August 19, 2012
Day 92: Tubingen, and onward to Stuttgart, Germany
Our plan to meet up with Wolfgang (who we had run in to in England)) did not work out. Without internet and without a regional map, we proved incapable of finding a way to hop to nearby Aidlingen, which is near his place. For information junkies to lack information is really hard. Oh well, we have internet back now (at lest until we hit Holland), but we are sorry to have missed our new friend.
As this is written, we are slowly getting ready to head out to see and pass through the actual town of Tubingen. I bought a little guidebook at the camping office, which did not make me popular with Dodie. She is the one who gets to carry all the maps and guidebooks that I refuse to discard. The rackpack with these on her bike weighs almost the same as the tent, on my bike. We need the weight, though, to help make us strong. Yeah, sure!
Tubingen turned out to be much like Rottweil. The old town is more extensive than those we have seen in other spots. The Rathaus square is dominated be the city hall, which dates back to 1435. It is decorated with paintings that we done in 1877. We are now a little used to seeing frescoes on the outside of buildings, but they are always impressive. Around every corner there is a view down a crooked and narrow street, looking exactly like a set for a movie.
Unlike Rottweil there were no crests adorning the buildings. Also nothing that I can identify as "Black Forest" style. I guess maybe we are too far east, and in truth will not see the Black Forest. Hmmmpph.
Very quickly we were a bit lost, something you would expect while exploring the inside of a rabbit warren. However the river is never far away, and the river is the guide to finding the next town. (Actually, the radweg signs are the guide, but they of course follow the river (more or less)).
Along the cycle way, we continue to find that while the cars are elsewhere, the crazy drivers are still present. Only thing, the crazies are driving bikes not cars. The favourite trick is to swoop up silently from behind (preferably on an unloaded 7 kg racing bike at 35 kph) and pass on the left or right with no warning. Our lumbering, wide, touring bikes, or course could swerve left or right at any time, creating the risk.
Sometimes, when we are crabby, we will ding our bells when someone does this, in a vain attempt to educate them to what they ought to be doing. In 100% of cases, this is lost on them. They have no idea what our beef is, and in fact do not generally recognize that yes, we are dinging at you.
OK, may that 99.44%. One guy did zoom silently past, get dinged, and then said (either in German or English - don't k,now, we are now so fluent we don't notice)
"I don't have a bell, I am a racer!". "Then go find a bloody racetrack!" I called to his departing shape.
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Well, this bit is not exactly being written from a park bench, but it's close. We have set up our tent on a piece of concrete by a lock in the river, close to Stuttgart. We have been riding in the dark with our (very good) bike headlights, but decided that looking for the camping in the city in the dark might not be a winning proposition.
Backtracking as to how we got here, we left Tubingen in the early afternoon, with no exact destination, except that ww knew the next camping on the map was in Stuttgart. Although to be sure there were some distinct and nice towns along the way, our overall impression is of bike paths beside largish roads, or by the river by largish roads, without a well defined path, terrain, and organization to the day.
The river, of course, does remain a unifying link. Today, though, it was also a bit disconcerting. We would be going along minding our own business when the path would begin to fill with walkers in beach gear. They headed purposefully somewhere, but we would have no idea what it was all about. Then the path would widen to a parking lot, or something, and we would find ourselves in the middle of a full blown beach scene, with hoards of people. Clearly its's Sunday and very hot, but it was still a bit surprising to come upon these concentrations of people on our semi-lonely path.
With the heat, we too tried taking a break. We chose a spot with grass by a stream. The stream was great because while not swimable, we could wet our shirts in it. Lying in the grass did not work out, though, because some tiny ants with a big bite found us. Oh well, we just got up, whined a lot, and cycled on.
After about Plochingen, we definitely felt we were in a quite continuous urban environment, quite different from the flowers, crops, and small village model that has characterized most of our trip so far.
In this environment it seems too that campsites are even rarer than before. That makes wild camping necessary more often. We are not "wild" about it, though. So this evening we bypassed some nice spots, mistrusting the clumps of single males and other "suspicious" characters that seem to lurk in developed areas. However, we did finally decide to gamble on our lock by the river. It's quite homey, actually, with this computer and the "TV" going!
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Today's ride: 64 km (40 miles)
Total: 4,496 km (2,792 miles)
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