Where's Bertie? He's in a Stellplatz that forms part of a large car park in Kirchheim-unter-Teck (exact location: 48.64989, 9.45898).
Weather: Mainly overcast but warm and humid. Some sunshine this afternoon.
StreetView coverage is a hit-and-miss affair in Germany (far more miss than hit; I've found few places with coverage) and thus I'd not been able to check out the access for a Bertie-sized vehicle in the car park for Esslingen's parkrun this morning. We thus arrived early in case we needed to park elsewhere and walk in - which happily turned out not to be the case. We were able to settle Bertie within metres of the start line.
About an hour after our arrival, others started to congregate. We weren't expecting a big crowd as this was only the 11th week of this particular event and they've only yet attracted an average of 20 participants (I'm sure it will grow as word gets around; parkrun is proving popular in Germany). Today was an average day (i.e. 20 of us took part) and it was a nice riverside route with the added interest of going through one of those wooden, roofed bridges, with an open doorway at either end.
I was disappointed in my time today (didn't look at my watch the whole way round and wasn't going as quickly as I would have liked) but consoled myself with cake at the end.
There were more cakes than people, so I got two and Mick got one too
Ten of us took the 10-minutes-or-so walk, along the riverside cycle/foot path, to the post-run coffee location and there Mick received a much lesser breakfast than the one he thought he had ordered. Ne'er mind. I helped him with his bread and jam. The small bag of gummy bears and a single lettuce leaf were bizarre additions to the plate.
It was knocking on for noon by the time the breakfast gathering broke up, we'd walked back to the car park and we were on our way to a local Lidl. Gosh, what a crush of people we found there! I suppose we don't usually find ourselves in supermarkets during peak times, and with shops being closed on a Sunday in Germany, the middle of Saturday is a popular time to shop.
It was then but a short hop (18km) to Kirchheim, where we arrived to find these signs:
We obeyed what we initially thought the sign means (park facing this sign - i.e. everyone has to be neatly facing the same direction), but that leaves Bertie nose-down. We have therefore decided that later this evening we will re-interpret the sign to mean 'park perpendicular to the edge of the car park, not parallel' and we will turn around to give ourselves a more comfortable sleeping position.
Our walk around the town this afternoon (less than 10 minutes away) showed it to be another attractive and interesting place. We again did a walking tour based on a leaflet from the Tourist Office, from which it became apparent early on (by a mention in reference to every building) that one event had had a major impact on the town's history: The Great Fire of 1690.
A typical street in the town centre
Looking up past the Corn Exchange (one of the survivors of the Great Fire) to the Town Hall
A grand Town Hall (plenty of wedding parties there today).
Having almost been sidetracked by the art gallery, the next possible distraction was avoided by virtue of entrance to the castle being by guided tour only, and tours in English have to be pre-booked. We thus went for a different sort of cultural waylayment on the way back to Bertie, in the form of a large beer/glass of water (Mick/me) at the tables outside of a bar opposite the Town Hall. My water cost only a few cents less than Mick's stein of beer; I suppose beer is generally cheap in Germany.
(Today's aside: Considering how common motorhome service points are in mainland Europe, it's impressive that we have managed to spend eight consecutive nights in locations without one. We almost detoured to one on the way here today, before deciding the toilet capacity would last one more day, but we will have to visit one tomorrow.)
Weather: Mainly overcast but warm and humid. Some sunshine this afternoon.
StreetView coverage is a hit-and-miss affair in Germany (far more miss than hit; I've found few places with coverage) and thus I'd not been able to check out the access for a Bertie-sized vehicle in the car park for Esslingen's parkrun this morning. We thus arrived early in case we needed to park elsewhere and walk in - which happily turned out not to be the case. We were able to settle Bertie within metres of the start line.
About an hour after our arrival, others started to congregate. We weren't expecting a big crowd as this was only the 11th week of this particular event and they've only yet attracted an average of 20 participants (I'm sure it will grow as word gets around; parkrun is proving popular in Germany). Today was an average day (i.e. 20 of us took part) and it was a nice riverside route with the added interest of going through one of those wooden, roofed bridges, with an open doorway at either end.
I was disappointed in my time today (didn't look at my watch the whole way round and wasn't going as quickly as I would have liked) but consoled myself with cake at the end.
There were more cakes than people, so I got two and Mick got one too
Ten of us took the 10-minutes-or-so walk, along the riverside cycle/foot path, to the post-run coffee location and there Mick received a much lesser breakfast than the one he thought he had ordered. Ne'er mind. I helped him with his bread and jam. The small bag of gummy bears and a single lettuce leaf were bizarre additions to the plate.
It was knocking on for noon by the time the breakfast gathering broke up, we'd walked back to the car park and we were on our way to a local Lidl. Gosh, what a crush of people we found there! I suppose we don't usually find ourselves in supermarkets during peak times, and with shops being closed on a Sunday in Germany, the middle of Saturday is a popular time to shop.
It was then but a short hop (18km) to Kirchheim, where we arrived to find these signs:
We obeyed what we initially thought the sign means (park facing this sign - i.e. everyone has to be neatly facing the same direction), but that leaves Bertie nose-down. We have therefore decided that later this evening we will re-interpret the sign to mean 'park perpendicular to the edge of the car park, not parallel' and we will turn around to give ourselves a more comfortable sleeping position.
Our walk around the town this afternoon (less than 10 minutes away) showed it to be another attractive and interesting place. We again did a walking tour based on a leaflet from the Tourist Office, from which it became apparent early on (by a mention in reference to every building) that one event had had a major impact on the town's history: The Great Fire of 1690.
Looking up past the Corn Exchange (one of the survivors of the Great Fire) to the Town Hall
A grand Town Hall (plenty of wedding parties there today).
Having almost been sidetracked by the art gallery, the next possible distraction was avoided by virtue of entrance to the castle being by guided tour only, and tours in English have to be pre-booked. We thus went for a different sort of cultural waylayment on the way back to Bertie, in the form of a large beer/glass of water (Mick/me) at the tables outside of a bar opposite the Town Hall. My water cost only a few cents less than Mick's stein of beer; I suppose beer is generally cheap in Germany.
(Today's aside: Considering how common motorhome service points are in mainland Europe, it's impressive that we have managed to spend eight consecutive nights in locations without one. We almost detoured to one on the way here today, before deciding the toilet capacity would last one more day, but we will have to visit one tomorrow.)
Your cake and town hall photos are ENORMOUS on the blog as I look at them - the others are as normal - I'm not complaining. Arnside has become a "go-to" destination for overnight motorhomers - there are no restrictions (at the moment.) My friend Pete complains "all these people, uou can't park anywhere." I tell him its better than living in some run down backwater where all the shops are boarded up = we have a chemist, two convenience stores, a railwy station, a doctor's surgery and a dentist amongst other less essential facilities.
ReplyDeleteSo they are! I've no idea why those photos have done that yet the others are the usual size.
DeleteOne of the things we like about touring Europe is the provision by so many towns/villages of dedicated motorhome parking areas, positively encouraging motorhomers to come and appreciate what the place has to offer - and to put money into the local economy. Of course, providing such nominated areas also helps to control where the motorhomes park (e.g. not in sight of houses, not in the spaces most useful for locals going about their daily business).