Where's Bertie? He's at a small (3-space) Stellplatz at Esslingen, to the east of Stuttgart (exact location: 48.74721, 9.31044)
Weather: Mainly sunny and increasingly warm, topping out at 25 degrees.
With a couple of errands and a 3.5-hour drive on the agenda today, I resisted the urge to continue to sleep when my alarm went off at 0715 and within minutes was up and clad in Lycra. To my surprise, Mick followed within minutes. I was off out for a run and, after his latest set of injuries, Mick had decided to see how his body reacted to recommencing the same activity.
We didn't go together; I was targetting a Strava Segment and Mick was going to endeavour to take it slowly. Within the hour we were both back at Bertie. I'd done a lap and a half of the ox-bow (including taking the 2.7-mile Strava Segment course record by a margin of 2 minutes - sadly a reflection on how little Strava is used by women rather than a reflection on my speed) and Mick had done a couple of miles, hopefully without aggravating anything too much.
Showers would have been next on the agenda, but with Bertie's water tank guage flashing empty (which actually means somewhere between 0 and 30 litres (we left home with less than half a tank and haven't added any since)), it seemed wise to conserve that water until we found somewhere to top up. That wasn't going to be in Saarlouis, as the service point was removed last year and hasn't yet been replaced.
So, via a quick shopping trip, we headed for the town of Annweiler where a Stellplatz could be reached with only a couple of kilometres added to our journey. Conveniently we reached there at lunchtime, so it became a multi-purpose stop as water was filled, lunch eaten and showers had and waste tanks emptied. It was tempting to stay the night, as we were stopped anyway and as it looked a reasonably interesting place, but Mick's preference was to get the driving done today and spend two nights stationary. (It's probably a good thing we have an appointment in Bad Waldsee next Wednesday, otherwise I suspect that we could have spent a month getting as far as Stuttgart; there are plenty of Stellplätze in interesting looking places along the way.)
A couple of traffic jams held us up for probably only 10 minutes apiece, but by late afternoon we were descending to the River Neckar (along which we toured a little last year, to the east of here), crossing over the bridge in Esslingen, then ascending the other side of the valley. There's not much of a view from this elevated Stellplatz due to trees, but there's a castle(y-thing) almost next to us and a footpath that will take us down to the town. We've had a very brief shufty at the castle(y-thing) today, but have saved the town (and a recce of Saturday's parkrun location, which is why we're here) for tomorrow.
Weather: Mainly sunny and increasingly warm, topping out at 25 degrees.
With a couple of errands and a 3.5-hour drive on the agenda today, I resisted the urge to continue to sleep when my alarm went off at 0715 and within minutes was up and clad in Lycra. To my surprise, Mick followed within minutes. I was off out for a run and, after his latest set of injuries, Mick had decided to see how his body reacted to recommencing the same activity.
We didn't go together; I was targetting a Strava Segment and Mick was going to endeavour to take it slowly. Within the hour we were both back at Bertie. I'd done a lap and a half of the ox-bow (including taking the 2.7-mile Strava Segment course record by a margin of 2 minutes - sadly a reflection on how little Strava is used by women rather than a reflection on my speed) and Mick had done a couple of miles, hopefully without aggravating anything too much.
Showers would have been next on the agenda, but with Bertie's water tank guage flashing empty (which actually means somewhere between 0 and 30 litres (we left home with less than half a tank and haven't added any since)), it seemed wise to conserve that water until we found somewhere to top up. That wasn't going to be in Saarlouis, as the service point was removed last year and hasn't yet been replaced.
So, via a quick shopping trip, we headed for the town of Annweiler where a Stellplatz could be reached with only a couple of kilometres added to our journey. Conveniently we reached there at lunchtime, so it became a multi-purpose stop as water was filled, lunch eaten and showers had and waste tanks emptied. It was tempting to stay the night, as we were stopped anyway and as it looked a reasonably interesting place, but Mick's preference was to get the driving done today and spend two nights stationary. (It's probably a good thing we have an appointment in Bad Waldsee next Wednesday, otherwise I suspect that we could have spent a month getting as far as Stuttgart; there are plenty of Stellplätze in interesting looking places along the way.)
A couple of traffic jams held us up for probably only 10 minutes apiece, but by late afternoon we were descending to the River Neckar (along which we toured a little last year, to the east of here), crossing over the bridge in Esslingen, then ascending the other side of the valley. There's not much of a view from this elevated Stellplatz due to trees, but there's a castle(y-thing) almost next to us and a footpath that will take us down to the town. We've had a very brief shufty at the castle(y-thing) today, but have saved the town (and a recce of Saturday's parkrun location, which is why we're here) for tomorrow.
(A complete aside: we started watching 'Free Solo' last night and finished watching over tea tonight. It's probably the best climbing film I've seen, without the over-hyped jeopardy that one tends to get on most TV adventure programmes (although, it's difficult to see how one can over-hype the jeopardy of someone climbing a difficult 3000' sheer wall without a rope). I'd recommend it. It's available on All4 for another few days yet.)
Damn, yes! I'd forgotten about that! Not sure I'll enjoy it, but thought I'd give it a go.
ReplyDeleteFree Solo? Do report back when you've seen it.
DeleteI watched whilst crocheting, I would have been watching through fingers anyway... Interesting about the amygdala, I've always thought some people have different brain functions. I feel for his girlfriend. She thinks it's all over. I think he'll need and find a new challenge...
ReplyDeleteI managed to watch all the way through, but there were bits of the climb where my brain was screaming "he's going to fall!" even though I knew full well that he made it to the top.
Delete