The tent was dry this morning, so could get away reasonable early, after I had written my article for the paper. Wonder whether and how it will be published, I will report. To Dornstetten it was all downhill, but then there were several hills to climb and come down again before I reached Freudenstadt. Very … Read more
Hot! 850 m climbing in temperatures of up to 40°C (as measured by my bike computer) in the shade, and I was in the sun quite a bit. No wonder I could not go further… The day started slowly, I got up later than usual, partly because it was so hot during the night that … Read more
Martin, another Kreisrat of Esslingen, that I had met in Leipzig, picked me up by bike and cycled about 35 km with me – thanks for that! We first went to Esslingen, an amazing medieval town with lots of half-timbered houses, which also has part of the administration of the Landratsamt. Unfortunately we were too … Read more
After a nice breakfast with interesting background information on all kinds of local politics by the landlady of the Alte Kass, I set off leisurely to explore Landkreis Esslingen, one of the twinned Landkreise of Munich. I followed the ‚Streuobstroute‚ (Streuobstwiesen are a kind of organic, wild orchard, I could not find an English translation … Read more
After a pretty good night in the tent I woke up much later than expected, but was ready to go within an hour, all packed up. The ground is so dry that I did not have to wait for the tent to dry. While I was packing up my neighbours chatted with me quite a … Read more
Spent the last morning with Phil wandering around Augsburg and going to quite an interesting exhibition I had read about: The women of the Elvira photo-studio in Augsburg and Munich (https://kunstsammlungen-museen.augsburg.de/atelier-elvira ). We finally parted company at the station, Phil taking the train back to Munich. I went on, leaving Augsburg to the West, along … Read more
What a send-off! Of course my family was up and about to say good-bye, but two colleagues (Gerlinde and Susanna) also came armed with a poster, and then five people from the local cycling club came along for part of the ride, as well! Wow, I am still overwhelmed! Today was also the day a … Read more
The last time I went on a bike ride (mainly) on my own that was more than a week long was probably around the North Sea in the early 1990s, so I suppose almost 30 years ago. In the meantime some of my equipment has been given away (cooker), is not functional anymore (tent) or … Read more