Hilpoltstein

Friday, 31st July.

A lovely sunny day after yesterday afternoon's almost wintery conditions, perfect for a ride across the canal to Rothsee, a large lake for boating, swimming etc.  On our ride on the path by the lake, we encountered a group of 8 young mums all doing leg stretches, 3 while pushing prams containing young babies and the other 5 who  were carrying their little ones in slings and with a bottle of water in each hand, were doing arm exercises.   Back across the canal and into the town, we strolled around admiring the charming old buildings and stopped at the Cafe Grimm for morning coffee and f.a.cream cakes.  We had intended to stay only one night here but when we saw posters advertising the BurgFest taking place this weekend, we decided to stay another night.  In the afternoon, we whiled away a few hours in the sunshine, waving the flags at passengers on the two Avalon cruise boats that passed by, some of whom we believe were fellow Down Underers as we heard an oi, oi, oi or two in response.  We went back into town in the early evening, sat at a pub to watch proceedings and were joined by two couples, one of the men was a former burgermeister (mayor) of the town, has a daughter currently on a work visa in Australia and we spent a very pleasant couple of hours in their company before riding back to camp.  Tomorrow there will be a huge flea market taking place throughout the town, all the streets will be closed to traffic and there will of course be plenty of food and drink consumed...we will venture in again to join the fun.