Saturday 20 July - Nuremberg

Where's Bertie? He's still parked in the Stellplatz by the Wöhrder See in Nuremberg.
Weather: Sunny morning, with some cloud developing this afternoon. Hot.

A good parkrun was had this morning. A single lap in a lakeside setting, with friendly participants.

I did!

For the second week in a row, there was no post-run coffee, leaving us with more free time than expected. That meant it was before lunch when we headed back out to walk the 2-miles or so along the lake, then the river, into the city for a look around.


The beach on the lake, complete with a weeping willow (can't think I've seen one on a beach before) and a sculpture of a chap about to stand on his surf board (which seemed a little out of place next to a waveless lake).

Early impressions from our first two glimpsees of bits of the town were good...


...but by the time we'd made it to the busy main square, where a one-day mini-festival was in progress, and had looked at the town map from the Tourist Office, I was flagging in my enthusiasm. We walked around a small section of the city (heaving with tourists) but I was yearning to be in the bottom of a small valley, with good walks up its tree-lined sides and a nice river flowing down the middle (I specifically had this place in mind, from last year's trip as my ideal). I'm not sure if I'm towned-out or if I just couldn't be bothered, in today's heat, with seeking out the interesting stuff in a place the size of Nuremberg.

There's so much work going on at the castle (which was largely rebuilt after the war) that it was difficult to get a snap without hoardings or scaffolding.

What to do when you've walked into a city, spent an hour looking around and can't quite be bothered with any more walking around sightseeing? Go for a late lunch, of course!

This salad was every bit as huge as the snap makes it look.

Our return to Bertie was a retracing of our outward steps. Google Maps had told us in both directions that there was a shorter route along roads, but the extra distance was worthwhile for the tree-lined, off-road waterside path.

My final activity of the day had me marvelling at the efficiency of bicycles. Back at Bertie, I didn't even pause to step inside, but instead hauled my bike out of the boot and pedalled off to Lidl to solve the lack of ice-cream in Bertie's freezer (plus a couple of other, less serious, shortages). I doubt I'd have made it back on foot in this heat without the ice-cream melting; the bike saved the day!

This was our fountain of the day - a decent water flow and the jeopardy of getting sprayed on a breezy day...

...but this was the one in front of which people were queuing to have their photo taken

Better than either of the fountains, was this bit of sculpture.