I'm sure there's a lake around here somewhere......

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Having spent two semesters at the University of Augsburg, I wanted to go back for a look at the town ten years on. Little appeared to have changed much as we wandered through the campus and the Unikum cafe bar seemed to be doing as good a trade as ever on a sunny day. After stocking up with picnic ingredients en route we set off for a pleasant walk through the SiebentischWald towards Kuhsee to go for a swim. Unfortunately, my memory of the paths through the wood isn't what it used to be, so we saw far more of the wood than intended before managing to decipher the directions offered by a passing cyclist (with an outstanding example of the odd local dialect). Jumping in for a much needed cooling swim we first noticed the ominous clouds gathering above the lake. Swimming in rain is fine, but the accompanying thunder and lightening soon saw us heading for the relative shelter of the trees and the keenly anticipated picnic had to take place under a railway bridge instead. Hardly a great welcome back!

Augsburg is a city with a great deal of history, not to mention a fair bit of money, and, as you would expect in southern Bavaria, a rather conservative outlook. Having no time for main visitor sights like the Fuggerei or the Bertold Brecht museum (my lit course nemesis!) we settled instead for a quick tour of the sites in the centre of town. After a much required late afternoon stop for Kaffee und Kuchen (a good ol' German tradition - bakers at home are rubbish in comparison), we sought in vain for a good football viewing location. Football not being high on the list of priorities for the numerous 'ladies who lunch' who were in evidence in the town centre, we had to settle instead for walking a bit further out to the standby option of Murphy's Law irish bar, another occasional student days haunt. It was weird to be back to somewhere which hasn't changed one bit and since the much anticipated Brazil v Ghana match turned out to be as dull as dishwasher, we decided to skip out early for a train back to the far livelier city of Nuernberg for our last night in the area.

(Apologies for the quality of these photos - my camera was on its last legs and Luke had left his favourite gadget at home that day.)

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