Summer Holiday, 15 July 2026

Oberhausen, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

Well, I don't know whether St Swithun works in Germany as he does at home, but if he does, they are in for a wonderful summer - warm, but not desperately hot, with a cool breeze! 

In fact, when I got up this morning, I was almost chilled after my shower - I had the first shower, as the Swan Whisperer had (Needless to say!) gone for a run. But when I had finished my breakfast and my coffee, I went out to explore. 

Bückeburg is one of those lovely little German towns that nobody has ever heard of, but well worth visiting. We really liked the aire, which was plain but serviceable - one paid for electricity and for water, but other than that, it was fine. It was situated on the edge of the park, in which there is a large Schloß,

and the town itself is lovely, with an ornate church, a Gothic Rathaus, complete with integral brewery, and some lovely buildings. The Swan Whisperer joined me, and our walk was rather longer than we'd planned, as we missed a rather obvious (in hindsight) shortcut and ended up walking all round the park! Oh well, all good exercise. The local Old People's Home were also out for their constitutionals, complete with Zimmer Frames and carers! There will be photospam on Facebook, although not of the Zimmer framers. You Have Been Warned! 

Then it was time to move on. The SW had bought rolls for lunch on his run, so I didn't need to shop, and, apart from stopping for horrendously expensive diesel (it is cheaper in both Belgium and France, so he only bought 1/2 tankful) and again for lunch once we were on the motorway, we came straight here to Oberhausen, which is one of the towns on the Ruhr. 

We decided to take a slightly longer route as I, for one, am sick of the A2, and were routed via Osnabruck and Dortmunc. Tonight is our last night in Germany. This aire ought to be very nice, but someone has taken our booked place, which meant we took someone else's, and the people in our place aren't there - fortunately the very nice woman whose place we had taken rang the management, who gave her another pitch, so that was all right. But there is a very busy railway-line just feet away - I hope it won't keep us awake all night! For some reason the trains seem extra-loud, but I daresay they won't once I've taken my hearing-aids out!