Nine Wheels in Germany – August 2019 (Month 65)

Cycling this month

I’m writing this two days before the end of the month as I will shortly be saying goodbye to my MacBook and heading off in the Velomobile to England. Here is where I cycled during the month of August, including the beginning of the England trip.

And here is where I went:

As it was very warm towards the end of August, I fetched Alfie out of the Summer Palace (our second rented garage) and used him for my work commute on a few days. The ride to work is fine temperature-wise, it was just the ride home at midday in temperatures of 33 degrees that was less inviting in a velomobile, plus I had to pop to the shops and get some groceries.

It’s always fun riding the trike, although it does feel slow! But the lovely morning sunrises have started.

As I am 48 years old and living in Germany I am allowed to wear socks with my sandals
Tile-bagging

Over the last few months I have written quite a bit about my tile-bagging, which is using the website at Veloviewer.com to show a grid of 1km squares and to award me the ’tile’ if I have cycled in any part of that 1km square. At the end of July/beginning of August my maximum square was 18×18 tiles

Tile-bagging gives a good purpose for a ride when you don’t have a specific reason to go somewhere, and it also means that you cover a wide area and visit places you might otherwise avoid. Such as Krefeld!

Tile-bagging Neukirchen Vluyn – 1 August

So I started August very well, as on the 1 August I did a quick 35km tile-bagging ride after work to get some missing tiles in Neukirchen Vluyn.

The route up to Neukirchen Vluyn is very nice (I had done a similar route with Klaus a couple of days before) and the roads round here are fast. This was easy, but the top right hand corner of my square is the easiest area as it’s still fairly close; as I get more tiles I have to travel further to get new ones, and will start heading into more built-up areas which is less appealing.

I am getting pretty good at planning my track too, and I use course points on my Garmin to show me each tile as I reach it. This gives a bit of encouragement on the longer rides, plus shows if there is somewhere that I can take a detour if necessary.

Tile-bagging in Krefeld – 2 August

One place that Klaus and I tend to avoid is Krefeld. This is partly because, despite being a fahrradfreundlicher Stadt, it is not very bike-friendly in our opinion. This is mainly down to the poor quality road surfaces which is of course related to the relative poverty of this town, especially when compared to rich Kempen just 10km away.

But I would have to ride through Krefeld to get the tiles, so I plotted a route (attempting to avoid the trams where possible) and headed out after work.

This was a very worthwhile route as it actually got me 24 tiles. It was also pleasanter than I thought as the route through Krefeld wasn’t too bad, although I had a 3km section on a road beside tram tracks; it’s not very relaxing riding between tram tracks and parked cars as you know if you are doored you will probably either break the nose of the velomobile on the car door or the suspension on the tram tracks. But I rode carefully and despite it being 3pm it didn’t seem too busy in Krefeld.

There was some fiddly stuff at the southernmost part of the track and I wasn’t sure if all the paths were asphalted but indeed they were, and I was able to return through Krefeld on a route which was also OK.

Klaus was cycling home from work which meant he wouldn’t be back till around 7pm so I had plenty of time on my ride. I stopped at a red traffic light and noticed a café beside the road so pulled in and awarded myself a slice of cake and a cuppa.

I actually really enjoyed my ride, despite having to go through Krefeld twice. Almost 61km but good fun on an afternoon after work. But I still had more Krefeld tiles to do!

Tile-bagging with Klaus in Repelen – 3 August

I was on a bit of a roll now with tile-bagging and Klaus also wanted to get some. I planned a route that would get me 7 tiles and these would probably also be new for him, as his square is a little smaller than mine. We set off at a comfortable pace and found ourselves on a few new roads, but the route was overall very good.

We decided we had deserved a piece of cake after this ride so headed to Kempen to café Peerbooms where there is always something suitable!

Tile-Bagging with Klaus near Venlo – 4 August

As it was the weekend (Sunday) Klaus had planned a longer route, to bag some tiles for him in Venlo. I had already done a very similar route to this so I actually would only get one new tile (near Arcen) on his original route, but I spotted that a slight detour of 100 metres north of Arcen would get us both a second tile. And in the end we got a third… via off-road means!

