Obertal to Baden-Baden

July 5, 2024

The last two days of riding reminds me of why we like cycle touring so much. It has been really enjoyable to be in a relatively unknown area and feel like we are exploring!

Today we have a 54 km ride to Baden-Baden, much of it along the Murg River on a route called Tour of Murg. It’s not very well publicized so I didn’t find out much when I went to research it, but cycling signs turned out to be numerous on the road. The route is mostly on a gentle gradient downward until the last 9 km into Baden-Baden where there is serious climb and then a descent.

Although the initial part of the route was on a downward gradient, it didn’t feel that way because there were frequent small very steep pitches to keep things interesting. For much of the early ride we rode along a ridge with great views of the mountains and valley.

We had a serious deviation due to a bridge over a small creek being closed for repair. The detour required a very stiff uphill ride on gravel but thankfully the government/contractor had upgraded the detour trail with fresh gravel so it was in very good condition. It was dry and that helped a lot.

There was no avoiding taking the detour. It looked as though the bridge had been washed out, not terribly surprising given the recent incessant rains.

About mid-route we had a wonderfully long easy decent of 5 km.

We also varied our route- something we hardly ever do after we start the day- because as we came into the town of Forbach I saw on the map that Komoot intended to put us on a busy road and I could see the Tour of Murg followed a different twisting route. We agreed we would follow the tour which wound up being a significant gravel road which began with a steep uphill section. We then rode around the ridge of a mountain for about 3 km. We were glad we took the alternative route as it was lovely but it might have been a different story had it been wet out as there was some elevation gain both up and down on the gravel.

Lots of villages came into view on this lovely route. Here we saw the town of Forbach.

We arrived in the town of Gernsbach at 2 pm and stopped at a cafe for a break. Dave ordered an avocado toast for us to split- the first we have seen on this trip.

The toast fortified us for a very stiff climb and then killer descent into Baden Baden. There was a fair amount of fast-moving traffic and no shoulder so it was nerve-wracking for Jill and glorious for Dave. Bombing into Baden Baden, a big elegant, civilized town, was a shock after our three days in the wilderness! It has a high end resort feel to it with tons of upscale shops, cafes and restaurants. Our hotel, called Belle Epoche, fit right into that mode, being fancy and traditional, with a lot of luxury cars parked in the small parking lot. I don’t think they get too many cycle tourers. Mike at the front desk couldn’t have been nicer; besides visiting about football (Euro2024 was on and Germany was playing Spain that evening) and mountain biking, he booked us a table for dinner.

Our room was large and lovely and had a tub, although for some reason the internet connection didn’t work on Dave’s tablet, even though it worked on our other three devices.

Dinner in the courtyard of the Hotel Kleine Prinz (sister hotel to the Belle Epoque) was excellent and expensive which we felt was in keeping with upscale nature of the town. It’s hard to go wrong with pikeperch and a white chocolate/blueberry/meringue dessert. We had a Russian family sitting next to us. We had read that a lot of Russians like to visit Baden Baden. We think the husband was British, the wife and her mother were Russian and then there were two kids; listening to them switch back and forth between English, German and Russian was fascinating.

The Hotel der Kleine Prinz is named after Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's famous book, The Little Prince. It is located just a short walk down this street from our hotel.

Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 2,393 km (1,486 miles)

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