Day 94: Kirchheim to Neckargerach, Germany

August 21, 2012

About 10 o’clock last night, with us already in our tent, someone drove up near our secret hideaway. He did a lot of backing and forthing with the car, which in a tent sounds like it is right in there with you, and then .. silence. We thought “Oh whatever – neither police nor hoodlums would be silent” and went to sleep.

About 3 a.m. I got out to make a pee and spyed a figure sitting stock still, with two fishing rods in the water. At 5 a.m. our alarm went off, and there sat the man, unmoved. We took down the tent and went over to sit on a bench to eat our bread and cheese. The man looked at us, and gave the slightest nod.

As we rolled our bikes to the path, I asked the man if he had had any luck. Can’t complain, he seemed to indicate, gesturing toward a pail that might have contained his successes, but that looked more like bait.

To sit for eight straight hours through a night, with no apparent product seems more like a monkish than a normal German biergartenish thing to do. As we continued along the river we spotted other fishers, as we had in France. I know there is a whole meditative mystique about fishing, but these people are hard to figure. Better to spend your time pedalling a little bike around a continent, for no apparent reason either!

As we cycled around the next curve of the river, it looked more like a still morning lake than a potential shipping corridor. The striking feature of the terraces on the cliffs, supporting so many grape vines continued. After some distance, the cliffs subsided, but the grapes did not. Now they carpeted the land, looking from a distance like corn. On the vines nearest us hung an abundance of dark purple grapes. They looked ripe, but must not have been 100% because not a single worker was to be seen.

There seems to be a lot of nuclear in Germany. This does not have the classic tall tower, but that's what we thing it is.

We continued to wonder about the terraces, the grapes, and the wine they produce. We asked someone local, and they submitted that the wine is not for export and is completely consumed in the region. A later internet search turned up not only the fact that this is Germany’s largest red grape growing region but listed each town we had been passing through and cited the variety most grown. Aha, as we expected, spots like Plochingen and Lauffen are not just important (to us) as a place with a hill, a bakery, or a picturesque rathaus, but are individually known for the grapes and the wines they produce.

The path continued as yesterday, with a mixture of lovely pavement by the river, shared way with busy traffic, by the river with industry, etc. The towns were often plain, but some had quite a few old and nice buildings. Further, we often spotted castles or ruins on surrounding hills. The net effect is not the unremitting wow of Passau to Vienna, the Loire, or the other routes we have just followed, but it still is a good adventure.

No doubt we could be increasing the wow factor if we were willing to sally off route to actually look at the passing towns. As it is, the signed route usually just glances off the town centres. So we see less. Take Bad Wimpfen. The signs along the radweg clearly show the way to the historic centre. Plus, we could photograph some of the attractive buildings from the river side. So all we had to do was to climb the hill to town. Not gonna happen. Not in this heat. Instead I sit here at the end of the day, somewhat whining about the picturesque ness of the Neckar route. Hmmm.

In the guestbook (message #412), Hiel Lindquist alerted us to a blog from last year, Camping Germany’s Radwegs – 2011 by Graeme Dawe. Graeme passed through almost the same towns that we are now, at the same time of year. He made detailed comments about the camp sites, something that is very helpful to us. He also talked about the importance of shade and the impact of hills, things we can appreciate – viscerally!

It is a welcome fact that camping grounds will be easy to find for the next little while, but will grow scarce again near the Rhine. Along the Rhine route itself we think we have a fair chance of finding camping, plus we have the trusted Bikeline book to help us along.

So today we took our pick of camping, and stopped (quite early in the day) at Neckargerach. The new owner of the camping (yes, by the bridge as Graeme reported) went out of his way to accommodate the two overheated Grampies. We are sitting in a gazebo, to which he has run an extension cord for us. We have washed our stuff and dried it in his drier (ok, so it’s 2.50). We have had one shower, and may soon go for another. Lots of people seem to be over swimming in the river. We could go look, but that would involve effort. Instead, we’ll stick here, and wait for another (maybe cooler) day.

A church/castle/schloss? There are so many things like this in Germany.

A very weird statue in a central place at the entrance to Marbach

Industrial stuff on the radweg at Heilbronn

Arthur: Dodie inspects a pipeline by the route.

This phalanx of older cyclists was out for a day trip. This would not be a common sight back home.

Bad Wimpfen - not that we would trouble ourselves to actually go into town and look at it!

A really old looking building. The appearance may be accentuated by the photo not being shot straight (bike was probably falling over!).

Part of lunch -even Grampies can not be totally pastry powered (besides, could scarcely find a bakery today).

There are really not that many tourists on the neckar way, but how about these!

Guttenbach - as picture perfect towns go, no so zippy.

It's hard to make sense of all the place names being thrown around. It's because there are so many towns!

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 4,640 km (2,881 miles)

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