Klaus had originally planned the route boing anticlockwise, with a stop at Hofcafé Alt Bruch in Kaldenkirchen if necessary. However, I noticed that the route went past Jacobs Bauerncafé on the border with NL near Straelen and I wanted to show him their cake selection. So we decided to reverse the route, and also to set off a little later than normal as according to Google the Bauerncafé only opened at 14:00.

So after walking the dog we set off, riding directly to Kaldenkirchen on familiar roads (with a quick detour into Hofcafé Alt Bruch as I needed the loo!) and then we did some roads at the back of Kaldenkirchen which I had done a few weeks ago. From there we went into the Netherlands and this was on a different route than I had done.

Klaus had plotted a route which goes round a mini housing estate and then down a track, which was marked as no longer having asphalt about 100 metres before his Coursepoint, at which point his route turned around. We parked up at the end of the asphalt as he was trying to remember if we actually needed to go off-road to get the tile, or if he had put a good buffer in.

I checked with my veloviewer and saw that we did indeed need to go off-road, but that we did another 300 metres or so we could get another tile – one that I also needed. But the track looked even narrower so we didn’t know if it was passable.

We decided it was worth giving it a go, and set off. The first tile was easy as the surface under wheel was not too bad. But then we had to do a right turn, then another right to return to our original point.

At the first right turn we saw that the path was rather less rideable than the wide dirt track we had been on before.

But we decided to carry on – the prize of the tile was now only about 100 metres away!

And then we passed into the tile, and turned right again to go back to the road… whereupon the surface was even worse. But we struggled on, through long grass in places (but at least the velomobile body protects you from the stinging nettles) and eventually we popped back out into the housing estate. Success!

The route continued northwards and we ended up riding through Schandelo which I really liked when I rode there a week or two ago. There were some twists and turns on the route, plus some bits that we rode in both directions, but we ended up completing the NL tiles that Klaus had aimed for and then arrived at Bauerncafé Jacobs at a quarter past two.

Knowing that it opened at 2pm we were a bit astounded that it was so full – but the lady serving us said that Google was wrong and it opened at 10am. She said whenever they changed the info on Google someone changed it back. The service was very good as despite the large number of people we didn’t have to wait long at all for our cake and tea.

The final 25km goes by in a flash. This was a fun ride although I think I’m a bit more keen on the whole tile-bagging thing than Klaus, who tends to prefer more direct routes places.

Tile-bagging in Krefeld again – 7 August

Krefeld was an issue I had to ‘solve’ with the tile-bagging. Once it was done then I could always ride around it and wouldn’t have to risk cycling through. So I decided to get it sorted once and for all.

Klaus was seeing his daughter Lara after work so I had the evening to myself, so I decided to route for some Krefeld tiles and then end up at the Chinese noodle bar I like in Tönisvorst. So I did.

On this ride I went through some of the very nice bits of Krefeld – near Bockum, Linn, and then out into the countryside at Bösinghoven. I had been very brave and routed myself right through the centre of Krefeld on the way back, as there were some tiles I needed and I couldn’t be bothered to do a huge detour to avoid the city centre and still end up at Tönisvorst. But surprisingly the route was OK, except for Uerdinger Straße which had bumps in the cycle path which were like mini mountains!

I was riding through Krefeld in rush hour but it was actually OK.

I enjoyed my Chinese duck and vegetables and then popped to see friends Inge and Frank to pick up an invitation to a party they had for us – and they fed me some home-made plum cake.

Just under 60km got me another 9 tiles so that was also good going.

Tilebagging in NL Maasduinen – 12 August

I had planned myself a nice route to NL to get some pesky tiles, and decided to ride this one afternoon.

I was aiming for a bunch of tiles to the north west, one or two of which seemed rather tricky (no actual roads going through them, just footpaths/farm tracks). Still, it was worth a go, so I headed off…

I rode into the Maasduinen, and this is a great bit of NL to cycle in as you are allowed to cycle on the roads and they are mostly empty. But then I reached the ‘farm track’ section, and I discovered there was a wooden gate into a woodland area.

