July 27, 2018
It's all downhill from here
Day 6: Schiltach - Tübingen. Rivers followed: Kinzig, Glatt, Neckar
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After my harrowing first day in the Black Forest, the previous day I seemed to have cracked the art of identifying routes that would not have horrendous gradients. I felt pretty confident I could get across to the river valley of the Neckar, and hence reach Tübingen today - and had text my friend Ben to tell him to expect me in the early evening.
The first part of the day would include the only remaining climbs to get to the river valleys of the Glatt and the Neckar. The main road - which I now knew to have an easy cycleway parallel - ran directly North from Schiltach to Freudenstadt, near the head of the Glatt, following the Kinzig upstream. A shorter, but potentially steeper route, cut across country from Alpirsbach to Leinstetten on the Glatt. Counting up the chevrons, I made it 6 singles on the main road to Freudenstadt, but mysteriously only two on the entire cut-off to Leinstetten. I was sceptical, and decided to defer the decision until I got to Alpirsbach.
I was up a little later, but out the site before 9am, and soon picked up the cycleway heading North out of Schiltach. Unfortunately almost immediately there was a diversion - there are actually special cycleway diversion signs! - which led me up the very steep hillside. I cursed a bit, but was frankly glad of such good infrastructure.
Soon the cycleway rejoined the main road, and there weren't any more surprise gradients. The initial climb up to Alpirsbach was, as the map promised, well graded and easily manageable. I spun through the 10km and gained the 100m with no worries. In Alpirsbach I spotted a bakery, which again did not disappoint. Sandwich and lots of cakey things bought from the friendly proprietor, I took stock and considered my route. The map, while lacking contours and many of the small details, had actually turned out pretty reliable for the really big gradients the last few days - so I decided to trust it, and take the shorter and apparently less steep route across country.
From Alpirsbach I turned onto the B road to Oberndorf. The knew chevrons on the map were on this stretch, so I knew I'd have some more climbing at first, and this was pretty accurate. I climbed through 200m with the gradient never higher than 5% - so fairly smooth, and after the last few days eminently climbable. The road was a little busy, but while fast, the traffic gave me lots of room.
After 4km or so, I came to a left turn that was rather ambiguously signed with a series of numbers. This was a downside to the route I hadn't weighed highly: navigationally it was much more complicated, and to avoid any hills I had to take an elaborate route through the villages Betzweiler, Walde and Fürnsal. I hadn't really had to do much navigation since I entered the Black Forest, as generally I was funnelled in a valley and the way was obvious. I stopped for some time, scratching my head here though: I was at a hairpin with two roads leading off, and it looked like the second one was mine. I took it, and was quickly rewarded with signs for Betzweiler.
This was a much more minor road, there was no traffic, and I began t0 enjoy pedalling up through the morning sunshine. I passed a clear cycle path going through the woods, but it really did look for mountain bikes and so elected to stick to the road. At the top, I crossed the main road (and saw further signs to the numbered facility - a factory, maybe?) and dove down to Betzweiler. It was mostly downhill, with a few rolling hills, as I navigated the tangle of streets in the village, before picking up signs to Walde. Just before Walde my map showed a subtle fork in the road - I had to take the road up the right side of the valley, towards Gundelshausen, before peeling off to Sterneck. Amazingly, geography exactly followed this scheme, and I found myself cruising down a beautiful open alpine valley. Really lovely cycling conditions.
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I picked up a tiny sign to Sterneck, and took the little road down. Here was a massive descent, very fast and quite unrecorded on my map: the elevation chart has it as 13.8%! During this descent, which I took very slowly as the road was narrow and twisty, the usual reassuring flutter from my disc brakes started to become harsher, and more scratching sounding. I eased off the front brake and came to a stop with the back, so I could examine the pad and see if it had worn right down - I wouldn't have been too surprised, given the going over it had received over the last two days.
I didn't want to take the pad out, because I had my doubts on whether I could get it back in, and I really would've been stuck if I went down to a single brake. Peering at it through the little "observation" window, there seemed to be some thickness left in the pad. I decided I'd ease off the front, and monitor the braking force: if it really became weak I would try and change it. I'd come prepared with two spare sets of pads, but I'd never actually changed them before, and didn't want to risk screwing it up.
I reached Sterneck without mishap, and the braking force on the front seemed fine, even if it was a little noisy. I shot through Sterneck, and true to the map continued to cruise downhill on more open roads now towards Leinstetten. I was soon in the village, and couldn't believe it: I was in the valley of the Glatt and it was still morning! It may be some distance, but it really was all downhill, following the rivers down their course to Tübingen, from here.
In Leinstetten, the course of the river and valley were very clear and followed by very well signed cycleways. I almost got the sense of entering the orbit of Tübingen and its cycle infrastructure, even though I was still many kilometres away. The routes were quiet, and I happily turned right onto a mercifully almost completely flat route alongside the river. The sun was out, but I wasn't too hot, and it really did seem I would get to Tübingen in good time.
