Storking in Steinhuder

Ornothological spot of the week was a stork with chicks on her nest near Steinhuder Meer. We saw two or possibly three storkettes poking their heads over the edge of the nest which was built on top of one of the nesting poles erected in the marshes close to the lake.

The natural lake of Steinhuder is very popular with the Germans, it's about three times the size of Rutland Water and attracts plenty of visitors from the Hannover area - however they were virtually all locals scoffing Frischbrotchen and ice cream. Fish butties or fischbrotchen as they're called in German, seem very popular here and the favourite is with smoked eels (from the lake) and onions, although Bismarck and rollmop herring are both much in evidence. I had a fried fish brotchen and Vicky went for the Bismarck!

Tastes better than it looks!

And that was Germany - and this is me standing by Steinhuder Meer next to a chunky looking sculpture. As Lou will not be based in Germany any more there will be less reason for us to do any touring over here but we will come again. Driving is slightly more complicated than in the UK - wrong side of the road for a start - and you need to watch out for bicycles who seem to have right of way everywhere. One useful tip is , if you hire a car, get a bright coloured one. Most Germans own cars that are black or silver and our bright red Golf was easy to spot in a crowded car park!

http://marathons.ahotu.com/calendar/germany is a very useful website for finding races overseas and next time I really want to try to find a mountain or trail race. We did spend a night in Bamberg last year and do want to go back for more - the reason being that Bamberg, although a small city, is the real beer capital of Germany with several medieval breweries still producing such specialties as Rauchbier (smoked beer - fabulous!)

Could you please arrange a top up!