect hue of blue sky. Hot.

Mick's run was curtailed this morning when a careless cyclist veered off the path and noticed just in the nick of time that she was about to mow him down (he'd already leapt off the path trying to avoid said cyclist who was looking the other way). In the process she came off her bike. Mick was unscathed at that point, but he then helped her and her bike up, and in so doing did his back a mischief. Hopefully it's a minor strain that will be right as rain in a couple of days.

Meanwhile, out for a walk along the river whilst Mick ran, I averaged out the pedestrian vs cyclist carelessness when I stepped straight in front of a bicycle. Thankfully this one was on the ball and managed to avoid not only me but also the oncoming bike.

The snap I took immediately before stepping in front of the bike. I'm not sure whether the snowy mountains in the distance are visible in the photo?

Another river view.

A period of inactivity followed for much of the rest of the morning. Whilst we very seldom plug into the electric if payment is required, if other people have left credit on the meter, then we are happy to use it up. So, once all of our neighbours had left, I checked out what credit was left and set about using it to get everything charged (with emphasis on the stuff we can't charge on 12v). Everything except Mick's beard trimmer, that is. Whereas in January we found ourselves in Spain with the charger but not the trimmer, this time our packing has been negligent in the opposite direction. Mick may have a long beard by the end of this trip. Or our collection of beard trimmers is going to get out of hand.

Our walk around the town came in the middle of the day and was an unstructured ambling sort of a tour. We did find the tourist office, but five minutes after they'd closed for a 1.5hr lunch break. It's a very clean and tidy town (no shabby buildings; even the church is pristine), but not remarkable enough to warrant a detour if you weren't coming here anyway.

Looking along one of the streets.

Fountain of the day, complete with finger across lens (sigh!) 

Whilst it has been hot today, it's not been humid, leaving my hands unsweaty enough to be able to knit the afternoon away. Chasing the shade around Bertie, that meant I was effectively sitting in the middle of a car park knitting. As far as I noticed, nobody ogled or stared at me.

Perhaps that's because they had clocked our new neighbours. My first thought (a very uncharitable thought, I'm afraid) when I saw the female half of those neighbours was "mutton". Then I saw her husband, who stepped out of the driving seat wearing nothing but a pair of skimpy shorts. He apparently then decided he was overdressed as the next time I saw him he had changed into a pair of budgie-smugglers, and that is how he has remained ever since.

Our final activity for the day, just as the temperature was building towards its peak, was a late-afternoon stroll. The woodland path by the river was a shaded delight, as it took us through mixed trees, alongside a small brook and past a crystal clear pond. Our return along the riverside was less shaded, but still lovely.

It's just gone 1940 as I sit and type this, and the temperature inside is 31.2 degrees. That may sound hot, but in this unshaded spot it's a lot cooler than it would have been if we didn't have a screen at every sunwards window. Even the reflective cover I made for the side window and the black-out curtain for the open doorway have been deployed this afternoon.

^{(Today's aside: We've observed over the last three summers that Germany is cash-centric. Paying cash at the supermarket, even for a big shop, is normal and there are a surprising number of places that don't accept plastic. A couple of years ago we even found a petrol station that didn't accept cards - fortunately we did have enough notes on us to cover the 80 litres we'd just put in the tank. The problem with staying at pay-Stellplätze as often as we have the last week (an unusually high number of times; we usually favour the free ones more) is that it rips through the coin supplies, as few of them even accept notes. My norm is to pay for everything with plastic (I often don't even carry cash), but in Germany we find ourselves having to make an effort to use cash for small purchases just to get the change. For today's parking fee, Mick intercepted the man emptying the electric meters and changed a note for 50c pieces, €6 worth of which went straight back into the parking machine. It's such a contrast to Norway, where paying with plastic was the norm and cash the oddity.)}

Sunday 23 June - Weilheim-in-Oberbayern

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz in Weilheim-in-Oberbayern. It costs €6 per day to stay here. Water and electricity are available for extra fees. (Exact location: 47.84001, 11.13589)
Weather: An overcast and drizzly start to the day cleared to sunshine by late afternoon.