From Leinstetten I followed the river East to the small village of Hopfau, where I barely needed to navigate: the cycleway automatically continued to follow the river to the North-East, rather than the main road to Sulz. I soon reached the next village, appropriately also called Glatt. Emerging into the backstreets I soon came across the impressive church - some searching around the attached graveyard and I found the tap I wanted, and refilled my water. Glatt is actually quite a substantial and grand place, including a huge castle and manor house.
After I'd leisurely passed through, the cycleway took me up into the woods and hills above the village. Here there was a secluded park, with a large wooden picnic shelter and barbecue pit. Since it was lunchtime, this was a perfect place to stop.
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Feeling great, I continued on my steady cruise down the Glatt to Neckarhausen. Here, the cycleway seamlessly joined the Neckar, and continued East towards Dettingen and Horb. Each of these towns were prosperous, well-appointed and full of onion-dome spires and castles. I flew past Horb, still seeing no other cyclists, and continued now due East towards Rottenburg. The scenery was spectacular: the high valley extremely green and verdant.
Past Horb the river and cycleway pass under the A81 autobahn. This crosses the mile-wide valley on an enormous, majestic bridge. A great bit of engineering and leaves the beautiful valley unspoilt by the road: there's something very German about that.
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It wasn't long before I rolled into Rottenburg. I was less than 15km from the centre of Tübingen now, and it was before 4pm. Rottenburg is a bustling place, and I was a bit disconcerted by the sudden crowds of people after being so long up in the mountains. Despite my comparatively much easier day, I was really feeling the effects of the last few days, and spent some time wondering up and down the busy high street, looking for somewhere to sell me a cold drink, and dodging the same bunch of pesky charity collectors again and again. I eventually had success in (where else?) a kebab shop, but paid upwards of 3euro for the privilege!
I then got an ice-cream from an ice-cream bar and sat by the river to take stock and recover. I reckoned on it taking less than an hour to get into Tübingen, so decided to kill some time, sit by the river, and read a little. I agreed to meet my friend Ben in the market square, as I had no proper map of Tübingen and so couldn't find his flat. At 5pm, I reckoned I'd sat enough, so headed on towards Tübingen. I had the devil of a job finding a way out of Rottenburg: there were more cycle diversion signs, but they seemed to lead me around and around until I saw the same small squares and streets several times.
Eventually I freed myself from Rottenburg, and started out on the well-signed cycleway over the fields. It was dead flat, and there was no real wind: but you know what? I really struggled over that last 10 kilometres. I just couldn't persuade myself to keep pushing on. I was surrounded by cyclists now, students and many others on an obviously busy route between the two towns - nearly all of them passing me. I made a massive meal of those last few kilometres, and took almost an hour to get through them.
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I ran through some suburban areas and past some hairy roads, and then suddenly I was coming into the historic centre of Tübingen. I got stuck behind a smart car making a very big deal of navigating the cobbled streets, took a turn, and suddenly I was in what could only be the market square. It was surprisingly tiny, but with some very impressive architecture and wrought-iron fountain.
Amazingly, for 6pm on a Friday, there were lots of seats free at the outside cafe right by the fountain. I leant my bike against it in full site - I was very wary of it being nicked, given my knowledge of the rate of bike theft in Oxford - took a seat, and gratefully ordered a beer. I had an hour to wait until our agreed meeting time, but was thankful just to have got to the end of my first leg.
One slightly awkward thing was they only had tables for six, and I of course was taking one up all by myself. Well, it wasn't long before a family asked if they could join me. Naturally, they could, and they turned out to be interesting people: ex-life scientists, which is close to my background. We chatted and he recommend that I avoid Karlsruhre and go to Speyer.
Before 7, Ben appeared, and we all sat and drank a few pints, causing great confusion with the waiter. Me and Ben then wobbled down to a good restaurant not far away; though I did demure when it came to leaving my bike unattended in the station, it was easy enough to lock it up by the restaurant. Ben had just finished marking papers after a long term of teaching medieval history, and so could use the drink as much as I could.
After the meal, we set about getting up to his flat in North Tübingen. As it was up a very steep hill, he suggested we put it on a bus. I was amazed - surely we wouldn't be allowed to put a fully loaded touring bike on a city bus? For obscure reasons, we weren't allowed to at the main bus station - but when we walked a few hundred metres further down, sure enough we just bodily lifted the whole thing on. It really was up quite a hill, and I don't know if I could have cycled up it at the end of the day.
A quick whisky and a few games of backgammon later, it was 2am and time to pass out. Rest day tomorrow!
Today's ride: 90 km (56 miles)
Total: 609 km (378 miles)
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