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!)
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!)
I only use digital maps these days but I do miss seeing the overall picture on a larger map, but other advantages outweigh that inconvenience. I am enjoying your grand tour and welcome your details of technical and operational issues.
ReplyDeleteTo come up with options for our next destination, I use a few map-based Apps, where within a short time I will usually have scrolled around enough to have lost my bearings. That's where the road atlas would come in, but even then, when flicking between pages it becomes difficult. This morning's planning session had me scrolling on my phone, referring to the road atlas (which has anotations on sticky notes throughout it) and using the new big map spread out on the table. I think between all that, my route-planning arsenal is now complete!
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