You know that circuit we walked yesterday afternoon? Someone went out overnight and snuck a couple of long inclines (gentle, but long) into it. I say that because they weren't there when we walked the route yesterday, but were most definitely noticeable when I ran it this morning.

After breakfast whilst I was still faffing with something, Mick got Bertie ready for the road, timing his completion to coincide with just about every motorhome in southern Germany deciding they wanted to use the service point at our Stellplatz. We could have managed without any extra water, and there was barely anything in the grey tank to be emptied, but with no facilites at our next stop, the toilet could not wait. He thus reversed his putting-away and we had elevenses whilst the whole world (okay, I exaggerate in the extreme, but 5 vans is quite a queue, particularly when one was of a size to suggest a 300 litre water tank) attended to their filling and emptying needs.

Once we were on the road, we went unusually far. With our desire to be in Munich next weekend, and thus having limited time to visit anywhere en-route, I decided that the most interesting places to go all lay considerably nearer to Munich than to Leutkirch.

The plan was to park atop a hill at Hohenpeissenberg, to the east of Schongau (to whose Stellplatz we had an aborted visit during a tour in 2014), giving us a journey of just over 100km (on slow roads - SatNav said an hour and a half and the reality was a little longer). Things didn't quite go to plan.

The first spanner in the works was a closed road where we needed to turn off the main road to our destination. It was only two days ago that I expressed surprise that we hadn't yet come across such a closure, as last year they seemed to affect almost every journey we took (our observation: the UK uses temporary traffic lights; Germany closes the road). A quick fumble for a map and I could see that we could simply drive past the village and approach from the other direction, adding on only a handful of kilometres, so that's what we did.

The second spanner in the works was that there was a festival going on at the top of the hill, in the very car park we wanted to use. Harrumph! Having had Bertie haul us all the way up there, we were reluctant to retreat immediately, and it was clear that the festival was breaking up, so we drove Bertie into the field being used as a temporary car park, and after lunch we had a little walk, just up to and around the church at the very top of the hill (where there was another car park, but of no use to us as the road to get there was closed).

Bertie masquerading as one of the few remaining festival-goers. Evidence of the festival in the background.

There was much activity taking the festival apart. I suspect that within a couple of days there will be little evidence it had ever been there.

The view towards the proper-big hills to the south would have been spectacular in this afternoon's clear weather, had we been able to stay.

Based on past experience in Germany, this will not be the last time on this trip that we find ourselves thwarted by a festival - particularly once August is upon us.

A decision then had to be made: to back-track to the free Stellplatz in the nearby town of Peiting, or to continue onwards to our next intended stop. The former would have won, if it hadn't been for that road closure meaning we would have had to have gone east to head back west.

So, here we are in Weilheim with a field of wheat starting approximately six inches in front of Bertie's nose, with the spire of the church in the old town visible about half a kilometre to Bertie's left and with the river about the same distance away (but out of sight) to his right.

We strolled along the river this afternoon, in the company of lots of others both on foot and on bikes, deciding to save the old town until tomorrow.

Saturday 22 June - Leutkirch-im-Allgäu

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Stellplatz at Leutkirch.
Weather: Mainly overcast but clearing to a bit of sunshine this afternoon.

I must have only been asleep for a matter of minutes last night (Mick was still reading) when I was rudely awoken by a huge moth attacking my head. A few more minutes were spent chasing it around Bertie with a pint pot before it was ejected into the night. As we had fly screens across the open rooflights, I can only guess that it came in earlier in the day and loitered unnoticed in some nook or cranny until it deemed it a good time to cause maximum disturbance. At least it wasn't mosquitos!

Today started with three laps of the lake, which we ran clockwise, because that's the direction of the Strava Segment (and we are slaves to Strava Segments!). Other people were also out on the same circuit, but going in the opposite direction. That perhaps explains (together with the fact that relatively few women seem to use Strava) why there wasn't a women's league table for this segment. There is now and I am (by virtue of being the only name on it) at the top.

At the end of the run I checked out the prices at the outdoor pool, with a mind to taking a short swim and a long shower. However, I was more interested in having breakfast than a swim by then and Mick suggested that maybe we should go at 1700 instead, when the price reduces from €3.50 to €2.50.

