Lakes and a lovely town

Tuesday 10th June 

We seem to have got into the habit of having a lazy morning, lunch in the apartment and then out in the afternoon.  This morning was no different except that Penny and I had to go food shopping.  The local supermarket was very different to how it had been on Saturday evening when it was about to shut for 2 days.  This time there was lovely fresh fruit and veg plus a bakery in the foyer.  We were just about ready to go out and in fact Richard and I were in the car when Penny came down and said that Jim had hurt his hip again putting his shoes on!  She told us to go off on our own which we did.  We drove to one of the South lakes - Obersee (Heimbach where we were on Monday is at the north of the lakes on the Rursee).  We went first to Rurberg where there is a dam between the two south lakes and the north one.  (The other lake is the Urftalsee).  There is a concrete weir where the water, when the top lake is full, spills into the bottom lake.  At present the water levels are quite low - it will be interesting to see if the recent heavy rainfall makes any difference.  Next we went to Woffelsbach which is a strange place.  Everything seems quite modern though some houses have been built with timber frames making them look older.  Here we found some very strange caravans with permanent awnings.  The caravan seems to be built into either a brick or wood building - I'm not sure how it works!  We then drove to Einruhr - the most southerly tip of the lakes - where we had a wander round and a coke.  It was then back to the apartment to find that Jim was feeling a bit better - thank goodness.  

Wednesday 11th June (Jim's birthday)

A change to the routine this morning - that was a shock to the system!  After breakfast we set off to Monschau mainly to go to the mustard factory (we didn't actually find it).  We found a lovely little town as we walked from the car park which got prettier and prettier.  We had Jim's birthday lunch of pizza in the square and then wandered back to the car.  From there we drove to Simmerath (which was a big disappointment after Monschau) and then back to Rurberg to show Penny and Jim the dam.  The water level was certainly up on yesterday but not over the top.  Next we showed them Einruhr where we had lovely ice cream sundaes.  Back at the apartment it was poached eggs on toast as no one had any room for anything else!