28/10/24
We didn’t hear as many crazy noises as we were hoping during our night in the forest. We woke up nice and early, excited to get into Karlsruhe. It was to be another sunny day. The weather has been pretty ridiculous. Most days we have seen the Sun and for the end of October it’s been between 15-20C. Perfect cycling temperature. We were expecting to be lucky if it wasn’t raining.
We headed off along the woodland track back to the main cycle way we had left the night before. It was an arrow straight route through the woods for about 10km. It would have got boring except there were lots of commuters, the beams of light were pouring through the canopy and it was actually quite cold. Our hands were icy this morning.
This straight route led us directly into the Schlossgarten of Karlsruhe. It was a beautiful palace with gardens that was open from sunrise. We took a small detour through the botanical gardens, which weren’t that exciting, and headed to a coffee shop. It was nice to be inside and get warm.
Today was a short days ride. We were simply heading to Pfzorheim, for our rest day. It was a long time coming and we only had about 40km to do. It could have been shorter but we wanted to keep to the good cycle ways. It would however have some elevation gain. We hadn’t seen any hills yet, only mere undulations really. We would see about 300m today.
We felt ourselves start climbing and looking at the profile, we would be going slowly up the whole route. There were two slightly steeper and longer climbs. As we approached the first we also found an Umleitung. This happened to send us up a very steep pedestrian route so as to keep us off the road and was eventually uncycleable. We weren’t too demoralised as it was a stupidly steep section. Surely the Black Forest wouldn’t be like this?
As we were psyching ourselves up to carry on by eating a persimmon in the Sun, we saw a red squirrel! It was joyous. They have far more colour (obviously) but also more lines and features than the grey squirrels we’re used to. Pointy ears. A defined tail. Big eyes. It darted away and was even more fidgety than a grey. This brief encounter raised our spirits.
We persevered and found the second and much more reasonable climb on the outskirts of the town. This was surmountable. After we broached the top it was all down hill into the town. Steep city streets to hold our brakes tightly down.
We sat in the Stadtgarten awaiting our time of check in and crammed the remaining food we had left, our staple lunch of bread and tofu. The odd bit of pepper knocking around. It soon came to 2pm.
We found our accommodation 3 mins away but hadn’t realised when enquiring about storing the bikes that there was a huge flight of steps! We duly unloaded all the panniers and carried the bikes and luggage up what was equivalent to two stories for sure.
We were going to put the bikes on the terrace, but as you had to go into the house to get to the terrace we decided they could stay inside for safety. It was a lovely house, though we were pleased for any resemblance of luxury.
We rushed out to the shop so we could get some dinner and come back, shower, and laze. We even got ice cream. We did have a simple dinner not wanting to spend hours in the kitchen. Some bean stew and chips with salad. A big hot meal was satiating.
Snuggled into a big comfy bed it was hard to think we’d ever be leaving. How quickly you become re-accustomed to luxury is quite concerning. No wonder people struggle to leave it behind.
Surly They Won't Make It 