The gate was wide enough, it just needed 3 hands to hold it open and push the Milan through. I managed on my own, fortunately.

The other side of the gate were… lots of goats, with horns!

They didn’t seem that interested in me.

I needed to ride about 500 metres along this track, and it was OK initially, but then I had to turn right and the track changed from woodland to sandy heathland…

It’s very pretty but riding on a layer of sand is tricky in a velomobile, or any three-wheeler, as the back wheel tends to fishtail as you put power through it. I managed to make it to the magic point on my Garmin where I should have got the tile, and then turned round and went back again. This time at the gate there were some Dutch cyclists who helped me escape.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but I got all the tiles I wanted and so it was a successful ride. And another reminder how much I like cycling in this bit of NL.

Tile-bagging in NL – Californie and more

I had a lot of random tiles still to get in NL and had idled away some time producing a route that got the lot of ’em in one big attempt. I decided if the weather and my legs were good, I’d give it a go one afternoon.

And I had luck! I rode down to Belfield at the bottom left of the map above and then picked up lots of tiles, also zigzagging northwards to get two columns of tiles. This involved riding along some really nice quiet roads but also some fairly narrow asphalted bike tracks next to unmade roads.

I had originally planned to stop for cake somewhere but in the end I just kept going, and did the 105km without stopping for more than a few minutes. I enjoyed it, and bagged 20 tiles.

Tile-bagging in Rheinberg – 21 August

The day after the Schlössertour in Münsterland I still had a bit of energy so decided to do a short ride and grab a few tiles to the north east.

I had to ride quite a long way before I could actually start on the tiles – they are all getting further away now! But I had a reasonably nice route which picked up 12 tiles altogether, and this time I awarded myself a tea and cake in Neukirchen Vluyn on the way back, with a view of one of the pithead machines.

Tile-bagging near Rheinberg again

I was making really good progress on my square now, but it seemed one of the easier areas to fill in some spaces was again to the north east, near Rheinberg.

What’s good about going this way is there is a direct road from Kerken to Rheinberg which is straight (Roman road?) and fast, so you can get to the start of the new tiles fairly quickly. My first tile was after 25km but I averaged 32 km/h to get there.

I had originally planned to do this route clockwise but then changed my mind as I wasn’t sure if I would want to do the two tiles near Issum (to the west of the above track) or shorten the ride and go home earlier. So I did the ride anticlockwise with the risk that I would go the wrong way down a one-way street! But this didn’t happen.

One tile was tricky, but I though it should be possible as Garmin’s cyclist-routing algorithm suggested it was possible. It was possible, and actually quite nice – an old stretch of road since bypassed and left to slowly fade away. There were just dog walkers on this road.

Klaus phoned me as I was cycling down this road to say he was leaving work. Although that meant he would be home before I was, I decided to continue on and do the two tiles near Issum as it was only an extra 15km. So I zoomed my way around some lovely quiet roads between Rheinberg and Issum and then made my way home. My average speed for today’s 72km ride was 32.3 km/h so you can see it was efficient – this was mostly as I cycled on the Landstraße to Rheinberg and back from Issum. On a Friday afternoon at 14:00 during school holidays there’s not so much going on.

After this ride I had just 5 more tiles to get in order to increase my max square from 21×21 to 23×23 – so I planned a route to get these five tiles, including one rather tricky one in NL (might involve walking), and persuaded Klaus that we could do this ride as our Sunday morning one, especially as that final tile is very close to Café zum Schafstall near Twisteden!

Tile-bagging around Twisteden

As mentioned above, I planned a route that just needed five tiles but would increase my max square significantly. On a sunny Sunday morning Klaus and I headed out on the ride.

We started fairly early as the day was due to be hot, plus we had some bike maintenance we wanted to do in the afternoon. We headed up to Geldern and then went further north than we usually ride, finding some lovely lanes. There wasn’t much going on (it was a Sunday morning after all) so we really enjoyed cruising around in our velomobiles.

