St. Martin's, Sontheim, Bavaria

A day trip to our capital village. Actually lasted about 60 minutes from start to finish but around here it's like going to London when you live in the Corfe Castle area.

We belong to the parish of Sontheim (pop. 2500) which is 3km away. It's full of shops - a baker, a butcher, a hair "salon", a garden machine shop and two banks. Our village is still at war with Sontheim since it was incorporated in the parish in the 70's, having previously been part of Ottobeuren.

Risking life and limb first went to the GP and despite full waiting room managed to get sorted in under 30 minutes coming out with 1 prescription, a VitB6 jab in left posterior muscle, VitB12 jab in right posterior muscle and iron jab in right arm vein. Nice to know, despite the pain, that I have muscles in my posterior and my blood is still red. (Alarmed to hear recently one needs to make a GP appointment in parts of the UK). Note: all this costed 0.00 Euros.

Also came out of the GP with a signed document for the parish council where I then drove the 500 meters to (I took the long sightseeing route) next. Here I picked up my permit to drive without a safety belt, the newest versions are printed in English & French too so I guess valid in all EU. Also got a parking permit which basically allows me to park for 24 hours, free of charge in all places except on double yellow lines and disabled parking places but only valid in Germany. Just two of the perks for working for the German Secret Service keeping an eye out for GCHQ & NSA agents trying to set up listening posts in deepest Bavaria in case our Angie (Mrs Merkel that is) should ever come to visit (assuming she knows we are part of Germany). A bit of compensation for being underway every day with camera pretending to be Bliping. Note: all this costed 0.00 Euros

Took the opportunity of being in the capital to take a Blip of the local church. PurbeckDave can say more to the architecture of this plastered nave church, first built around 1450, than I ever could. Will have to check out if the aerial on the tower is only connected to the vicars TV.

I find the church towers in this part of Bavaria (Swabia) very boring compared to the "onion bulb" towers in Upper Bavaria, the part around Munich. (They are "Upper" because they are lower down on the map of Bavaria compared to say Lower Bavaria which is further from the alps - confused? ) I think it's that the Swabian folk are known for being thrifty - I wasn't even asked by a local for a donation for taking the photo (but only because there wasn't a local to be seen). So again Note: this cost 0.00 Euros.

The car water temperature gauge was by now just starting to move so drove a further 3km to the next parish where they have 2 (yes two) petrol stations as I needed some for chain saws, pumps, generators etc. Found the cheapest of the the two and on parking at the pumps realised I had forgotten the petrol cans! Note: This cost 0.00 Euros even if I was annoyed about the 6km detour but a slight smirk as I had "borrowed" Angie's car!

Returned home without petrol but happy that I hadn't had to spend a single cent all day and set about starting the John Deere as we needed a bale of horse silage (haylage). As I mentioned the other day I had forgotten to fill it with winter diesel and sure enough although it got to about +1°C air temperature this afternoon, the diesel and all metal parts of the tractor were frozen. Together with two weak batteries (they are over 12 years old) I couldn't get the old girl to start, the first time ever. Tomorrow Farmer Franz will come over with his tractor and rescue us. Hope that in the next week or so it gets warm enough to start her up and get the newly filled winter diesel in to the fuel lines, before the next bale is due. Note: this cost 0.00 Euros but an awful lot of swearing and Holt's Cold Start.

As can be seen from the Blip, grey today and a lot warmer (+1°C). It's due to stay that way in to next week, with luck an occasional glimpse of the sun.

Cheap Thursday cracked and the weekend in sight. Have a good Friday and it's pay day too......Oh just remembered I don't get any......