I thus found something else to fill my time after breakfast: planning. We want to be in Munich for a parkrun next Saturday morning, which gives us just 7 nights to spend between here and there (yes, Munich isn't very far away, but we are very good at travelling slowly). With the assistance of the new map, plus my usual electronic resources, I came up with a string of potential night-stops that make logistical sense. Then, with the benefit of wifi here, I did something almost unprecedented: I started researching even further ahead and came up with places that looked visit-worthy for the following week too.

That was enough sitting around indoors. After lunch, off into the forest we headed, initially chosing paths somewhat at random, until we realised we had been on 'Route 2' for a while and opting to continue to follow it unless it became apparent that it was no longer sensible to do so (it was sensible; we found a start/end point in the car park right opposite Bertie's Stellplatz).

Initially, through the forest, the way put us in mind of Cannock Chase.

Stumbling upon a small chapel in a remote spot in the trees was very German, though.

Then we found ourselves in open meadows with far-reaching views.

We'd been going a while before I thought to record the route. I've drawn in a line for the bit I didn't record. It came in at 5 miles.

As 1700 came, our plans to go for a swim evaporated. We have so often found ourselves by outdoor pools in Germany that I feel we ought, at some point, to go and visit one. There would have been merit in going today (it's been almost deserted each time we've been past today, because it's not very warm out by southern German standards), but we decided to leave the activity until a lazier day, when we haven't filled our time with running and walking.

Today's bonus photos - little and large - another snap of the huge articulated motorhome, plus one I managed to grab this morning of the tiny Piagio Ape:

Friday 21 June - Leutkirch-im-Allgäu

Where's Bertie? He's at a Stellplatz in Leutkirch-im-Allgäu. It costs €8 per day to stay here, including wifi. Water and electricity are available for extra fees. (Exact location: 47.82216, 10.03938)
Weather: A sunny morning, gradually clouding in. The forecast rain hasn't yet arrived, but it's looking threatening as I type (ha! I'd managed six more words before a pattering was heard on Bertie's roof).

A successful morning! Laundry laundered, a map* bought, second breakfast consumed, a service point visited, groceries bought and by just gone noon we were driving the half-hour to Leutkirch-im-Allgäu.

We second-breakfasted whilst the laundry laundered and were alone outside our chosen eatery. At a table outside the bakery/cafe down the street was a chap fully attired in a traditional Lederhosen outfit, complete with a feather in his cap.

Rain was forecast for this afternoon, but the look of the sky after lunch wasn't off-putting, so we headed off into Leutkirch for a look around, shunning the shortest route alongside the road in favour of going part way around the lake that sits opposite the Stellplatz...

...then up into the woods, from where the occasional open meadow gave us a view:

The town is pleasant enough for a quick walk around, with plenty of old and half-timbered buildings, but it lacked oohworthiness of other places we've visited.

No timbered buildings in this snap; just one of the squares.

A longer circuit through the woods would have been chosen for our return to Bertie, but by then the sky was getting a bit darker and for fear of being caught in a downpour at the furthest point from Bertie we opted to retrace our steps (with just one little accidental detour) back to the lake before completing the circuit thereof - a good recce for a run there tomorrow, when we'll know not to take the dead-end track!

We arrived back at the Stellplatz to find the most striking example of the diversity of motorhomes. Twenty metres away from this beast (a converted articulated lorry)...

...is parked a converted Piagio Ape (one of those tiny three-wheeled Italian trucks).

Bonus snap - water feature of the day - the figures have articulated joints


^{(*I kept saying how handy it would be to have a one-page map of Germany that would fit on the table so that we could see the big picture. Road atlas books are all very well, but in all the flicking back and forth between pages it's difficult to see where towns lie in relation to one another. Today I finally sought out a bookshop and bought a 1:500k map that is too big to fit on the table, but as it's a folding map, can easily be refolded to show the area in which we're interested.)}

Thursday 20 June - Bad Waldsee

Where's Bertie? He's still at the Stellplatz at Bad Waldsee. His failure to leave is feeling a little remiss now.
Weather: Thundery start, then sunshine and showers.

