Blogging and bikes: Day 4 - A Hot One with a Great Reward at the end

Sunday, July 6th 2014 - Day 4

Eberbach to Heidelberg

40.7 km, 196.0 km so far

elevation gains: 282 meters

Tracks for today: Eberbach to Heidelberg and the Glauer's

Sunny day, temp from mid 20's to mid 30's

The day started out with a lovely farming community.

This horse got really interested when it realized Erika might have food

It is very green and lush on the Neckar

Good hard packed gravel for a ways

Making adjustments

It's so beautiful that every bench seems like it should be a "Bench of the day"

Here's one for you, Steve Miller . It doesn't say "Gefahr" but guess what happens if you keep driving down this road :)

This town was so lovely, we spent a bit of time looking around this church and cemetary

Wood carvings were exquisite

And all this stuff is ancient!

These two guys were also doing a short tour. The older one is an expat teaching English at a university here. The younger one is one of his students

Around here, one town just follows another, they are seldom more than 10 km apart.

Eis cafe of the day! We have begun to realize why Steve and Dodie refer to their cycle tours as "Powered by Pastries" You really feel a need for carbs as you expend energy cycling.

We particulary liked the sign over this cafe that we ate at

What can I say? Another town, another picturesque castle

We happened across a big flea market

It might get boring for you, the reader, to see so many pictures of one town, church, castle, arbor, field, path, etc. after another, but for us, it documents the feeling of how every turn we take we see something new to gasp at. It really is quite an experience to constantly be inundated by so much beauty.

Being the weekend, there is lots of recreational use of the paths and the river.

Sometimes when we cross the river we are crossing at a lock, so I usually have to stop and watch if there is a boat about to enter or leave the lock.

A cruise boat we are racing down the river. Even with short stops, we tend to keep up.

Another "Bench of the Day"

A rather different road surface for a short while

Coming into Heidelberg, we are still keeping up with the cruise boat

This is a famous bridge that you traditionally enter the old city by. So we did!

Stand up bicycle scooters

A cool illusion. The lower 2 are real people

Eis time!

When we made our way into the residential area on the side of the city opposite the old city, we did not have any trouble finding the street the Glauers live on. We were stopped trying to find the house numbers and two of the little boys that were biking on the sidewalk with their friends said "Who are you looking for? We'll show you where we live, you're coming to stay with us" or something like that.