In due course we arrived at Café zum Schafstall, where they are always very friendly and have a good cake selection!

We sat outside for quite a while, just enjoying the relaxing surroundings, before heading off to get the final tile.

This tile seemed a bit tricky as according to the map on Veloviewer there was no asphalted road going there. Here is the missing tile:

I identified the only really feasible way to get this tile was in the very top right hand corner.

I wasn’t sure what sort of a track this would be, if it would be possible for me to ride on it, but it was such a short distance (the square is 1km across, so to get to the square would probably be only 50 metres or so), I thought I would give it a go.

I didn’t actually check Google Maps beforehand – if I had, I would have seen that this track doesn’t show on Google Maps at all.

I have marked in blue where the track on the Veloviewer map is

And if you look at the satellite view, it just seems to be a turf field:

And I didn’t think to look at Google Streetview before going either. This is partly because Streetview doesn’t work in Germany so I don’t tend to think about it (but this tile is in NL so would have functioned). Streetview shows it is indeed a turf field.

When Klaus and I got there, it was just a turf field. No footpath really visible except for a really thin worn section right on the left of the field.

I then spent some time trying to get a closer look at the Veloviewer map on my phone but I didn’t have enough signal. I wanted to know how far I had to walk across the field (no way could I ride Millie on there). Klaus’s phone had more signal so I took a quick look on that, but he was very much overheating so I told him to ride on and I would catch him up. I decided I had to walk along the field edge, at least 100 metres, so I could get the tile.

So I set off in my click-shoes, walking beside the field. I got three quarters of the way along it and decided I must have bagged the tile, so turned and walked back. The proof would be when I got home on Veloviewer:

Yes, I managed it!!

It actually took me a long time to catch Klaus up, even though I switched my motor on to a higher setting, because he ended up chasing a bunch of roadies along the road and then up a hill.

When I got home my max square was now 23×23. I would have to make several trips to different areas to increase to 24 and then what I have as my mini target for 2019, to get to a 25×25 max square by the end of the year. It should be possible, although I can not go any further west as there are some unreachable areas in Brachter Wald, so I can only go north, east and south.

Mini-Treff in Xanten

Klaus fancied a trip to Xanten on a Sunday morning as we had only been there once this year, so we mentioned in the Velomobilforum that we would be at Market Café in Xanten at 11am and if anyone else wanted to join us we would be glad to see them.

Klaus planned a new route to Xanten which was a bit hillier than our normal one, but ended up being lovely.

We set off going northwards via Schaphuysen, where I stopped to photograph the huge building site that is the gas pipeline. These massive channels are being dug right across our cycling area, from Issum to Tönisvorst and beyond. Our rides regularly criss-cross the building works which run like a scar through the landscape.

As you can see from the photos above, it was a lovely day for cycling – not too warm and with a bit of a breeze but blue skies.

We arrived in Xanten half an hour early.

We hadn’t known if anyone else would come but saw that Thomas/Speedastir from Kleve had written on the Velomobilforum that he would arrive. As we were early we thought we should get the first round of cakes in.

After we had finished these and had a second round of drinks, Thomas arrived and then just a few minutes later another chap appeared – in a home-built wooden velomobile!

The amazing thing about this velomobile was that it only weighs 35km, so comparable with Emily! The builder, a Dutch chap, talked about how he made it (it also has quite a lot of carbon fibre bits in!), and we enjoyed relaxing outside in the sunshine.

There were lots of people in the market square so my velomobile alarm sounded a couple of times when kids poked too much at Millie, but generally it was very relaxed (in contrast to a weird argument we had with a chap last time who was very odd).

Klaus and I felt that, having had a slice of cake for breakfast, it was now lunchtime so we should have another cake slice.

This gave us the power to cycle over the Sonsbecker Schweiz (a bit of a mega hill) on our route back via Geldern. I bagged 4 tiles on today’s ride, but that wasn’t the main purpose of it of course.

