Day 86: Stuttgart to Besigheim

July 24, 2014

The Stuttgart area is industrialized and urbanized, so pedalling along the Neckar radweg here is understandably not the most scenic ride. However, right by the river, on the path, one is usually protected by a border of trees, and there is no feeling of traversing an industrial wasteland. Interestingly, you can also look up, to the walls of the narrow Neckar valley, and see that they are lined with grape vines.

The river is very dirty brown, but that is surely because of a lot of runoff. Still, it does not contribute to any idea of cycling a pristine area. The urbanization is also fairly hidden from the cyclist. At one point (Cannstadt) a road at right angles to the bike path gave a glimpse of what looked like a street market. So we headed down it for just a bit. There was not really much of a market, and at the tend of the block - a surprise, in the form of full blown urban scene, with traffic and trolley cars. etc. So yes, the bike path by the river is a quiet corridor.

One of the disadvantages of being on the bike path in this area, is that it does not go to any city centre bits. We are not sure what we may be missing. On the other hand, we do know that Stuttgart was the subject of five years of bombing, so chances are a lot of good stuff is no more.

More Mercedes. Their factorybuildings goon for kms and kms.

Looking into Cannstadt from the radweg. Cannstadt,incidentally, is where Ritter had their factory before moving to Waldenbuch in the 30's

All that remains of an original gate to Cannstadt

We canlook across to hills and vines now

But there are still views of the Neckar like this one

A goose family. Here we are seeing again the Egyptian goose.

For a teeny bit, this tyke detached himself from his Mom and sisters and followed along with Dodie

Despite the relative quiet of the radweg, Dodie was unhappy about being in the urban area, and was beginning to express doubts about having chosen this route. However, I could reassure her - having refreshed my memory from our own blog of 2012 - that we would soon be into intense grape cultivation and beautiful fachwerk villages.

It took a while for this to come true. Yes, the city faded away, but the path remained sort of blah, hemmed in often by low trees, or passing through uninspiring bits of towns.

It was really not until we came to the spot where we planned to stop that we hit the flat out fachwerk beauty I had been expecting. So that is the town of Besigheim. Even with Besigheim, the approach roads had heavy traffic, and too many nerve jangling noisy motorbikes. People in cars, too, seemed to be blasting their radios. When we got into the altstadt, we found a really nice rathaus and surrounding buildings in the square, plus a beautiful cobbled street. Even here, though, they had made the mistake of allowing cars. Although there were not many of them, having them trundling down the cobbles, scattering people and cyclists, was disconcerting.

We knew that there is no camping in this area (not until we get closer to the Rhine), but checking our own blog showed the great wild camp we had found, down the road near Kirchheim. However, the spoiled brat Grampies looked for a guesthouse in Besigheim. We chose the absolutely gorgeous and not too expensive guesthouse Hirsch.

We dropped our bags and went out for a look at the town. Naturally, it can trace its history to around the year 90, but the lovely old buildings are from the 13th century onward. They have been worked on since that time as well. For example, the rathaus is from 1459 but the second floor is from 1571. Interior ornamental ceilings are from 1750, and finally, the fachwerk was uncovered and restored in 1966.

We walked up to the church, which is approximately 14th century, but unfortunately it is a Protestant one, and so lacks any pink cherubs or similar interesting elements. There is also a large tower near the church, which is from 1220. All this was fun to look at, but I was now weakening from lack of food. We have stuff in our bags, and a stove, but the chalk board at the Hirsch had some great things on it. Dodie went for her new favourite (learned at Jurgen and Suzanne's) - spaetzle with cheese and onions, while I got what I normally eat at home: grilled chicken and salad. The chicken, though, was much better made than I can usually do, and the salad also had watermelon, honeydew melon, and pineapple. The part of the meal that made the most impression, though, was the bread that came in a basket. It was an olive bread that had fresh seeming green olives in it. It was really super. Sticking with old habits, we squirrelled away most of it - to be brought out on some hungry and remote part of the trail ahead - assuming you can ever find a hungry and remote bit of Germany!

Soon after we set off tomorrow, we hope to be able to cast a guilty glance at our former wild camp site. Then we will continue our odyssey back to the Rhine, hopefully running into increasingly pretty villages and vineyards. As our time begins to shorten, we have to absorb all we can, and we know there is lots worth rediscovering coming up.

The radweg now reliably gve nice views of vines - like on the Mosel

The main street of the old town, hindered by cars

The view from near the tower reveals the industrial nature of the the surroundings

Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 4,326 km (2,686 miles)

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