A few thoughts on step counters/pedometers

I decided to buy my wife a SILVA step counter for Christmas some years ago. It was a good way of checking how far we walked. It cost around €24. A year later Judith bought me one. The devices fastened to our belts. If the counter was not almost vertical it didn't seem to function well and gave ridiculously low values. We could live with this although it was a bit fiddly.

We went canal boating two years ago and I attached the device to the belt of my old gardening jeans. When we returned it was bit late to garden and so the jeans and the step counter disappeared into the back of my wardrobe. I decided I'd lost it and picked up a low priced counter from Decathlon. The company had just opened a shop in Mannheim. If memory serves me rightly this cost €7 or €8. It didn't function well and was very sensitive to where it was placed on the belt. Decathlon no longer sell this device, at least in Germany. I am not surprised because Decathlon strike me as a company offering good value, decent, well functioning clothes and gear.

I read that the two step counters mentioned above were two dimensional pendulum devices and that three dimensional pendulum devices were superior. We bought to OMRON three dimensional step counters for about €20 apiece. These have the advantage that they can put in pocket, even a shirt pocket or hung on a belt. We are most impressed. The counters deliver similar data to GPS devices. We can recommend them highly. 

We have no connection with any of the companies mentioned.

Food in Germany country inns

The food in these restaurants and pubs is normally very simple but wholesome and the portions are enormous. If you stop for lunch or dinner then order a Senioren (pensioner) or a klein (small) portion. If you don't you will not be able to walk afterwards.
This is a small schnitzel with cheese sauce and Bratkartoffeln (sauteed potatoes):

A vegetarian on our table ordered noodles with tomato sauce and had trouble finishing:

If we are wrong then you can tuck into a small cake afterwards:

Walking and baggage transfer in Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate)

Rhineland Palatinate is making serious efforts in tourism.  Various companies in the south of the province are offering services to cyclists and walkers that we feel are worth knowing about. We are writing a guide to the the Weinsteig and as we find info about these services we will pop them on the blog.

Gepäckservice Pfalz (Palatinate Luggage Service) based in Deidesheim, offers both walkers and cyclists the chance to have their bags carried. We ourselves are not madly bothered as cyclists about having somebody carry our gear, but it could be interesting for a walker, especially if you are walking, for example, the Weinsteig from Bockenheim to Rechtenbach-Schweigen near Wissembourg (Alsace) as part of a grand European tour, you may well have more gear and if you can pack the essentials for each day in a day sack. If you do not plan to take a day sack Decathlon in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen will sell you a 10L pack for under €3 and 20L one for €8. If you use this service you can inform the company each evening where you will be stopping the night after. They pick up your bags on the next morning.

Gepäckservice Pfalz, Kirschgartenstraße 49, 67146 Deidesheim, Germany, http://www.gsp1.de/ (In German), info@gepaeckservice-pfalz.de, T: +49 (0) 6326 982284
Baggage Transport:
1-2 people/day  €20
3 people/day €27
4 people/day €36
Each extra person €2.50
The company also rents out touring bikes.

The official provincial or regional tourist office will also book the overnight accommodation and baggage transfer for a walk along one of the many regional walks: Pfälzer Hohenweg, Pfälzer Waldpfad, Pfälzer Weinsteig. This a good idea if you don't know your "der" from your "das". In this case however you don't have the flexibility to stay somewhere for another day. Prices seem reasonable: from about €150 a day for bed and breakfast for two people sharing a double room with bath/shower and WC.
Pfalz Touristik e.V., http://www.wandermenue-pfalz.de/en/home/, info@pfalz-touristik.de,
T: +49 (0) 6321 39160

Buying a new Rucksack/Backpack

My first rucksack was an army surplus "Commando" rucksack, bought about 1953. The bag was made of dark green canvas, rubber coated on the inside. The frame was steel. The rucksack was heavy even when empty. It was pear shaped. It was tough. I spent twelve weeks touring the USA in 1963. The rucksack was thrown into Greyhound bus luggage lockers and survived ten thousand miles of being bounced around. I left the rucksack at my parents' house when I moved to Germany and 20 or so years after I was given it my father passed it on to the kid next door when the boy needed a rucksack to go to a Boy Scout camp. It's probably still in use. I packed my stuff in any old way. Some time later I learnt that the weight should be packed so that it was high on the shoulders. Adjustment was easy, you just tightened the carrying straps to raise it up. There was no waist belt.

