Achern to Karlsruhe: Sunshine, Vineyards and We Didn't Stay in Ettlingen
We had another great day, with just a teeny bit of unexpected accommodation drama at the end. Never fear, all is well that ends well, and I am happily writing this from a lovely four star hotel in Karlsruhe.
Our breakfast in Achern was a nine jammer, and we sat with Sven, so were able to have another visit. He was on the Autobahn today and expected to be back in Amsterdam by about 4 PM. Wow. He said he drives fast (I'll bet!) but safely. I warned him that my tulips may be deer food in Victoria, but he wasn't too concerned. I am though! Darn deer.
The ride was gorgeous right from the start. The communities we went through were full of eye candy, and the riding surface was great. Just past Achern was Lauf. Small but really neat. We had talked about carrying on to Lauf yesterday, and it would have been a great place to stay as well. If you were coming through here either spot is great.
One of the first things we nipped off the Radweg to see was this church. It has a pretty spectacular profile, and a bakery right across the street was a nice touch.
Then we headed up into the vineyards. Despite the positive inclines, the vineyards are just so rewarding to ride in. The views are amazing and just the scale of them is quite something. So we happily pedalled along dreaming of good wine.
Vines, obviously. All the grapes have been harvested. We should have been here a month ago, to taste test the grapes. Keith did find some that hadn't been picked yet, but they weren't as sweet as he would have expected.
Note the hard pruning on the right of this picture. We have grapes at home, and maybe this is what we should do to them when we get back. Of course, if we keep bike touring every fall, we will only be keeping the raccoons happy if we increase our grape production!
We came down out of the vineyards in Baden Baden, where we had a picnic lunch in a park. Now in a perfect world, we would have just one more day, and we could have stopped and taken in the baths in Baden Baden, but unfortunately, we had to keep going. We have fond memories of the baths here, but that was sixteen years ago (yikes, seems like yesterday) and I think we need to do it again. Having fully embraced the German textile free attitude, I am ready. Alas though, we cycled on.
It was a beautiful ride, so I couldn't feel too sorry for myself.
There are always surprises on the bike path, and this guy, with his full rack, was quite something. He had a friend who had only half a rack. He was in a different enclosure, which had me pondering the reasons for the half rack. Men!
We came to the community of Muggensturm. Ever heard of it? Me neither. What an unexpected treat, at least along the bike path. I can't speak for the rest of the community, but if the parks, the art work and the views along the bike path are representative of the rest of the town, and I suspect they are, it would be a lovely place to live.
There was really impressive art work all along the bike path.
We had a great conversation with these lovely ladies in Muggensturm. They used their 20 English words and we used our 20 German words, and it is amazing how much we could say. Where there is a desire, there is a way, and a little sign language helps too. They were enjoying the sunshine, each other, and their encounter with us. We were enjoying the same. It was really fun.
So, Ettlingen. It is just a wonderful spot. The first place we enquired about accommodation was fully booked. The woman at the hotel explained to Keith that there was a special event on, and made a phone call to another property. They were booked as well. Keith and I had passed tourist information, so rather than ask this incredibly helpful woman to make more calls, we rode over there. We have had the most amazing help from tourist information everywhere this trip, but we were disappointed with tourist info in Ettlingen. In all the other tourist information offices they bent over backwards to help us find a spot, making phone calls and doing Internet searches. In Ettlingen they gave Keith an information book in German, and a tourist map, but unfortunately they don't make phone calls. So, with a brochure we couldn't read in hand, we decided to carry on to Karlsruhe. German only brochures for English speaking people are a bit of a challenge!
We are now very comfortable in our hotel...seems whatever the special event is has spilled over even here and we got the last room in this property. The CN has already booked our hotel in Heidelberg tomorrow. We are looking forward to it.
At least today, I never worried I would be sleeping under a bridge. As I said to Keith, if Karlsruhe were fully booked (unlikely) we could just hop a train to Heidelberg.
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles) Total: 2,541 km (1,578 miles)
