September 7, 2022
Day 3: From spa to spa
Bad Wildbad - Freudenstadt
The weather is being good to us, again a beautiful day for cycling. We start the day with an amble around the center of Bad Wildbad. Its heyday was probably around the end of the 19th century when those who could afford it spent some time every year enjoying the salubrious effects of thermal waters and mountain air. It is still a popular vacation spot, its attractions now are still the thermal baths for the elderly, hiking and biking for the younger set.
I couldn't resist at least one bad pun...
King Karl Friedrich Alexander of Württemberg (* March 6, 1823 in Stuttgart; † October 6, 1891 in Stuttgart) was the third king of Württemberg from 1864 to 1891 as Karl. During his term of office, Württemberg's accession to the North German Confederation, ratified in November 1870, from which the German Reich emerged in the spring of 1871.
We leave town following the Grosse Enz. We could have stayed on the path in the spa park along the river, but the route did otherwise and we had a little unnecessary climb to start the day. The ride through the forest was lovely, not dramatic but peaceful and soothing, and on smooth asphalt as an extra bonus.
We are very much in sync with our frequent photo stops, leap frogging up the mountain. My e-bike is making easier work of the climbs, on the flat Susan is faster than me even when I use the highest level of e-support. But neither of us cares much how fast we travel and each day we find ourselves not getting in until four or five, regardless of the number of kilometers or terrain.
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Time for a mid-morning break, we emerged from the forest with our eyes pealed for a place to get a coffee and a cold beverage. Ah, a gas station, will they sell cold water in addition to gas maybe? There were a few tables and sun umbrellas out and promptly the young proprietor appeared to take our orders. But he was soon distracted and ran off shouting 'meine Kuh!' His cow had left the pasture and was strolling down the highway. She always does that he told us after he had rounded her up and set her off in the right direction.
As we left, the cow was again getting dangerously close to the road. We continued on a road with light traffic - until it turned into a road with fast traffic, including trucks. I didn't like that too much. We studied our options on our navigation maps and were soon on a little zigzag that got us away from those unpleasant vehicles. It was great to see that we could easily agree on an ad hoc improvisation while en route. The detour also took us through Besenfeld where we stopped for a slice of cheese cake to tide us over until dinner. Starving cyclists.
The last 15 km were an unpaved stretch through the forest, but hard packed and good riding with lots of rises until we reached the edge of the forest and had a splendid view of Freudenstadt spread out below us.
I had neglected to plan the route to our hotel so we ended up at Freudenstadt's Marktplatz.
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But where's our hotel? A quick google search on Susan's part led us to what looked like a rather shabby hotel, again I had to call to get the code for the key safe and we had to drag our bikes up a flight of stairs for the night. I couldn't have managed without Susan's help. The rooms turned out to be simple but clean and my bed was fine.
Yesterday was Korean, today we had dinner at a Vietnamese place, not having any typical Black Forest food yet.
Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 136 km (84 miles)
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