(Mine was dark green. The photograph is from http://www.granniesloft.co.uk/ where it is or was for sale for £50.)

Time went on and my wife and I had ten rucksacks, most of them day sacks and four large ones. We've decided this year to go walking in the Pyrenees. We will be carrying our own gear and so wanted lighter rucksacks than the bigger ones and more volume than the day sacks. We have just bought two Deuter SLs - women's rucksacks that can be raised up and down on the frame, also backwards and forwards. Fitting the rucksack resembles a trip to Saville Row for a new suit. Fine tuning is the order of the day. The woman's rucksack is just for short people. We both are short. The amusing thought is will they be worth more than we paid for them in sixty years time?

Walking the Camino, The Chemin de St. Jacques and/or the Stevenson Trail from Le Puy

We have just returned from a few days in Le Puy en Velay, the start of the French section of the Camino, the Way of St James to Santiago de Compostella and the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail. We did not intend to walk any long distances. We had visited the city two years ago when we walked the Stevenson Trail to St Jean du Gard. On that occasion we arrived late in the afternoon, left early the next morning and so saw little of the city. This was a mistake. On this trip we learned several hints that could be of interest to the walker intending to travel one of these routes.

• The tourist office issues a free town plan.  This shows the walking routes out of the centre. We noticed at least two groups of walkers trying to find their way out of the centre. In our experience this is always the most difficult stage of a walking trip. Even though the route is waymarked with the red and white stripes the French use, these are easy to to miss. 
• It is worthwhile spending a few hours in Le Puy. A visit gives you an excellent feel for a mediaeval city. The cathedral and the museums are well worth visiting. The view from the cast iron statue of the Virgin Mary on a volcanic neck repaid the effort we had to invest in getting up there.
• While you are there, you might want lunch. The staff canteen in the Hotel du Départmente, next to the cathedral offers excellent food to visitors very cheaply. We ate poached salmon, ratatouille and macaroni and a farmhouse yoghurt for 7€ each. We could have had a full meal: starter, main course, pudding and cheese, with coffee for 10€. The canteen is run by an organisation offering employment to people with learning difficulties, so you can be well fed and have a warm feeling that you have helped someone. Just the right attitude to start the pilgrimage. 

• 

  One of the many historic buildings in the centre of the city

  If you don't want to carry all your stuff or you need to leave or join a party underway La Malle Postale (www.lamallepostale.com) offers baggage and people transfer along the major walking routes in the area. Some of the information on services offered is in  understandable but slightly odd English, but all of it is available in French. This is an extremely valuable service in an area where public transport leaves much to be desired.
  

  

  The statue of the Virgin towering over the city centre

  
  

  

  The doorways are fascinating

Umbrellas for walkers

We walked through the Odenwald forest on Sunday. It was wet. A slow moving cold front dropped  several litres per square metre of rain on the Odenwald. We had bought two Euroschirm (www.euroschirm.com) telescopic trekking umbrellas earlier this year after leaving one old gamp on a train and having another invert itself on the same day. This was their first taste of action. We were both impressed. We unlike others in the party with capes and rain jackets were reasonably dry by the end of the day.

Provincial Horticultural Show Landau 2015 / Landesgartenschau Landau 2015

Although the majority of hill walkers prefer to get mud on their boots walking, there may be the odd one apart from my wife who is interested in gardening. In which case if you are thinking of walking in the southern Palatinate you would be well advised to get off the train in Landau, or if driving through southwest Germany follow the instructions on the website and look at the Landesgartenschau there.