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!
(*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).
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.)
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.
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!
(*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).
After deciding you were not the one with the beard I couldn't identify you on the photo. I'm beginning to wonder if you are on some secret park-run list ticking mission?
ReplyDeleteI'm the most prominent person behind the beardy chap who was taking the photo. I was wearing a black cap, red shirt, black skirt and foxglove shoes (please overlook the fact that red and foxglove don't go together; I've never paid much attention to making my outfits match!).
DeleteSince I started listening to the parkrun podcast about a year ago, I've come to appreciate that there are lots of parkrun related challenges, tick lists and 'attainment clubs'. However, they don't motivate me at all, so there's no secret mission. I do however enjoy a parkrun, and it's always fun to run with locals in a new place, hence if there's one near where we're going (or if there's one somewhere that it looks worth going) then I'll always try to attend. There will hopefully be quite a few more before the end of this trip.
Disappointed that the Berghaus guy couldn't arrange free entry for a couple as athletic as you two, and wearing one of his T-shirts to boot ..
ReplyDeleteIf we'd known at that point how much the tickets were, we would have enquired!
Delete