Where's Bertie? He's still in the car park to the west of Köln, where it turns out that 24 hours can mean 3 days (more of which below).
Weather: After rain overnight, dry and overcast morning, then sunshine and showers in the afternoon with a couple of big rumbles of thunder.
I perceive parking in a random car park in a city to be the biggest gamble on the boy racer/banging tunes/revellers front (this time last year: Elgin - boy racers till the early hours; Glasgow - revellers passing by all night). Here in Köln we had a completely peaceful night, helped, no doubt by: 1) cobbled car park; 2) overlooked by flats on two sides and houses nearby on a third; 3) a huge graveyard across the road.
It was well positioned too, being 600m from our parkrun, and only about 200m from the post-parkrun coffee location.
Arriving in the park at around 0840, we would have been taken aback by what we found, had it not been for some suspicions that I started to form mid-week. Each parkrun country is able to choose a date on which they can hold a bonus non-Saturday run (in addition to New Year's Day, which applies to every country). In the UK the bonus day is Christmas Day. In Germany, it's German Unity Day - 3 October. We had initially intended to run in Dusseldorf today, then come to Köln for Monday's bonus run, however, as there are two parkruns in Köln, that would have had us hanging around the city until next Saturday. I thus decided that it would be worth the additional mileage to take the indirect route of coming to Köln first, before looping back to Düsseldorf (past which we drove yesterday), in order to run both parkruns here in the space of three days.
I first started to suspect that we may not be the only UK parkrun tourists present at Monday's location when I looked at the volunteer roster and saw a name that I recognised. It wasn't until Thursday, when listening to a podcast, that it occurred to me that people wouldn't be flying over just for Monday, but would come for the weekend.
The other factor, of which we'd been oblivious until we passed a sign on our way into the city, was that it's the Köln marathon tomorrow.
So, we entered the park to find a whole gaggle of apricot and milestone t-shirts loitering around the start area. It turned out that between us we smashed the event's previous attendance record. Last week that had 18 participants; today it was 81, of whom I reckon over 50 were from the UK and Ireland.
It's an undulating 2-lap course, and I found myself running the first half lap with a couple of people (strangers to each other) who had flown in for the marathon, then decided to do the parkrun because it was there. They had both been unaware until arrival that there was a bonus run on Monday. I continued with the woman (whose name I never did ask) until part way through the second lap, when she slowed to a walk on a hill and urged me to go on ahead. I've not had such a sociable parkrun since Toulouse in 2016!
With all parkrunners safely gathered in, off to the local petrol station we went. On the face of it an odd location for a post-parkrun coffee, but they promised it had a nice cafe inside, and we knew it to be true as we'd also checked that out yesterday, when we'd clocked that it only had seating for about 12. I don't know if they'd been warned about a potential influx of customers, but they coped admirably, and even though nobody was complaining about having to stand, after a while they managed to magic up a couple of beer festival style tables and benches. It's a pity I didn't take any photos.
Back at Bertie, the ticket we bought yesterday lunchtime was about to expire and, having decided to chance staying another night, I went to buy another. When is a 24-hour ticket not a 24-hour ticket? Turns out that when parking is free on a Sunday and the Monday is a public holiday, a 24-hour ticket can last for 3 days. We're now all paid up until lunchtime on Tuesday, not that we'll be staying quite that long.
On to the afternoon: between heavy showers (at least, hoping we'd be in between; we didn't quite manage it), we walked across the road into the cemetary. We probably would have taken a look at it anyway, but the fact that the tourist information website listed it as a point of interest recommended it even further to us.
What a place! It's over 200 years old (per the Tourist Info website; it dates to 1243 according to Wikipedia) and houses over 55,000 (not a typo) graves. Here it is on a map:
Huge! 800m across and 800m from bottom to top at the widest point
It's wooded with mature trees, full of red squirrels, and is a really nice, peaceful environment, that happens to also be full of graves and memorials.
The main thoroughfare, running through the middle
Full of works of art
Some graves overgrown, and some with warning notices of plot expiry, unstable stones, or the need for tidying
A lot of massive family plots (as well an individual graves around the edges). Is the statue on this one giving a two fingers salute to someone up high?!
This one had a QR code next to it, which piqued my interest. The associated website contains an entire essay on the symbolism of the bird and stone.
