September 23rd was sunny and cool when we started out at mid-morning. Following the HSB route was relatively simple because they are well marked. Here is such a sign: if you can read it. The top sign states that Wieblingen is straight ahead
4.0 km and the Hauptbahnhof is only 0.7 km. Notice below the third sign there are three pictures. Each one identifies a bike route. The red one is the HSB Radweg symbol. As long as you see that symbol, you know you're on the right route. (This sign is in Heidelberg and we were headed toward the Hauptbahnhof on our way out of town.)
You can follow this route by accessing: http://www.adfc-tourenportal.de/viewtrackobject.php?trackObjectID=895.
These maps are really nice. Elevations can be read off using the "Topo" button and Bett Und Bike hotels are pinpointed. We didn't have internet service so these maps were only useful for planning. Having that available along the route would have saved a few pounds of cargo on my bike!
We made it easily as far as Reilingen where it crossed a pan-European route that we mistakenly started following west toward the Rhine River. Just before we got to the Rhine I realized that something was very wrong. We flagged down another biker who led us back to Reilingen--a big two-hour loop and our lead biker had no mercy for our heavy loads! The lesson we learned here was don't ignore a sign that points to a village that you're not intending to pass through!
We finally reached Bruchsal about 5pm and caught a train into Bretten where we had made a reservation for the night at the Hotel Brauerei "Zum Hirsh" arriving there around 6 pm. (ODO = 70 km) We were told the restaurant had a special on schnitzel that evening so we decided to give it a try. Big mistake! Our normal diet is close to completely vegetarian, but we thought a little meat wouldn't be a problem, especially since we had pedaled so far that day. Well the slab of pork filled the entire plate--about 10 inches in diameter. Needless to say we had our fill of meat that night and, in fact, for the whole trip.
The next morning before we could continue on our journey I had to visit a bike shop and buy a new seat. The frame of mine broke the previous day--first one piece and then the other. By the end of the day I had the seat tied on with a piece of cord to keep it from falling off. With my new seat we set off for Maulbronn to see an 11th century monastery. It was very impressive! In the afternoon it started to rain as we set off for Pforzheim to get back on the HSB. We only made it as far as Neulingen, about 12 km from Pforzheim, but were so tired, wet, and cold, we decided to find a hotel there. We found a grocery store and bought some food for dinner and a bottle of wine. We looked for some canned sardines or herring at the store, but had difficulty finding them. Then Linda discovered that they were in the cat food section! Oh well, meow! We surmised that most Germans fed the canned fish to their pets. (ODO = 24.5 km)
The next morning we left in the rain for Pforzheim, but when we arrived there about an hour later, the rain had almost stopped. We found the HSB route in the center of town and then began on of the most enjoyable days of riding. The route took us through the most beautiful forest on
bike-only roads. It was just delightful, in part no doubt because it had stopped raining. We arrived in Bad Liebenzell in the afternoon and found a very nice hotel-garni Koch. The room was very well furnished and the hotel was within an easy walk to the spa (Bad = baths in German). This was our first Bad experience, enjoyable but definitely not the best (more about that later). Again we sought out a grocery store and ate dinner in our room. (ODO =38.5 km)Breakfast in the morning was unbelievable! There were so many items to choose from. The hosts put out delicious, varied items. It sustained us until well into the afternoon. After leaving Bad Liebenzell we pedalled through the most beautiful forests and small villages. We stopped to look at the ruins of an 8th century monastery in Hirsau. Then we came to Calw. The old town of this city was really beautiful! Being a Sunday the Hermann Hesse Museum was closed, which we were quite disappointed to find out because he is one of our favorite authors. However, We did find out that he had actually studied in the late 19th century at the Maulbronn Monastery that we had visited a few days ago. An
interesting feature of Calw are the bronze statues throughout the old town--including one of Hesse. From Calw we journeyed on to Nagold where we stayed at the Hotel Adler--a 3-star hotel (a big deal for us)--where we had big room with a sofa, table and chairs. We found a nice Italian restaurant for a pasta dinner. (ODO=40 km)In the morning after studying the map we decided to take the train over to Horb am Neckar to avoid climbing out of the Nagold River valley. We picked up the Neckar Radweg in Horb and rode to Oberndorf am Neckar for the night. Got lost a couple of times when the radweg just seemed to die out, but we were able to divine our way back onto it. We found a small guest house that had small, but nice rooms and very inexpensive. (ODO=35km)
The next day, September 28th, we left at our usual time of around 930 am--waiting for the morning sun to take a little chill out of the air. Soon we reached a detour that took us out of the Neckar River valley via a 17% grade! With our loaded panniers, it is not surprising that we had to push our bikes most of the way uphill. We didn't think about not following the radweg detour--a big mistake. We could have gotten on the rural highway and ridden easily with the sparse traffic and avoided the detour. When we got to the top of the detour, we immediately plunged back to the valley floor where we rode for a few kilometers before we had to climb once again out of the valley to get to Rottweil. We thought that the Neckar Radweg would be much easier since it followed the river--or so we thought. But now I think that we should have stayed on the HSB all the way from Horb.
Through the tourist office in Rottweil we stayed at the Hotel Zum Sternen-an extremely over-priced hotel with so-so rooms. We were given a key to a garage that was several blocks away to store our bikes, but the key wouldn't unlock the door so we ended up storing our bikes in our room! That night we had dinner at the Weinstube Grimm. One fish dish was very bad tasting, but when we told the proprietor, she just shrugged and walked away! Furthermore, the main street through the old city was all torn up. All in all Rottweil was a bust! (ODO=26 km)
The next day we were off again around 930 or 10 am, this time back on the HSB Radweg. We passed through a few non-descript towns, but very pretty farmlands and into Schwenningen. There we found the Neckar Ursprung, a beautiful city park that is the beginning or source of the Neckar River. We had a very nice picnic lunch there. It was quite amazing to recall walking a week earlier along side the Neckar River in Heidelberg where it is maybe 100 meters across and to be now sitting next to a big swampy area where it begins.
We rode into Bad Duerrheim later, arriving early enough in the afternoon to go to the Solemar Thermal Baths. What an experience that was! If you are in the area, do not miss it! There were three "hot" pools of temperatures 33, 35, and 37 degrees Celsius, three bubbling hot tubs, a cold tub, a mist room, a steam room, and three larger pools. One had a very high concentration of salts so you floated right on the top of the water, while the other two had numerous water jets shooting out all over the place. It was a real trip! We stayed there three hours and then found a nice one-bedroom apartment. Again we searched out a grocery store, bought dinner, and ate it in our room. We were really excited that tomorrow we would reach Donaueschingen--the start of the Donau River and Radweg. (ODO=35 km, cumulative distance=268 km)
Left Bad D. at mid-morning and about an hour later arrived in Donaueschingen. It was surprising that the radweg had followed an old Roman road from nearly two thousand years ago. In Donaueschingen we found the Donau Quelle--the mythical source of the Donau--and then the actual beginning of the Donau where it is formed by the confluence of two rather puny little
streams. From there the Donau flows through southern Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and finally Romania where it empties into the Black Sea--a distance of thousands of kilometers.
No comments:
Post a Comment