Harskirchen

Another small aire this time next to canals. I have a fondness for canals. I used to walk the dog every night along Elland canal as a teenager. This canal looked very similar to Elland canal, it even had the derelict mills, but then I guess that is all part of the unsuccessful short lived history of canals. It was a quiet site, 11 euros plus 3 euro for 8 hours of electricity. This type of electric charge didn’t work well for us, we normally pay for electricity at cooking time and breakfast only as it was we paid 3 euros not understanding the system, and resorted to gas for breakfast cuppa. This aire offered a full modern and clean toilet block with hot showers, washing machine and dryers, not bad for 11 euros. Our feet are still blistered from the walk the other day, crazy really because it wasn’t even a long walk, so running and walking are out at the moment. And that is despite me sterilising a needle and bursting the blister. (I once read hours of reports on if you should or should not bust blisters, but it does make them more comfortable .) Hence we took to the bikes again. The cycle path along the canal was metalled and wide. We came back through the forest to the sound of evening bird song. Just the bit that connected the canal and the forest felt like UK cycling, busy with crazy car drivers. The day was very hot and humid, grey skies hung above, but still about 28 so we sat out for evening meal. Of course rain is an almost daily occurrence on this trip and soon the sky was alight with almost constant flashes of lightning in ever direction. I always love watching the lighting and my blog writing was abandoned for nature’s light show. I believe that 5 people died in that storm which was not localised, so impressive but unfortunately deadly. With the rain came back the cold. At least we have had a week of blue skies and warm weather but I do find these constant grey skies somewhat oppressive. In the morning we tried walking the canal in the opposite direction, but between limping, lack of time and rain we got very little distance.

I am struggling with being away from mum at the moment, she ended up pulling the emergency cord the other day and had the ambulance out. She is being managed in a virtual ward, whatever that is. My mother is 93! I’m phoning her twice a day and James called in to check she was OK. There is a bit of me wondering if we should press on to Calais and come home early but at the moment I believe this isn’t required