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 early to try the Sekt (sparkling wine) which Esslingen is famous for.
I am grateful we then took the easy route to Denkendorf, Martin‘s home place, where he is rooted and extremely well connected. There we managed to get a tour round the Pinion works and had a test ride on a couple of their bikes with a novel gearing mechanism, that is basically located in the crank. Seemed to work a dream, might need to look into that for a possible next touring bike…
After lunch at Martin‘s with his wife Eva there as well, Martin brought me to the Neckar and left me cycling the Neckar bike route in the heat of the day. Luckily there was not mich climbing anymore, although I went upstream. I took the opportunity to take a swim in one of the numerous lakes along my route, very pleasant to cool down. In the end I climbed 550m throughout the day again.
I actually made it to the camp site in Tübingen. After setting the tent up, etc., I walked to visit Doris and family. Doris is a fellow Green politician in Ottobrunn, and is very proud (rightly so!) of their house in the old town of Tübingen, which they renovated themselves some years ago.
The evening was still extremely hot and the WiFi on the campsite extremely poor.
