A visit to the lake at St. Leon Rot and a visit to Bruchsal

We had made two attemps to get to the lake at St. Leon Rot, both in wet weather, but hadn't succeeded. Jurgen had explained to us how to get there so we finally succeeded. This is a recreational area that came into being due to gravel quarrying for a motorway intersection in the area. It consists of 3 lakes, one for waterskiing and swimming, one for surfing and sailing and one for fishing. The waterskiing does not require boats because there is a cableway that is obviously very popular and not as easy as it might look judging from the number of people who fell off particularly on the bends. Even Jurgen say that he did not manage to stay upright on his attempt.

The whole area is very well equipped with changing facilities, showers, volley ball court, table tennis, barbecues, a cafe/restaurant and lots of camping/mobile home space. What we noticed was that the seats not occupied in the shade were under cherry trees and would wreak havoc on a pair of whit shorts! So we just walked round the lake, stopping briefly for a cup of coffee.

Even the ducks love it!

Our next stop was a town called Bruchsal. We had no idea what to expect but saw that it is dominated by Bruchsal Palace which seems to take up streets. It was time for a bit of lunch so we got to a square with cafes and with this church - I've forgotten its name.

I liked the door!

A reading break!

Unusual sculpture!

Bruscsal Palace was constructed for the Prince-Bishops of Speyer in 1720. It is built of sandstone and the collection of matched buildings and the carefully laid out gardens make for a beautiful ensemble. We first visited this Chapel which was very modern, beautifully white with white and gold modern representations of the Stations of the Cross.

 It was too hot to take a walk in the garden - around 33 degrees - so we took to the air conditioning of the car and came home to a dark, dark house with shutters and curtains closed in order to keep the house from becoming a furnace!