It was good to see Thomas again, and also to meet the Dutch guy (whose name escapes me).

Riding with Josef on his trip home from Norddeich

We’re ridden a few times with Josef (nickname Jupp) in the past, including in Berlin and in Bonn, where he lives. He wrote in the Velomobilforum to say he would be cycling home from Norddeich (on the very north coast of Germany) and we knew his route passes very close to our house, so we suggested we intercepted him on the way and stopped for cake. He thought this was a good plan.

He started the day in Ahaus, where he had overnighted, leaving there before 9am. We had reckoned that we would be in Uerdingen for cake at midday and had posted this on the Velomobilforum in case anyone wanted to come, but had planned to meet Josef 12km earlier and to take him with us to visit the grave of our friend Robert Frischemeier.

Josef texted us when he was passing through Wesel and this was our signal to get riding too. We lay in wait just south of the A40 bridge in Moers-Schwafheim.

He arrived and we decided to go straight on to the Cemetery, so we rode together, a group of three now, and parked outside.

After a short visit at Robert’s grave we then headed towards Uerdingen for a much-needed slice of cake and cup of tea.

Photo by Josef (Jupp)

We arrived and parked outside, and just a couple of minutes later Norbert and Elke from the forum arrived too on their recumbent trikes!

Photo by Josef (Jupp)

We were able to sit outside (it was a very hot day) although Elke, Norbert and I were in full sun which got a bit much after a while. We ordered a variety of cakes:

Josef was keen to get home to Bonn so he headed off at speed (he’s a speedy rider) and Klaus and I had another drink. We said goodbye to Norbert and Elke who made their way home and then Klaus and I also headed back. I had got rather too warm sitting in the full sun and needed some shade!

It was lovely to be able to ride a short distance with Josef again – he accompanied us on our first day of our summer tour this year – and it’s impressive that he will have ridden the 411km home in less than 24 hours!

Millie gets pimped some more!

Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while will have noticed that in the 2.5 years/22,500km that I have had her, I have regularly done things to (a) make her slower, but (b) make her suit my needs more.

Basically, most people who buy a Milan buy it for SPEEEEEEEEEED!!!!! The Milan isn’t the ideal everyday velomobile – it’s low-slung so can get stuck on speed bumps/kerbs, it has a turning circle like that of a car (13 metres), it’s not overburdened with room for luggage, it isn’t very waterproof, it’s long so hard to store, and and and. However, the BIG benefit of the Milan to me is the easy entry and exit because of the Deckel. My choice of velomobiles that I can get out of without resorting to a crane is very small – and the Milan is actually the best option for me.

However, having bought an ex-racing Milan I have ended up ruining it by: (a) adding some strengthening carbon (more weight) around the entrance sill; (b) removing the foot hole on the left so I can go in reverse; (c) adding an electric motor (weight, and reduction of luggage space due to battery); (d) sticking vinyl wrap on it to make it look cooler although this adds weight; (e) changing all three lightweight wheels to stronger and heavier touring wheels; (f) fitting various chain tubes/covers to prevent me getting oily, (g) fitting larger drum brakes which are heavier but have better functionality, etc etc etc. Anyway, this month I did yet another shocking thing to Millie… I had another large hole cut in her!

In the photo above you can see that the left hand side foothole is open but the right side is closed. It has a sacrificial strip on it which is riveted onto the base, but this was now twisted and damaged which meant I was bottoming out on slight bumps.

I asked around amongst chums if anyone had the tools and the bravery to remove the footbump for me, but no-one felt quite up to the task. So I asked Andreas Beyß in Straelen (he manufactures the Go-One velomobiles) and he said he was happy to do it as it was an easy job.

So I rode the 20km to Straelen and helped Andreas turn Millie upside down onto a stand.

Because he would be cutting carbon fibre Andreas got a hoover ready.

He drilled a pilot hole with a drill, and then used an electric saw to cut out the shape. He just did this by eye.

The hole is now there!

He sanded off the edges of the hole. The photo below shows the piece that was cut out.