Our intention had been to get up early to run before it got too warm. Then I looked at the weather forecast just before lights-out and modified my alarm time back to the normal 0730.

The alarm went off amidst a thunder storm, but an hour later there was some blue in the sky (as long as you looked in the right direction) so we crossed fingers that the rain would hold off for an hour and off we went. It's the first time in months that I've run with Mick and we did two laps of the lake together, before he headed back and I went around for a third. Circumperambulating the lake is a popular morning activity, we observed, mainly amongst Nordic walkers and old ladies with those wheeled walkers that double up as seats.

I chanced upon a Facebook post this morning that told me that today is a public holiday in Germany (Corpus Christi, so Google told me), and as we walked through town mid-morning with a backpack full of dirty laundry, I pondered whether at what point I would have twigged that if I hadnt seen that post. Would we have noted the complete lack of traffic as we ran down to the lake? Would I have been bamboozled as to why all the shops were shut and the streets almost deserted in the middle of a Thursday morning? Would the bedecking of the streets with branches of silver birch have told me something was afoot?

Somehow amongst these ponderings I failed to join the dots between my knowledge that: a) today was a public holiday and b) the laundrette doesn't open on Sundays or public holidays. It was only as we stood in front of the closed doors of the establishment that I realised that we would have to stay in town another night and do the laundry and grocery shopping tomorrow.

I'd intended to have a coffee and pastry whilst the washing machine was doing its thing, and happily (after walking through streets of closed eateries) there were two nearby bakery/coffee shops open. The entertainment as we sat with our goodies...

We were restrained, with just one Nusssnecken between us

...came in the form of a church parade. First came the flag bearers...

Ooops. Excuse the finger across the corner of the snap!

...then some chaps and chappesses in traditional dress, with some impressive beards on display...

...then the marching band...

...then came the choirboys and girls scattering flower petals on the floor as they walked, followed by a bit that must have some religous significance (see photo below and please excuse my complete ignorance here):

Behind all of that lot came the entire congregation, with the words/chanting/singing of the priest being relayed to them by loud speakers being toted by a couple of chaps who I can only guess were priests in training.

They passed us twice, once in each direction, whereafter all became peaceful again.

This afternoon, for the first time since I bought it in February, I made use of my Brompton, employing it for a recce of the parking for a potential walk tomorrow. The parking proved to be good (in fact, had we been in full cost-avoidance mode, we would have moved there this afternoon, once our ticket at the Stellplatz expired). The cycling proved to be harder than expected, even though it's only a couple of months since I was riding up and down forest tracks bagging Marilyns in Northumberland and Scotland. I'm sure it will be easier when I get to grips with the bike's gears (it's a 6 gear model, three of which are hub gears and two are external cogs; hopefully it won't take too long before I remember which lever does what).

Mick even went for a little spin after me, soon arriving back as the next heavy shower hit.

Considering it's a holiday today, the Stellplatz was quite empty in the middle of the day and for much of the afternoon. Then it filled up, since when at least half a dozen vans have optimistically driven around. In view of how massive each parking bay is (easily big enough for two vans each) it's surprising that we've only witnessed one incident of someone pulling into what they thought was a space, but was actually another van's pitch.

^{(Today's aside: I forgot to mention yesterday our solar water heater! We seldom hook up to electricity, only usually doing so when it's included in a fee we have to pay anyway. Our electricity comes from a solar panel and a leisure battery. It's often struck me over the years that it would be beneficial if we could also use the sun to heat water, so for this trip I visited the backpacking gear cupboard and pulled out an old 2-litre Platypus bladder. My thinking was that the full bladder could be put on the sun-trap of a dashboard and the resultant solar gain would save energy in heating water for dishes or bodies. The flaw in this plan became apparent yesterday when we put up the external silver screens, to keep the sun off the windscreen. Instead, I put the bladder outside on the ground. It was suprising indeed at dish-washing time to find that the water wasn't just lukewarm, but hot enough not to need any extra heating. Even with the sun not hitting Bertie's dashboard until late afternoon today, we achieved not-hot-but-more-than-lukewarm water. Looks like this system is a winner!)}