Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at Schlosspark Monrepos, just to the north of Ludwigsburg. (Exact location: 48.91865, 9.17304)
Weather: Rain
Just as we were going to bed last night a thunderstorm hit. Monsoon-style rain hammered, Bertie bobbed around with the wind lashing his flanks and the sky was almost constantly lit up by lightning from the many storm cells surrounding us.
Another storm of the same impressive nature hit at 0545 today. With a forecast of rain and thunder all day long, we hoped the reality would be that the occasional storm would hit us but that between them we would have some good dry periods.
The next rain came at 0830 when I was 3 miles through a 4.5-mile run. I hadn't long passed Bertie on my second lap when the first drops were felt and I didn't hesitate in cutting short. If it was going to be as ferocious as the previous two storms, I didn't want to be out in it.
The next shower turned out not to be a shower. In fact, I think that today has been the first day of non-stop rain that we have experienced during two summers in Germany.
What to do around Ludwigsburg on a horribly rainy day? Go to Ikea! Exercise was had walking the vast showroom, we availabled ourselves of the wifi, and had lunch out for the second day in a row:
I would have been surprised to find my cauliflower was pickled if I hadn't already noticed the gherkin and the cocktail onion hiding beneath it.
Not feeling inclined to spend the night in Ikea's car park, we came to Monrepos late this afternoon*. This is the location of the Ludwigsburg parkrun and we wanted to check out whether the parking was suitable for a Bertie-sized vehicle. We found it to be so and with no parking restrictions (and as we've no plan yet as to where we're going next) we thought we may as well stay.
It was gone 7pm, when the rain finally eased off enough to tempt us out into the park for a little leg-stretch around the lake...
...we'll investigate further tomorrow, which is forecast to be dry.
(*Bertie's total mileage for today including a trip to a supermarket, a stop at a motorhome service point, our visit to Ikea and the onward journey to Monrepos has been a little over 10km. Google Maps tells me we're a 5km walk from where we spent the last two nights.)
Weather: Rain
Just as we were going to bed last night a thunderstorm hit. Monsoon-style rain hammered, Bertie bobbed around with the wind lashing his flanks and the sky was almost constantly lit up by lightning from the many storm cells surrounding us.
Another storm of the same impressive nature hit at 0545 today. With a forecast of rain and thunder all day long, we hoped the reality would be that the occasional storm would hit us but that between them we would have some good dry periods.
The next rain came at 0830 when I was 3 miles through a 4.5-mile run. I hadn't long passed Bertie on my second lap when the first drops were felt and I didn't hesitate in cutting short. If it was going to be as ferocious as the previous two storms, I didn't want to be out in it.
The next shower turned out not to be a shower. In fact, I think that today has been the first day of non-stop rain that we have experienced during two summers in Germany.
What to do around Ludwigsburg on a horribly rainy day? Go to Ikea! Exercise was had walking the vast showroom, we availabled ourselves of the wifi, and had lunch out for the second day in a row:
Not feeling inclined to spend the night in Ikea's car park, we came to Monrepos late this afternoon*. This is the location of the Ludwigsburg parkrun and we wanted to check out whether the parking was suitable for a Bertie-sized vehicle. We found it to be so and with no parking restrictions (and as we've no plan yet as to where we're going next) we thought we may as well stay.
It was gone 7pm, when the rain finally eased off enough to tempt us out into the park for a little leg-stretch around the lake...
(*Bertie's total mileage for today including a trip to a supermarket, a stop at a motorhome service point, our visit to Ikea and the onward journey to Monrepos has been a little over 10km. Google Maps tells me we're a 5km walk from where we spent the last two nights.)
I see that there's a miniature golf course across the road from Bertie ⛳...
ReplyDeleteSo there is! I'd not zoomed in sufficiently on Google Maps to have noticed. They're a popular thing in Germany, but are often off-the-shelf metal-plonked-on-concrete affairs that lack the character (/windmills, etc) of British crazy golf courses. I took a stroll over to this one this afternoon and it was proving popular.
DeleteYour shower turned out to be a "continual shower" which of course is nonsensical - I have a similar one - "rising (or descending) contour. " Well I know what I mean but I'm sure others may quibble. What about the German mountain rergions (if only to go and have a look?)
ReplyDeleteWe spent a little time down in the mountains on the Austrian border in Colin back in 2014 and would happily go back. However, on last year's tour I realised the benefits of the flatter areas of Germany from the point of view of training for a half marathon (although we did find our way into some vaguely lumpy areas last year too). This year we opted for more of the same to facilitate Mick's half-marathon training (which, you may have gathered, isn't going too well with his state of injury).
DeleteBy accident rather than initial design, this tour has now become parkrun focussed, leading us into towns more than the countryside, on top of which we're limited (by opting for a cheaper insurance policy this year) on our annual mileage, which is focussing our attention on not doing too much meandering around.
There will, however, be future trips to Germany to explore other regions.