Some people who have read about our preparation for cycling to Japan will have gathered that I'm by nature a planner, so today way to get some practice
not planning a ride and just following a map. I was going to catch an S-Bahn (metro) train through Stuttgart as far as my pass would take me, and work my way back to our village from there.
On leaving work however, your correspondent realised it was almost 4pm, which is the beginning of the official "rush hour", where carrying a bike by train costs extra, and trams are off limits until 6:30pm.
Anyone who has seen me stacking small denomination coins to make small purchases will know I'm not going to hand over good money to put a bike on a train when I can ride it, I mean, come on.
So plan 'B': ride along the Neckar, the river that passes Stuttgart, until it met the valley that leads to where we lived. This meant a 200m climb, but I also got some experience in off the cuff map reading and city cycling, two skills which have faded a bit lately.
Unfortunately these required concentration, which made photography difficult. Also, it was mostly ugly for the first few K's:
However, the old village centres are often largely intact, and once on the back roads, things improved:
We also passed the headquarters of the Stuttgart Mushroom Company:
Eventually, after a police roadblock with several drug detecting dogs, all of whom completely ignored me as I walked past (not entirely guaranteed given that I work with people who occasionally use drugs) I reached Esslingen.
The local authority seems to have decided that as as this end of the town was a mess to start with, they'd put all the ugly buildings here:
Esslingen has recently put in a 'new cycleway' and wants us to use this instead of the straight route alongside the river. I was expecting the worst, but it turns out it isn't too bad:
With cafes, vineyards in the background, and the pickle museum to the left of the picture. I am not making that up.
Brief stop by the Esslingen Steel wholesalers warehouse, now surrounded by chic apartments, but still working.
For all that the new route is interesting but essentially a big detour when you can just ride along the river, so I don't expect there will be many takers.
Once back on the river route things sped up a bit, when I wasn't taking pictures:
And finally, finally reached the side valley and escaped the industrial areas:
At which point it started to rain slightly, and I had to concentrate on getting back undercover before things got worse. You'll have to imagine the inhabitants of several pretty German towns watching in bemusement as a Brit on a longtail wheezes their way up the main road while keeping up a litany of complaints against the weather, drivers, and local geographic features, specifically the one he's currently climbing...
And then, suddenly, the hills were vanquished, the rain went, clouds parted and the sun shone, and there were hills, and trees...
and all was right with the world...
[Edited for multiple typos]
