(This is written by Erika until the end part)
When we returned to Friedel's home Wednesdayoevening the three of us hailed a taxi and drove up to the Jagerhaus for dinner with my brother. The Jagerhaus overlooks Esslingen and the Neckar valley. The restaurant served local Swabian cuisine, prepared to an excellent standard. We ate well, talked and simply enjoyed each other's company. It was then off to our room for a good nights sleep to prepare ourselves for the following day of cycling.
In the morning Marvin and I walked back to Friedel's for breakfast. Another hour of chatting was followed by hugs, a few tears and a heartfelt Auf wiedersehen. Our bikes fully loaded, we headed off to the Neckar Radweg.
Now, one of the nice things about the radwegs that follow the large rivers of Germany is that they are mainly level. For those of us who are aging and have a few joint issues, that is nice. Another aspect that is nice is that Germany has made sure that the cycle paths that follow the rivers are well maintained and well marked. The Neckar Radweg winds itself along the River bank through towns, past industry and through farmers fields. One of our big concerns was having to navigate the large city of Stuttgart. Suffice it to say that we kept waiting to have to deal with heavy traffic and confusing streets. In reality, we were through Stuttgart before we knew it and never had to leave the comfort and safety of the river's bike trail. The only real negative to the route was having to cycle past a few sewage treatment facilities during the course of the day. However, they were passed quickly and did not distract from the excitement we were feeling to be on our way.
As when we were in Holland, we continue to enjoy all the song birds. It is like having our own little choir to cheer us on our way! The villages we cycled through were truly picturesque. The steep grade of the vineyards impressed but also made us glad that we would not be the people picking the grapes! In addition to grapes we passed fields of wheat, corn, rye and sugar beets. We also passed orchards of apples, pears and cherries. The cherries are the only fruit we passed that were in season so finding a grocery with fresh cherries was a common goal. For any of you who know Marvin, that will not come as a surprise.
After about cycling 25 km, somewhere near Huhlhausen, we stopped by a lovely lake to eat the sandwiches Friedel had sent us off with and to take a break. By the lake were a good variety of water fowl, many of which were being followed by fluffy younger versions of themselves. One mother goose had quite the little gaggle following her around and she was unashamedly teaching them how to beg. It is a good thing I am so coldhearted or they would have had more than half of my sandwich!
We have been pleased how the bikes are performing. Unlike our bikes at home, these do not have a throttle function. The throttle provides a burst of power on demand. We have found this useful for getting started, especially on hills. We have found that the paths on the steepest hills here seem to be built with switchbacks in them so that a steep hill can be climbed over a narrow distance. For me the challenge has been slowing down enough to take the corner while at the same time maintaining enough momentum to keep moving up the hill. As a result, I have had the pleasure of pushing my bike up a few hills!
We the cycled on to the town of Stienheim an der Murr. We quickly found our way into a delightful little town square. So, why did we choose this particular town as our destination for our first day? Warm showers.
Warm showers, an internet community of cyclists who support each other by providing a bed and shower for tour cyclists registered on the site. I mention this because Marvin registered us this spring. We will make ourselves available as hosts in Victoria once we are home from our vacation. In the meantime we are starting to enjoy the benefits of being members. Our first host was to be Sven.
We had been in touch with Sven via the internet and Marvin had chatted with him on the phone from Esslingen. We were to call him when we got into or near his home town. Once we were in the square we called him once again and were informed he would meet us there shortly. As there was an Eice Cafe there it was decided that enjoying eice (gelato) would be a good way to pass the time but first, we wanted to lock up our bicycles. There we had the first shock of our trip. The key we had been given for my bike did not work. Now if the key would have been only for the lock we could have managed by locking the bikes together. However, unlike our ebikes at home, the batteries for our rented bike could only be charged after they have been removed from the bikes and placed on the charger. Yikes, this is a problem if you want to use the assist function for more than one day.
(Marvin taking over writing from here)
I started to feel panicked at this point, and, having trouble getting my phone to work didn't help. As Erika would say, I was "flapping". Erika finally figured out that we needed a single '0' in front of any number we called in Germany and I was able to call both Sven and Herre Engel of the bike shop.
Herre Engel discovered he had given us the extra keys for my bike instead of the keys for Erika's bike. He promised to call us back as soon as he could arrange something. When he did call us back, Sven had arrived, and it was great having him there to speak directly to Herre Engel in German and get everything sorted out. The keys arrived at 7:30 the next morning, so we weren't inconvenienced at all.
Well there are a good many pictures to follow, so I am going to close this post and create another one for the first day of the trip in pictures. It will be called: "The Adventure Begins"