And the view from the interior now – two foot holes! The one on the right is a bit wider and doesn’t come back as far but that is partly because the mounting for the chain idler is there.

Interestingly, on my ride home I did notice a bit of a difference. Not so much the fact there is slightly more cooling air, but that there is a bit more light inside the velomobile when I look at my feet.

What will be very handy is if I need to do maintenance in the nose on that side I can now reach it much easier. The real test, of course, will be when I ride on some of my familiar routes where I used to bottom out. If this is not so noisy in the future it will be well worth the effort of riding to Straelen. Mr Beyß very kindly didn’t charge me for his work, which is very generous!

Battery woes?

This month Klaus and I did a weekend tour of castles in Münsterland (see my blog post here). During this tour I had to take the battery out of Millie overnight in order to charge it – when I am at home the battery is charged in situ as there is a socket in the garage next to where Millie is stored.

The last time the battery had been removed was our summer tour in June, but this time I noticed that the battery seemed to have slightly swollen.

You can just see in this photo, where I lined the battery up with a tile edge, that there is a slight swelling in the middle of the photo.

I didn’t know if this was a really serious issue, so I phoned the suppliers:

They suggested I brought the battery and charger to them in Köln so that they could check them out. So on a day when Klaus was cycling to work I nabbed his car and drove to Köln after work to visit Akkurad.

They had asked me to bring the charger as well as the battery, so I arrived and handed the battery to Houssem. He opened it up straight away and said everything was fine with the battery.

It seems that the bulging was just in the plastic of the case, perhaps it had got a bit warm. He tested the battery with a device and said the battery was OK, then also tested the charger and said that, too, was working fine. So with a clean bill of health my battery was screwed back into its box and I set off home again from Köln.

One last very useful bit of information though. I remembered Houssem saying, when I first got the motor, that the stages 1-5 weren’t evenly spaced. It is not that 1 is 20%, 2 is 40%, 3 60% etc… but he didn’t tell me at the time what the spacing is. Having used the motor for about 7,500km, usually just on number 1, I have got a bit of a feeling and that was that 4 and 5 were notably more powerful than 1-3, but I didn’t know much more than that. So Houssem gave me the percentages:

1 = 5%
2 = 15%
3 = 27%
4 = 65%
5 = 100%

This was really good news for me, as it shows that the level of support from the motor that I have is not soooooo huge (5% of 250 watts is 12.5 watts). The maximum I have needed to use on a group ride is setting 3 (I use 4 and 5 only when going up mega or mega mega hills). So this makes me feel good, that I am not needing as much power as I had thought to ride with my chums.

Preparations for our England trip

Klaus and I had planned to cycle to England in early September – it’s actually not that far, just 210km to Hoek van Holland and then 50km from Harwich to my Mum’s place north of Ipswich.

However, I reminded him about the bad roads in England and, more notably, the hedge-cutting season which starts early September.

He thought about it a bit and decided that his Continental tyres on the front of Emily and the GoCycles on the back would probably not be enough puncture-resistance. The best option would be Schwalbe Marathons. We thought we had a lot of these in stock but in fact they were mostly on our bikes – we only had 2 spares. So we robbed Alfie of his two Marathon front wheels, replacing them with Shreddas which we had lying around. Alfie may not be used again for the rest of the year so that doesn’t matter much.

And then Klaus had the fun job of replacing four tyres on the Quattrovelo and pumping them up, having replaced the tyres on Alfie and pumped them up too!

Emily goes barefoot

We later in the day did a test ride and one of them had a puncture; Klaus thinks he reused a holed tube as he had to go for SV6 rather than SV7 tubes and we found various ones lying about, but apparently one which needed repairing!

I did a few jobs on Millie too. I deflated both front tyres, checked them for stones and flints (not too many!) and then pumped them up again. I fitted a new tiller hanger – the one I had was a bit too short; I wanted to drop the tiller marginally lower now that my belly has reduced in size, but the end was too short. The tiller hanger is just a gear cable and we had a couple of spares so I fitted one and then cut it with plenty more length available if I want to drop the tiller further.

