The first day would be a tough one straight away. We were up at 2am as we had to drive to Dublin to catch a 7am flight. Arriving in Germany around 10am we had some breakfast. Then we started to prepare for our 5k race in the inner port that afternoon. The weather was so different to Ireland, really hot, the air a lot more stuffy. We ran in a team of 4: Cian, my brother René, Judith and myself.
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| Team Potoothsenmeerschweinschken :) |
They messed up the start, so we had two countdowns...when we were finally off I could feel the heat even more and was really thankful for the sprinklers they had put up to cool us down. I was so glad when I made it across the finish line. My feet were burning in my Bikilas from the hot ground and I was unbelievably wrecked. Best thing was that we got free alcohol free wheat beer after (it's supposed to be full of electrolytes and a perfect isotonic drink) and also some fruit, which had me back to normal quite quickly.
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| Just before the finish line... |
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| food after the race |
We spent the next few days mainly shopping, went to Holland for a day, went to a lovely thermal bath that has loads of saunas, jacuzzis etc - heaven!
On Friday we went to see our local soccer team play. I love going to the stadium, but for Cian, who is absolutely not into football, it was a first. The atmosphere was brilliant even though our team hadn't won any game at all yet during the current season. We were hoping to see at least one goal. And we were to be witnesses of the first win of the season, a great game ending 3:0. The stadium was nowhere near full, but we were right in the middle of all the action, our stand was packed and everybody was shouting and chanting.
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| Cian has been converted! |
After the game we went back to my bro's and had some nice proper Italian pizza....perfect to round off the day.
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| Celebrating the win while waiting for the train back home |
On Saturday we had another 5k race. This time the weather was more favorable with a few clouds, the odd shower and cooler temperatures. Like the last time, I ran in my silver/green Bikilas. This time though, it was really wet, there were plenty of puddles and no way to go round them, so I plowed through them and thoroughly enjoyed it as well. And I was amazed to find out I actually ran a personal best. :) First time to beat the half hour in a 5k race. (Not great for some, but I was delighted; I know I'm not the fastest runner...) Same for Judith, she came in less than 10 seconds before me and hadn't thought that she could do it in under 30 mins either. On top of that we had a very giggly moment when an oldish man decided to pass wind rather loudly right in front of us...hard to tell we overtook him quite swiftly...
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| Bikila and KSO feet in the zoo |
Sunday was a chilling day and we went to the zoo with my parents. Loads of walking about there, but I have to admit I enjoyed it. We wore our VFF's and had lots of people staring at our feet...now I know what the animals in there must feel like when they have people looking at them all day long.
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| I wonder what he's thinking... |
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| I love goats! |
Monday was another great day...we headed into Duesseldorf with René and Judith as Judith was looking to try on some VFF's and she had found a shop there that stocks them. (Amazingly, it's the only shop in this region even though it's the most populated place in Germany...). And I was delighted to see that they even had Bikila LS models for women, the ones you can normally not get in Europe, just seen them on the US website before. So not too hard to tell I had to try them on...and fell in love stright away...so did Judith. So we both ended up with a brand new pair of Bikila LS. Judith's first pair of VFF's, my 3rd pair of Bikilas....
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| New Bikila LS feet |
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| A new member in our VFF family |
We kept wakling around the city, went to the old town and had a few drinks there before taking the train back home, where somebody attempted to park a bicycle rather close to Judith's behind...another (much longer) moment of giggles for all 4 of us thanks to my bro's witty response to that.
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| Saw this in the old town in Duesseldorf - a woman taking of her shoes - good on ya mrs! |
Today we took it easy and went for a short barefoot run. I lasted just over 2k before I had to put my shoes on and finished the 4k loop. Cian (I also call him "The Animal" at this stage) was in the mood for more and ended up doing 10.5k barefoot.
Tonight René and Judith called round and we had a dirty doner kebap....nice... :)
I hope I didn't bore anybody to death with this rather long entry...I could have gone on for another while... ;o)
We'll see what the rest of this week holds in store. Hopefully we'll have more relaxing, exciting and mad days before we have to head back to Ireland.
Take care all!
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