All packed and ready to set off, but one of the metal clips fixing the panniers to the rack promptly snapped in half. Unpacked the emergency repair kit slightly earlier in the tour than we might have hoped, but a speedy fix with that wonderful and versatile invention, the cable-tie, soon resolved the problem and continued to perform until our return.
Uphill start, taken in a low gear – we have not ridden the tandem with touring luggage on board since a trip to Paris in 2013. Once the old railway path was reached it was then downhill all the way into Mosbach, where a bit of fiddling around between alternative cycle-paths saw us through to join the River Neckar at Neckarelz. Plenty of other cyclists on the Neckar Radweg as we cycled to Heilbronn. From there we failed to find a café for a stop so paused for banana and chocolate elevenses (at 12pm) eaten sitting on a bench in front of the church in Klingensberg and beside a statue of a man poling logs on the river. Continued on along the River Neckar, pausing to take a photo of a passing barge, to find the start of the Enztal Radweg. Arrived in Besigheim and had our picnic lunch sitting on a bench looking across the River Enz to the town. A short walk up to the bridge from there revealed a bakery and café for excellent cakes and coffee. The Radweg signs rather gave up here and we were about to start off on a riverside path when a local woman stopped us, explaining that we were on the wrong river bank because the Enztal Radweg crossed over the river and continued on the other side at this point, via a circuitous route up hill through Besigheim. We walked through the very attractive historic town relying on intuition and hope as much as advice from local residents finally to leave on the correct path. From there route finding was once again easy and well signed all the way to Rosswag, where our overnight stop was in the Hotel Lamm. Sights on the way included:
The Hotel Lamm was very welcoming and after a wander around the village, as an unexpected treat we (John) enjoyed the best ever gourmet vegetarian meal. (Tandem in garage underneath the hotel) Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
We breakfasted and made an early start.
The route through fields took us to Mühlacker, which was in the midst of its Gartenschau Enzgärten celebrations. We paused at the bridge over the River Enz to watch swans and cygnets, Then cycled on through the flowers of the Gartenschau. Good paths took us from Mühlacker to Niefern, where we followed green cycle route signs out into the countryside. We appeared to be turning back away from the river, but the signs continued taking us over a hill and through woods on a track before descending on a long drop into a town. We began to lose confidence as there were no more direction signs and John walked on a short way while Sheila stayed with the tandem and came to a “very familiar” spot – the bridge over the River Enz in Mühlacker. We had completely circled around were back where we started. Oops! Over the bridge again, through the Gartenschau and out into the countryside to Niefern where we discovered a direction sign on a corner for the Enztal Radweg, which we had previously missed only to be deceived by the continuation signs at the next junction that although a cycle route were most definitely not the Radweg! The cycle paths from here were a bit variable in quality, but they brought us to Pforzheim. Pforzheim is a new completely rebuilt town of not very exciting 1950s architecture, but it provided a good coffee and cake stop together with an opportunity to buy filled rolls for lunch. From there the path became rather muddy and variable in quality so, although not the official route, we opted to cross the river on a footbridge and use a good tarmac path to get to Neuenbürg. Then back on route on a good path beside the branch railway line we continued through Höfen to stop at a bench by the lineside for our picnic lunch. After lunch we continued to the spa town of Bad Wildbad. All the expected facilities of a spa including delightfully laid out gardens beside the river. We cycled through slowly greeting wheelchair owners and others taking a constitutional stroll as we went. At the end we discovered a sign that informed us that cycling was not allowed and we should have been walking. Also, although we did not see them at the time, when we returned to England we found out that we had been spotted by an English tandem couple whom we know. From here the cycling got tougher through forest tracks some of which were a bit rough. At the beginning of one steep climb we lost the chain and having put it back on decided to walk and push the tandem to the top. We then decided to stay mostly on roads if possible, reaching Nonnenmiss and then Enzklösterle. It was then a hard slog uphill on road climbing to the source of the River Enz and beyond higher still to reach a more main road. Had a short sit down while John took his shoes off to recover from a painful bout of “hot-foot”. Finally, a short 3km run along the main road into Seewald and our overnight accommodation at the Hotel Gästhaus Pferdekoppel in Besenfeld - traditional wooden chalet-style mountain gästhaus. (Tandem in basement room) Click on any photo to enlarge and scroll through
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