My third job was to replace the plastic wedge under my seat mounting. This had been fitted by Etienne at emvelomobiel.be a long time ago and he had warned that he didn’t know how well it would last. Well, it had lasted a year and a half which wasn’t bad (and six months longer than the one on the other side!). As with the left hand side seat raiser, I had a piece of old car/van tyre that Frank had supplied me with – so this is very strong reinforced rubber. Klaus had to drill two holes in it for the screws that come from the underside of the Milan, and then we just fitted the new seat mounting. All worked fine, and it works well. It adds a very minor bit of suspension too as the rubber has a tiny amount of give.

As I have got two more broken spokes (one in each front wheel) I bit the bullet and ordered a new set of front wheels from Gingko who are well-known in the velomobile world for wheels. Hopefully I will finally get some reliable wheels that stay round!

After this we took ourselves to Kempen for a test ride – this is when we discovered Emily’s puncture. After that was repaired (and Klaus had pumped up his seventh tyre of the day to about 6 bar/100 psi), we rode to Kempen and had an ice cream.

We are now ready for the England trip and really looking forward to it!

Other events

Redecorating of our study/spare room

Because of the hospitality we received from friends during our Summer Tour, which we said we would reciprocate, we realised we needed to get a proper guest double bed. Well, a sofa bed, as most of the time we wouldn’t have people staying. So with input from Klaus’s daughter Lara (who would probably also be using the bed) we visited IKEA and bounced up and down on some sofa beds and also did a lot of internet research. Because most sofa beds were too wide the choice wasn’t enormous, plus Lara was keen to have a boxspring bed for comfort, but in the end we found one we could all agree on and ordered it.

The spare room has a white carpet which has not worn well over the years and although I have several times hired a carpet shampoo machine, it was not possible to remove the stains. So I decided if we were going to have this room as a room for Lara/my Mum/other guests I needed to do something else. Either recarpeting the room (expensive) or, the easier option, buying a large rug to cover most of the dodgy bits. And I found a good rug which looked reasonably hardwearing and was the right size (3.5 metres by 2.5 metres).

The old sofa went out of the room and was taken away by the Kempen Sperrmüll – it was sad to see it go as I had had that sofa for five years. I then moved the desk as Mum said it would be better to have the bed in the corner where the desk currently was, and then I laid the rug out.

Poppy seemed to approve.

I ordered a couple of carpet runners to fill in the gaps where the shape of the room meant the rug didn’t cover the whole white carpet.

And then, several days later, the sofa was delivered. The delivery guys offered to built it (for a price) but we said no, we would do it ourselves. This was a good plan as actually it just needed six screws to fix it together! Here it is as a bed (it is a double, but with just a single duvet on it).

And here as a sofa.

The sofa is comfortable and the bed seems so, but we will have to ask Lara after her first night on it. She certainly liked it to sit on and test-lie on.

I rather liked this amusing note that came with the sofa – instructions to stroke it, and then it will be more attractive!

More dogwalking

My Garmin Vivoactive 3 smartwatch encourages me to do my 8,000 steps per day and I manage it for about 28 days in 30. I even went out when rain was threatened – but got caught out and had to wait under a tree for a few minutes!

The dog is always grateful for a walk but otherwise she generally hangs out downstairs with Gudula and Frank as they are clearly more interesting than Klaus and I!

Cakes this month

As usual, here are the cakes that I enjoyed with friends and haven’t been featured above. The last one (with raspberries on) is a bad photo of a really tasty cake that my colleague Inna brought in for me early as her birthday cake. In Germany on your birthday you are supposed to bring cakes in for your colleagues (rather than them treating you!!) but as I would be on holiday in England when Inna brought her cake in, she produced something early just for me. It was really tasty!

2 comments

  1. Always enjoy following your blogposts although I think the cake pics are setting my diabetes off! :0)

    The motor power information is very useful.
    Have you any idea how it breaks down for the 1 to 9 setting?
    If you haven’t, would it be possible to find out, please?

    I hope you enjoyed your ride back to England.

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