Where's Bertie? He's at a free Stellplatz in Rain. Electricity and water are available for a fee. (Exact location: 48.69214, 10.90581)
Weather: Appropriately, mainly rain, although with a good dry spell this morning.
This morning's run was a fast two miles on rough grass alongside the Danube, followed by a short period of gasping and wheezing, followed by a slightly more gentle return to Bertie. I'd prefer to do the fast and gentle efforts the other way around, but I also like the challenge of taking the crown on a Strava Segment, and there was one here for the taking - so I took it*.
Taken from the most attractive point in the run. If only I'd wiped the lens before I took the snap, it might have conveyed it rather better!
The rain that was falling as we'd headed out (Mick also ran, but not with me) soon petered out and it stayed fair as we breakfasted and readied ourselves for a relocation.
Before the relocation came a visit to the service point, where a number of Germans were standing around chatting and pointing in a state of disapproval (quite rightly, I should say). Mick happened to witness the incident in question last night when an Italian van arrived, was apparently bamboozled by the toilet emptying point and rather than lifting the cover to pour his waste down the drain, he poured it through the adjacent grate. I surely don't need to describe what happens when you pour a toilet cassette containing three main consituents, of which only one is liquid, through a grate. The effect is exacerbated when the service point WC rinse tap isn't working.
I only recount this because of what happened next. I was crouched down holding a bowl under the drain for Bertie's grey water tank (didn't want to put the bowl down on top of the Italian's poo and paper remnants, but needed to capture the water to use it to rinse our own toilet cassette), when Mick returned the toilet point flap (situated right next to me) to its closed position by poking it with his toe. It dropped into place and in so doing kicked up a host of poo and paper particules, a quantity of which landed on my face, my clean-on jumper and my jeans*. Urgh. Urgh. Urgh. Urgh. Urgh!
Once I'd washed, changed and finished pulling 'urgh' faces, onwards to Rain we came - a 14km journey. With hindsight, we should have headed out to look at the town the moment we arrived. Instead, we brewed coffee, and then it was so close to lunch time that it seemed ill-advised to head out before having something to eat. Then it started raining, which I suppose is only to be expected when you're in a town called Rain.
By mid-afternoon it seemed that the pattering was abating, so jackets were grabbed and off we hurried. The easing of the rain was brief. It was pattering again before we made it out of the car park.
Sightseeing in the rain is not a fun activity, and thus we were something less than half-hearted about it. We walked into town, along the length of the main street, back again and declared that to be enough.
Rain in the rain
What Rain once looked like. There's been a settlement here since 1323.
If the rain should let up there's a chance we'll head out again, but it's not looking promising at the moment.
(*1 It was a 1.8-mile segment that I took by a margin of 4 minutes - I was pleased with that, particularly considering the terrain. I even made it into sixth place on the boy's league table.
*2 Yes, jeans. It was cool enough this morning for me to resort to long trousers for a few hours.)
Weather: Appropriately, mainly rain, although with a good dry spell this morning.
This morning's run was a fast two miles on rough grass alongside the Danube, followed by a short period of gasping and wheezing, followed by a slightly more gentle return to Bertie. I'd prefer to do the fast and gentle efforts the other way around, but I also like the challenge of taking the crown on a Strava Segment, and there was one here for the taking - so I took it*.
The rain that was falling as we'd headed out (Mick also ran, but not with me) soon petered out and it stayed fair as we breakfasted and readied ourselves for a relocation.
Before the relocation came a visit to the service point, where a number of Germans were standing around chatting and pointing in a state of disapproval (quite rightly, I should say). Mick happened to witness the incident in question last night when an Italian van arrived, was apparently bamboozled by the toilet emptying point and rather than lifting the cover to pour his waste down the drain, he poured it through the adjacent grate. I surely don't need to describe what happens when you pour a toilet cassette containing three main consituents, of which only one is liquid, through a grate. The effect is exacerbated when the service point WC rinse tap isn't working.
I only recount this because of what happened next. I was crouched down holding a bowl under the drain for Bertie's grey water tank (didn't want to put the bowl down on top of the Italian's poo and paper remnants, but needed to capture the water to use it to rinse our own toilet cassette), when Mick returned the toilet point flap (situated right next to me) to its closed position by poking it with his toe. It dropped into place and in so doing kicked up a host of poo and paper particules, a quantity of which landed on my face, my clean-on jumper and my jeans*. Urgh. Urgh. Urgh. Urgh. Urgh!
Once I'd washed, changed and finished pulling 'urgh' faces, onwards to Rain we came - a 14km journey. With hindsight, we should have headed out to look at the town the moment we arrived. Instead, we brewed coffee, and then it was so close to lunch time that it seemed ill-advised to head out before having something to eat. Then it started raining, which I suppose is only to be expected when you're in a town called Rain.
By mid-afternoon it seemed that the pattering was abating, so jackets were grabbed and off we hurried. The easing of the rain was brief. It was pattering again before we made it out of the car park.
Sightseeing in the rain is not a fun activity, and thus we were something less than half-hearted about it. We walked into town, along the length of the main street, back again and declared that to be enough.
If the rain should let up there's a chance we'll head out again, but it's not looking promising at the moment.
(*1 It was a 1.8-mile segment that I took by a margin of 4 minutes - I was pleased with that, particularly considering the terrain. I even made it into sixth place on the boy's league table.
*2 Yes, jeans. It was cool enough this morning for me to resort to long trousers for a few hours.)
Loving Bertie's travels! And maybe, just maybe, Bertie will meet up with a squeeze for an, ah, romantic interlude bless . . .
ReplyDeleteBut, in the meantime, here's a list of what CNN consider to be Germany's most beautiful places. Many of which I'm sure are already on yr list.
https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/germany-beautiful-places/index.html
Tonight Bertie is so close to his neighbour that there is the danger that they'll start fondling once all occupants are safely asleep!
DeleteI had to get right to the bottom of that CNN list before I got to some places that we'd been or are on the radar. Pity I didn't know about Oberammergau a couple or three weeks ago when we were in that neck of the woods. Others may make it on the list for our next German tour (yep, we're already planning to come back again, moving steadily north). I've downloaded the page for future reference.
I read most blog posts at breakfast. Tonight I am thankful I read this one whilst not partaking of a meal. In contrast to your headline story I am getting an impression from your town photos of colourful and sparkling clean. litter free town centres.
ReplyDeleteYour impression is accurate.
DeleteMost of the towns we have visited have been easy on the eye, with lots of historic, characterful and/or colourful buildings. It's also true that the country is generally clean. From my observations, part of the reason for the cleanliness is because litter bins are in good supply and are generally emptied regularly, and another reason is because the bin emptiers are often also to be seen litter-picking.
I've noticed the same in Spain - it's not so much that people don't leave litter (I'm often out and about early in the morning to see it), but more that they employ street sweepers who have cleared it away by the time most people are on the streets.
UGH!!!!
ReplyDelete