Planes, trains and automobiles (without the planes or automobiles)

The area around the black forest is stunning, and definitely somewhere that I will visit agin. There is a beautiful peaceful tranquility. Riding only 100 metres from busy roads is still totally quiet, all of the noise cancelled out by the thick wall of trees and greenery. I left off last time near Karlsruhe, and stayed there for another night due to the (increasingly wet) weather. The campsite itself was pretty basic, and bearing in mind the weather there weren't too many people around. My decision to delay heading off towards Stuttgart was justified by the next day's ride - 100k on the dot, through some serious hills as I moved away from the Rhine. The ride was great, with loads of beautiful countryside, and some great downhill tracts in stunning sunlight. Stuttgart itself was fascinating - the city is of some serious size - 6,000,000 people around the metropolitan area - and it's probably the biggest city I've cycled through thus far. The city is surrounded by some very high hills which proved a somewhat challenging start to the next day and signalled the start of the serious hills that have featured much more over the last week. I spent a nice quiet night in the city, sleep didn't come too difficult that evening! Finding the campsite that night was something of a challenge - I've had an experience before where the campsite that I planned to stay in simply wasn't there (thanks again Google!) and was a little worried that I'd have to carry on for a significant distance or try and find a hotel, but thankfully I loaded the GPS coordinates from the tinterweb and found the site without too much of a problem. The next day was a pretty tough ride even though I only covered about 45k thanks to some seriously tough hills and detours after arguing with my GPS about not wanting to ride on busy main roads! The ensuing couple of days were a real treat as I arrived in Tubingen on the River Neckar. The campsite, very reasonable, very pretty, with a lovely little restaurant and the best chips I've ever tasted was about 4k away from the aforementioned University town. The first night was spent savouring a few beers and getting acquainted with the local speciality of schweine-schnitzel and chatting with a couple of married Dutch head-teachers touring during the school hols. A young Dutch couple had introduced themselves, and I spent a good deal of time in their company over the next couple of days. In the morning I headed towards the local beer garden in Tubingen, encountering the music department of the Uni on the way with their choir blasting out traditional German classical music through an open window. I rewarded my walk with a lovely weissbier and bier-pretzel before taking a walk around the town. Stopping off in the cathedral I continued on the musical theme and sat listening to a very good organist practicing his music, though quite of a type that I'd never heard before - melancholy and almost bitter, but extremely well executed none-the-less. After a hearty lunch at the beer garden (pretty much a whole pig with dumplings) followed by a deserved ice-cream from a nearby cafe I wandered back to the campsite. I ran into Tim (one half of the lovely Dutch couple) on the way back and suggested a few beers for the evening so we wandered back in later and enjoyed a few more beers in a now well packed beer garden, encountering a barman from Exeter on the way! The area was so nice that I stayed for another day giving me the chance to catch up on some much needed washing and maintenance and after another evening with my neighbours (this time cards and pork-steaks with the obligatory weissbier) I set off again. The next day's ride was hard but rewarding. Long climbs through beautiful scenery and sharp descents followed each other rapidly and a stunning few km's through a forest capped the day off nicely. The campsite wasn't much, but cheap, clean and with friendly staff. It was only an overnight stay, but it served me well. The next day I had a short hop across to Rottweil where I jumped on a train for the day and crossed into Switzerland. Looking back at some of the scenery on the way I'm pretty glad that I did, otherwise I would probably still be on one of the various mountains now! I had intended to head for Zurich and cycle through to Geneva, but on the Spur(r) (geddit?) of the moment decided to head for Geneva to meet up with Jean-Luc, an old friend of mine residing in the city. After looking at some of the mountains I would have had to have crossed I think it was again the right decision! The scenery was incredible (including a schloss overhanging the cliff next to a waterfall!) and gave me a real feel for Switzerland. Geneva is a city of less than 200,000 people but feels much larger when trying to negotiate it on a heavily laden touring bike. After spending a frustrating hour heading out of the city proper (the lights stay red for AGES) I ignored my GPS and followed a cycle route right on Lake Geneva to my campsite. As I had expected it is expensive, but lovely. Right on the lake and with excellent facilities. I had planned to stay for only one night, but thanks to Jean-Luc and his penchant for inducing hangovers I booked in for another night. I spent today (for this is when I'm writing the blog) on a "plage" that included no sand, but a beautiful panorama of the lake. Breakfast this morning was a couple of croissant shared with the incredibly tame ducks who were pecking at my shoes, lunch as well of the rest of the day spent looking out over the lake with the temperature in the mid 30's, and dinner was (is) in the restaurant attendant to the site and with one table (mine) overlooking the lake! My next plan is to tour Lake Geneva for a bit and head to Montreaux, the home for a long time of Freddie Mercury. For those of you who know me well, this will be something of a pilgrimage and I'm looking forward to it greatly. After that, probably a bit of Italy and then Croatia, but apparently there's the little matter of a wedding to interrupt my trip. So again, that's me for now. I leave you as I'm sitting with a glorious view over Lake Geneva drinking a bottle of lovely Swiss red wine on a warm summer evening whilst working on my Best Man's speech. Until next time all...