Mannheim - Stuttgart 160 km

And then another ten kilometers with two climbs of 100 meters in elevation each until I was home. But those do not count, of course. Why 160 kilometers from Mannheim to Stuttgart? It can be done shorter, for example 120 kilometers via Sinsheim. And why Stuttgart and not straight onto the Frickenhofer Höhe? That would only have been another twenty kilometers. Questions upon questions, which I may perhaps answer over the course of this text.

In the morning, I slept another round. I was awake at seven and actually ready to continue riding. After a brief discussion with my thighs, which simply refused to work, I turned over again and slept a little longer. At nine, I finally let it roll. The Swabian’s lifeline, yes dear Baden people, the Swabian’s, from Mannheim to Heidelberg, along the Neckar. Around 2021, this was actually my regular route, to get in a few extra kilometers after work in the evening or sometimes in the morning. Without thinking much about it, I was standing in Heidelberg an hour later. And here, as wonderful as this city is, I have never found a sensible way by bike toward the old town. Not today either. So once again I used the road along the Neckar, much to the displeasure of a few drivers. But hey, I did not see a mandatory cycle-path sign anywhere, so all perfectly legal.

After my first breakfast with a view of the castle, I continued with a regretful sigh. I would have loved to ride up to the Königsstuhl. Already on the way to Heidelberg I had seen the radio tower on the Weißer Stein, and I would have loved to go up there again as well. But no time, and probably not fit enough either, at least not with luggage. Another time. Especially because what came next, the cycle route along the Neckar, is for me one of the most beautiful cycling routes in Germany. True, sometimes there are a few too many potholes in the gravel on the right-hand side, but in places it is even more dreamlike than the UNESCO World Heritage Middle Rhine Valley. The left side of the Neckar is more pleasant to ride, on the road with a wide shoulder, but today I had time and stayed on the right side until Zwingenberg.

Past the four castles, past Dilsberg with its beautiful castle and old town. I would have loved to ride up there too, but again: no time for that. Then Hirschhorn, Eberbach, Stolzeneck and Zwingenberg. It is not only the castles. It is the little villages, the quarries, the paths in between, and the history connected with all of it that make this route so special. Also with my own personal history. The very first time I rode through this upper Neckar valley, I was sitting at the bow of the MS Wissenschaft, sometime in 2003 or 2004. We set off from Heidelberg in the evening after the exhibition had closed, grilled on deck, and passed through this scenery until we moored somewhere along the way during the night. I will never forget that for the rest of my life. How I sat there on deck, open-mouthed, watching the landscape drift by. So beautiful.

When I lived and worked in Mannheim, I discovered my love for the Odenwald. Again and again, on a Saturday or Sunday when I was not riding to Hanau, I would either go up the Bergstraße to Frankenstein Castle, or through Weinheim into the Odenwald. Or, coming from Hanau, into the Odenwald from that side, and more than once I eventually came out directly into this Neckar valley and rode the rest of the way back to Mannheim. There really are some beautiful routes and tours there. How many times I rode up to the Katzenbuckel, the highest mountain in the Odenwald, only to come out again in Eberbach.

At some point, as I said, I changed sides of the river and came onto a wide road with a wide shoulder. From then on, I could eat up kilometers. It became so meditative that I still remember seeing a sign that said: Mosbach 8.8 kilometers. The next sign I consciously noticed said: Mosbach 15 kilometers. And I thought to myself: Wait a minute? That shocked me enough that I first had to check the map, only to realize that I had apparently simply ridden past Mosbach and was already almost in Heilbronn. Fortunately, I then had to take a rain break and came back to reality while standing under a tree and everything was getting wet. Thirty minutes of waiting, and afterward a change of clothes, that was how soaked I was.

Then it continued on to Heilbronn. There, the question briefly arose: ride straight through, about eighty kilometers, mostly up and down on country roads, including a climb onto the Frickenhofer Höhe that is no joke? Or fifty-five kilometers to Stuttgart, then the train, and afterward another ten kilometers with two climbs of 100 meters in elevation each? The agony of choice. I decided on the Neckar cycle route, with a few shortcuts across the loops. And it was worth it.

It was beautiful. And I am relaxed.

In that spirit.