Another weekend, another holiday! This week it is Pentecost and Memorial Day, so there are plenty of Monday volksmarches in addition to the weekend events.
• Good luck to the Heidelberg International Wandering Club as they take a walking trip of the Benelux this holiday weekend. Saturday they will walk in Beaufort, Luxembourg. After driving on to Brussels for the night, they will walk Sunday in Anderlecht, Belgium. Monday, they head to the event in Breda, Netherlands, before heading back to Heidelberg. Three walks in three countries over a three-day weekend. That’s one heck of a walking trip!
• Having mentioned Beaufort, we’d like to give you a heads up on this event. Because of the Sunday holiday, the event is held on Saturday and Monday. It’s not often that we see an event split like this, so we don’t want you to head to Beaufort on Sunday.
• Sunday’s walk in Allmersbach im Tal is a Stammtisch walk for the Stuttgart German-American Wandering Club. Look for their blue flag on a table in the start hall and go up and say, “Hi!” The start time for this event is between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. The prize is a calendar, which costs 4 euros.
• The Stuttgart Club also will be at the Betzweiler-Wälde Volksmarch on Sunday and Monday. Complete one of the 5-, 10- or 20-kilometer routes and get a multi-function pocket knife. Doors open at the Heimbachhalle in Betzweiler at 11 a.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday.
• Walkers in the Eifel will find the Gladbach event convenient. Sunday and Monday you can start this walk between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m.
• We recently went to Scotland to do some permanent walks. We stayed in Edinburgh and took the train to Glasgow on a Saturday morning to do the permanent walk there. The 12-kilometer route started at the train station, so that was very convenient. The day was sunny and cool and the walk was very easy to follow. The route took us to within 50 yards of the No. 1 Chocolate Factory, so we had to make a slight detour. It was at this fine establishment that we learned the difference between “traditional” hot chocolate and “Spanish” hot chocolate.
The “traditional” hot chocolate was just what you think of, a warmed version of chocolate milk. The “Spanish” hot chocolate, on the other hand, was a cup of warm, very thick, chocolate syrup. It was too thick to drink, so we asked for a side order of steamed milk to dilute it to a drinkable consistency.
Right after we left the No. 1 Chocolate Factory we were faced with the steepest uphill portion of the trail. The extra sugar on board helped us up the hill. The route continued through some residential areas as well as some very pretty parks. We easily for the control points and found our way back to the train station for the trip back to Edinburgh.
Sunday, we did the Edinburgh City Trail permanent walk. The weather was still cool and a light rain was falling on and off. Starting at Waverly Bridge we walked through the Princess Street Gardens and through the New Town of Edinburgh.
As we neared Calton Hill we walked right past our hotel. Lorraine went inside to get her umbrella and soon afterward the rain stopped. (We have often found that a sure way to make sure the rain stops is to lug around an umbrella that is no longer necessary. It worked again for us in Edinburgh.)
After enjoying the views from Calton Hill, we walked to The Palace of Holyrood House and then started up the Royal Mile. We stayed on the Royal Mile all the way to Edinburgh Castle, with one side trip to see the Geryfriar’s Bobby statue as well as the dog’s grave in the nearby church yard. After a lunch break at the Ensign Ewart pub, we went back to the Waverly Bridge to complete the walk. We really enjoyed the walk through this beautiful old city, especially after Lorraine made the rain stop!
The Glasgow and Edinburgh walks are sponsored by two different walking clubs, so there were two sets of paperwork to complete. We found a post office in a nearby shopping center Monday morning and were able to mail off the required documents before leaving the United Kingdom. We received our completed IVV cards and the patch from the Edinburgh walk within a week. That is very good service, in our opinion.
We now have the UK crossed of our list of countries for our Europa Cup I booklets. Now it’s time to plan the next trip. Well, well, well, I see Ryan Air flies to Athens. Perhaps Greece is the next target. We’ll let you know.
Email volksmarch information to two.walkers@yahoo.com. Mail brochures to Bob and Lorraine Huffaker, CMR 460, Box 278, APO AE 09752.
