To Freudenstadt

September 7, 2022

If yesterday’s ride gave us a taste of the Black Forest, today was a full course meal –up and down through the tall trees and small villages on paved logging roads, gravel tracks, and the occasional bike lane or highway. The weather was glorious, with moderate temperatures and a blue sky punctuated by puffy clouds. The rains predicted for this week had obligingly headed elsewhere, or disappeared altogether.

The day was short on miles but long on enjoyment. Before leaving town, we stopped to admire the Palais Thermal spa, whose thermal springs have soothed souls since the Middle Ages. Then we were on our way. We crossed the Enz River and followed the Große Enz south through the forest, stopping often for pictures. We took a longer break at roadside gas station/café/house in Enzklösterle and as I sipped my coffee I noticed a cow wandering down the road. The proprietor of the gas station, who also owned the cow, came running out and chased her back into the pasture, lamenting the fact that she was always escaping and wandering about the highway. And sure enough, we spotted “Elsie the Escapee” lurking along the roadside as we headed down the highway.

Palais Thermal bath and spa in Bad Wildbad

Into the forest along a nicely paved track

Fire tower or deer blind? I thought the former, Suzanne thought the latter - she was correct

Cows along the stream - are we missing anyone?

Our rest stop at a gas station/café in Enzklösterle

After our break we had a lovely four mile stretch on small roads, followed by a similar but not so lovely stretch on highway 294, one of the major north-south roads in this section of the Black Forest. There were enough large trucks to make us uncomfortable, so Suzanne found an alternate route through the town of Seewald where took another break for apricot cheesecake the Wellnesshotel Oberwiesenhof.

Beyond Seewald, we encountered a pretty dodgy bike path with large chunks of gravel and sand that caused us to briefly consider abandoning our route through the forest track for the roadway. In the end, we opted for the forest track and it was the best stretch of the day - a hardpacked gravel track that wound down through the tall trees for miles on end. I was euphoric as I let loose the reins and sailed along for the remaining ten miles into Freudenstadt.