The Black Forest

After leaving the Rhine River we followed the Neckar River for 20km to the university town of Heidelberg. The town escaped major bombing in World War II so has a remarkably intact old town - a rare thing in this part of Germany, and a big draw for tourists.

Heidelberg

We had a few nights booked at a hostel so we could have time to both explore the town, and catch up on blogging - at this stage we were two countries behind schedule! The most striking building in town is the huge Heidelberg Schloss (Castle) perched on the hill overlooking the Aldstadt (old town).

After a short sharp walk up the hill we arrived in the castle and checked out the slightly unexpected range of attractions within it's walls: a pharmacy museum, the largest wine keg in the world, and many half-ruined towers (destroyed by everything from the French to lightening strikes!). We got another view of the castle the next day as we followed the 'Philosopher's Walk'; a track that winds its way up the hill on the other side of the river, where the university philosophers and poets would walk and talk. The temperatures in the mid 30s ensured that there was more huffing and puffing than walking and talking; but the views over to the castle and Aldstadt were awesome. A cold local beer at the cafe on top of the hill was very welcome.

Heidelberg Aldstadt

View of Heidelberg from the Philosopher's Walk

The plan from Heidelberg was to head south through the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) for a few days before heading southwest to the German/French/Swiss border. Having spent more than a month cycling in the very flat areas of Northern France, Belgium, Holland and the lower Rhine, the hills of the Black Forest were a bit of a shock to the system. On the first day high temperatures, navigational issues, and hills got the better of us and for the first time on the trip we fell short of our intended destination. We arrived in the town of Pforzheim at about 6pm with around 20km still to go to the nearest campsite. After stopping at a cafe to use the internet we were able to book a budget hotel last minute. This was a good wake-up call for us - we hadn't had any real hills since the Pyrenees in July!

Typical Black Forest views

The cycling through the forest was lovely. We were mostly following cycleways that stuck to quiet roads or dedicated trails. The shade of the trees brought the temperature down in the, still 30 degree, heat and the locals were extremely friendly to cyclists and we couldn't go more than 30 seconds looking at Google Maps before someone asked where we wanted to go.

Germany is big on green energy - many house's roofs are covered in solar panels

That's a ski lift on the horizon and ski runs coming down on the left

Locals cooling off in Freiberg

After a couple of days in the cycling through the forest we came up to a pass that bought us past skifields and traditional mountain houses before descending steeply down the other side to the Rhine Valley again. We arrived at nice campsite in the town of Freiberg for a curry-wurst dinner and more great German beer.

Freiberg

The next day was one of those days where so much happens that by the time you go to bed, it feels like a whole week has passed. Sarah had a job interview scheduled in the evening, so we'd decided to cut the 70km distance to the Airbnb we'd booked in half by getting the train partway. We had a chilled morning before getting the train; cycling around the Freiberg old town and getting coffee, only to find ourselves running late for the train. After negotiating our fully-laden bikes up escalators and down stairs we made it on the train with seconds to spare.
We got off at our halfway point and started cycling on the Rhine River route once again. The river had changed dramatically since we left it at Mannheim - gone were the factories and barges and instead the river was not unlike the Clutha. We saw a small snake on the track, and then I got a puncture - only the second we've had on the whole trip. Eventually we arrived at the Swiss/French/German border and crossed over to the French side where our Airbnb was. As we took photos on the bridge (it seemed crazy to us Kiwis that you could see three countries all from the one spot!) we got chatting to an Australian guy who recognised the NZ flag. When we told him we were heading to Switzerland he fished out a couple of vouchers from his bag and gave them to us; cheers Bill for the free breakfast and cablecar ride!

On the bridge between Germany and France, and that's Switzerland straight ahead!

We eventually made it to our Airbnb and Sarah had her interview via Skype. The final hurdle for the day was finding an open supermarket at 8pm, in France, on a Sunday. This turned out to be impossible and we settled for a bar meal. What a day!

  -  David