By deduction: wartime deaths. All of these crosses bore two names apiece and were dated 1943 or 1944
So, an odd couple of highlights-of-the-trip today: coffee at a petrol station, and a tour of a graveyard.
Weather: After rain overnight, dry and overcast morning, then sunshine and showers in the afternoon with a couple of big rumbles of thunder.
I perceive parking in a random car park in a city to be the biggest gamble on the boy racer/banging tunes/revellers front (this time last year: Elgin - boy racers till the early hours; Glasgow - revellers passing by all night). Here in Köln we had a completely peaceful night, helped, no doubt by: 1) cobbled car park; 2) overlooked by flats on two sides and houses nearby on a third; 3) a huge graveyard across the road.
It was well positioned too, being 600m from our parkrun, and only about 200m from the post-parkrun coffee location.
Arriving in the park at around 0840, we would have been taken aback by what we found, had it not been for some suspicions that I started to form mid-week. Each parkrun country is able to choose a date on which they can hold a bonus non-Saturday run (in addition to New Year's Day, which applies to every country). In the UK the bonus day is Christmas Day. In Germany, it's German Unity Day - 3 October. We had initially intended to run in Dusseldorf today, then come to Köln for Monday's bonus run, however, as there are two parkruns in Köln, that would have had us hanging around the city until next Saturday. I thus decided that it would be worth the additional mileage to take the indirect route of coming to Köln first, before looping back to Düsseldorf (past which we drove yesterday), in order to run both parkruns here in the space of three days.
I first started to suspect that we may not be the only UK parkrun tourists present at Monday's location when I looked at the volunteer roster and saw a name that I recognised. It wasn't until Thursday, when listening to a podcast, that it occurred to me that people wouldn't be flying over just for Monday, but would come for the weekend.
The other factor, of which we'd been oblivious until we passed a sign on our way into the city, was that it's the Köln marathon tomorrow.
So, we entered the park to find a whole gaggle of apricot and milestone t-shirts loitering around the start area. It turned out that between us we smashed the event's previous attendance record. Last week that had 18 participants; today it was 81, of whom I reckon over 50 were from the UK and Ireland.
It's an undulating 2-lap course, and I found myself running the first half lap with a couple of people (strangers to each other) who had flown in for the marathon, then decided to do the parkrun because it was there. They had both been unaware until arrival that there was a bonus run on Monday. I continued with the woman (whose name I never did ask) until part way through the second lap, when she slowed to a walk on a hill and urged me to go on ahead. I've not had such a sociable parkrun since Toulouse in 2016!
With all parkrunners safely gathered in, off to the local petrol station we went. On the face of it an odd location for a post-parkrun coffee, but they promised it had a nice cafe inside, and we knew it to be true as we'd also checked that out yesterday, when we'd clocked that it only had seating for about 12. I don't know if they'd been warned about a potential influx of customers, but they coped admirably, and even though nobody was complaining about having to stand, after a while they managed to magic up a couple of beer festival style tables and benches. It's a pity I didn't take any photos.
Back at Bertie, the ticket we bought yesterday lunchtime was about to expire and, having decided to chance staying another night, I went to buy another. When is a 24-hour ticket not a 24-hour ticket? Turns out that when parking is free on a Sunday and the Monday is a public holiday, a 24-hour ticket can last for 3 days. We're now all paid up until lunchtime on Tuesday, not that we'll be staying quite that long.
On to the afternoon: between heavy showers (at least, hoping we'd be in between; we didn't quite manage it), we walked across the road into the cemetary. We probably would have taken a look at it anyway, but the fact that the tourist information website listed it as a point of interest recommended it even further to us.
What a place! It's over 200 years old (per the Tourist Info website; it dates to 1243 according to Wikipedia) and houses over 55,000 (not a typo) graves. Here it is on a map:
It's wooded with mature trees, full of red squirrels, and is a really nice, peaceful environment, that happens to also be full of graves and memorials.
So, an odd couple of highlights-of-the-trip today: coffee at a petrol station, and a tour of a graveyard.
Thought this article might interest you
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/sep/30/science-of-running-marathons-older-person
I clicked on the link with trepidation in case it was a story of doom and gloom. Glad to see it was just the opposite. I should probably run a marathon some time...
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