Where's Bertie? He's in a car park at the site of the former colliery in Waltrop (N of Dortmund). Exact location: 51.61825, 7.42003.
Weather: Hot and sunny
Our trip to Norway in 2017 was marred by wet weather that prevented us from doing much of what we wanted to do. The start of this one is being marred by heat, although I'm sure in a few days' time we'll be wishing for a bit more of it. For the moment, however, daytime highs in the mid thirties and overnight lows of 20 aren't conducive to either sleeping or sightseeing.
That said, considering the conditions, I don't think we've done too bad a job of sightseeing today. We did an awful job of sleeping last night, with an overnight low temperature in Bertie, reached at 7am today, of 26 degrees. I'm sure that, had it been cooler, neither the noise of the motorway, the barges nor the group of youngsters chatting nearby into the small hours would have kept us awake.
Even so, we were up at 0630 so as to get out for a little jogette before the temperature graph climbed its hockey stick curve for the day.
Even though it was 23 degrees in the shade (not that there was much shade), the jogette was okay.
Bertie was still nicely shaded when we got back to him
After cold showers that weren't really cold, it was time to contemplate today's destination. I'd come up with no fewer than four options, with the possibility of visiting one of them during the day then moving on to another for the night. The final decision was made based on scouring the photos and going for the one that looked to offer the best shade.
Nicely shaded, although I reckon Bertie's nose will start being toasted by the sun at around 1830.
It was an hour's drive to get here, during which we revelled in aircon, then promptly on arrival I undid the good work of the aircon by lighting the stove to make coffee. There's a lesson to be learnt: on a hot day, make the coffee before travelling and put it in a flask for consumption on arrival.
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, but it was gone noon when we headed out for a look around. Our initial walk around a pond/lake was gloriously cool in the shade of trees:
This is only a small segment of the water. Other bits, being semi-covered in film of pollen, weren't showing themselves at their best.
Having made our way back through the colliery buildings, our walk up to the viewing tower atop the spoil heap behind Bertie was a rather warmer affair.
Made entirely from wood recovered from the mine's structure.
Alas, the access to the top of the tower was barred. What a disappointment!
View down to a couple of the colliery buildings from in front of the tower
The mine here operated from 1903 until 1979, during which time it suffered a few setbacks, and at its peak, in 1958, it employed over 2800. By the time it closed the mining field covered an area of 27km2. (You'd not believe how many signs I Googled translated only to condense the information down into those few facts!)
Efforts to turn the land over to leisure use started in 1988 and, based on what we've seen today, have been vastly more successful than a UK equivalent site that I happened to visit earlier in the month.
I couldn't find a vantage point to get a good representation of the buildings, but here's a sidelong glimpse of the three that Bertie's looking straight at. My Google Translate exploits told me that the wars hampered operations due to all of the local bridges being destroyed, but didn't suggest that any of the buildings here had suffered damage.
Weather: Hot and sunny
Our trip to Norway in 2017 was marred by wet weather that prevented us from doing much of what we wanted to do. The start of this one is being marred by heat, although I'm sure in a few days' time we'll be wishing for a bit more of it. For the moment, however, daytime highs in the mid thirties and overnight lows of 20 aren't conducive to either sleeping or sightseeing.
That said, considering the conditions, I don't think we've done too bad a job of sightseeing today. We did an awful job of sleeping last night, with an overnight low temperature in Bertie, reached at 7am today, of 26 degrees. I'm sure that, had it been cooler, neither the noise of the motorway, the barges nor the group of youngsters chatting nearby into the small hours would have kept us awake.
Even so, we were up at 0630 so as to get out for a little jogette before the temperature graph climbed its hockey stick curve for the day.
After cold showers that weren't really cold, it was time to contemplate today's destination. I'd come up with no fewer than four options, with the possibility of visiting one of them during the day then moving on to another for the night. The final decision was made based on scouring the photos and going for the one that looked to offer the best shade.
It was an hour's drive to get here, during which we revelled in aircon, then promptly on arrival I undid the good work of the aircon by lighting the stove to make coffee. There's a lesson to be learnt: on a hot day, make the coffee before travelling and put it in a flask for consumption on arrival.
Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, but it was gone noon when we headed out for a look around. Our initial walk around a pond/lake was gloriously cool in the shade of trees:
Having made our way back through the colliery buildings, our walk up to the viewing tower atop the spoil heap behind Bertie was a rather warmer affair.
The mine here operated from 1903 until 1979, during which time it suffered a few setbacks, and at its peak, in 1958, it employed over 2800. By the time it closed the mining field covered an area of 27km2. (You'd not believe how many signs I Googled translated only to condense the information down into those few facts!)
Efforts to turn the land over to leisure use started in 1988 and, based on what we've seen today, have been vastly more successful than a UK equivalent site that I happened to visit earlier in the month.
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