Monday was a rainy day here (there is a reason the hills are so green here after all). Around midday, Bridget, my So African/Austrian friend and I were bored so we drove to Bad Wiesse, a town north of her on the Tegernsee (“See” means lake in German), to check out the indoor courts Bridget remembered being there. They were there all right and were being used for tournament matches. So plan B was to do some walking and shopping around Rottach-Egern, which we did till it stopped raining. There are lots of little shops in Rottach, mostly clothing and lots that sell typical Bavarian wear including lederhosen (leather pants) for me and the dresses with full skirts and so on. We also hit the grocery store and as always they are interesting to look around at. This one, a Tengleman has a disproportionate amount of space for chocolates, probably because this is a touristy area. As usual no eggs here are refrigerated, not even boiled ones.
Once it stopped raining we headed up to Gmund at the top of the lake to try and hit at the other tournament courts. We were able to get in a little over an hour up there, mostly as it was raining, but the courts absorb the rain incredibly well and were in pretty good shape.
Today I woke up to sunshine though and after breakfast (the Germans take breakfast seriously…great bread, and all sorts of wursts, ham, eggs, cheeses, fruit, muesli, yogurts, cereals, tea, coffee, juices and even some smoked salmon here anyway) we drove up to Bad Wiesse to practice. We got lucky…the courts were empty when we arrived and got busy shortly after, but we got in a good two hour hit.
After lunch, I biked over to the Rottach tennis club, as I had a hit arranged with another friend, Ellen Neumann from Munich. I stopped along the way to take a few photos of the lake.
Ellen and I also went up to Bad Wiesse and got in a long practice and a couple of sets. It started raining just as we were finishing but by the time we got back to Rottach it was raining hard, and I had to bike back to the hotel. I was soaking by the time I got back, but it was a fun day, full of tennis with nice people.
Tomorrow I’m hitting early with Heidi Eisterlerhner again and then warming up Bridget who gets to play tomorrow. She’s playing the only other American woman here, Gina, who lives in Europe. The weather forecast looks ok the rest of the week; 60% chance of rain tomorrow, 40% Thursday, 20% Friday and 0% Saturday.