Today I celebrated my birthday in Eberbach on the Neckar River in southern Germany. We are five days into our bike tour and feeling stronger than ever. Two days ago I couldn’t honestly say that, but tonight I think I turned a corner. Or maybe I’m just in denial about being another year older. Either way, I’m thankful that I’m healthy enough to navigate the hills and valleys of life as well as the bike paths of this beautiful part of Germany.

We started out from Tubingen on Day One with 55 km of riding ahead of us. Cycling along the flat terrain of the Neckar River is a delight for these hardened hill climbers from Colorado. We actually felt like we were on vacation enjoying a relaxing ride through some pretty amazing countryside.

But the best thing was stumbling across a quirky “miniature train park”. Little railroad tracks crisscrossed the park in every direction and it was packed with parents and their toddlers clambering aboard the little cars for a ride. But by far, we were most entertained by the size of the German men driving the tiny steam engines. In some cases, you could hardly make out the engine due to the size of the rump sitting on top of it. The engineers obviously took their job very seriously but we thought it was hilarious.

We arrived at our destination late in the afternoon when the sun cast a golden hue on the old city. Walking across the the Innere Brucke into Esslingen am Neckar we could imagine why this bridge is compared to the Ponte Vecchio in Venice in that is covered with little stores and workshops and has been since Medieval times. The bridge is a welcoming entrance to a beautiful old city.

A great night’s sleep at the modern and very minimalistic EcoInn fueled our tanks for the next morning’s explorations beginning with 270 stone steps up to the castle heights above the city.

We headed out on our bikes later that morning towards Stuttgart. Our route to Freiburg was noted as 40-45 km for the day but navigating through Stuttgart turned out to be a bit of a challenge. Desperately looking for green bicycle signs pointing the way through the outskirts of this huge city was stressful even for seasoned bikers. Another American and his German girlfriend were having the same sort of trouble, so we stuck together until we finally got to the other side of the city. They continued on at a hurried pace while we stopped by a bakery and toasted our success with two strong espressos and a couple of fresh pastries.
We heard that there was a pumpkin festival at the palace grounds of Ludwigsburg just north of Stuttgart so we set our sights there for our next break. As we approached the ascent up to the castle grounds, we were happy to find a rest stop of sorts that included a small pool of cool water where travelers could soak their weary feet. We took full advantage of this luxury at the invitation of a German couple who were sitting by the water’s edge. They showed us how to do the walk properly – slowly with knees held high in a counterclockwise direction. Soon the four of us were walking in a line like slow prancing horses, laughing and enjoying the refreshing break from a long day’s ride.

The pumpkin festival at the castle was impressive (sculptures, food, gardens all pumpkin themed) but it was the castle itself and the grounds that were amazing beyond description. We spent most of our visit in the pumpkin fest area but I did wander around to the back yard and discovered a full botanic garden complete with fountains, a carousel, an orangerie and flower beds still bursting with color.  (This is an unimpressive photo but it will be will be replaced as soon as I get my good ones off my nice camera!)

We approached our night’s destination of Freiburg and discover it to be a sleepy little village. A perfect end to a long day’s ride included some great pasta at a local Italian cafe and a great night’s sleep in a quiet inn called Hotel Schober.