The cycling season starts!

Well, we're still a week or so away from the official start of Spring, but nobody has told the world outside. The bulbs have been out now for over a month, and already a few trees are cloaked in their down of blossoms. Last Sunday the weather was quite perfect - clear blue skies, no wind, and a refreshing 16 degrees C. Just suited for ushering in the cycling season.

Not wanting to stress my legs, atrophied as they are from 4 months of sloth, I decided to stick by the river Neckar, which flows through Stuttgart. Within the city itself, the river isn't what you would call a selling point. As the rivers in Germany are practically a highway system, there is a considerable amount of industry located on it's banks, and this is frankly ugly to look at. A little out of the city, however, and you find the character of the river changes for the better. The river has carved some very steep valleys, even cliffs, which more recently have been covered in dry-stone terraced vineyards. The light brown colour of the stones and the still-bare vines produced a remarkable sensation of aridity, quite at odds with the river flowing in front of them.

Perhaps the oxygen wasn't making it to my brain, but I found the sensation of cycling along the river very strange - away from the ocean, it's not often that I am close to such a large body of water. Somehow it was not entirely comfortable, maybe I felt a little claustrophobic caught between the river and the cliffs. So as lunchtime approached I climbed out of the valley. I ate my sandwiches just beside the trees on the right in the photo at the top. Not a bad spot for lunch, eh?

Correctly reading my cycling map, which I still regard as nothing less than a miracle, after lunch I made my way to a scenic view just above the little village of Hessingheim. As you can see from the photo below, it was certainly worth the effort, and subsequent blundering about in the forest trying to find a road while also trying not to get bogged. Note that on the right-hand side you can see a lock for barges; also note that the steep slope just above this is covered in terraced vineyards.

I ended the day by cycling back upstream to Marbach, as I could get onto the suburban train system here. Marbach is one of those impeccably preserved towns you sometimes find in Europe, the old quarter still snug inside the square perimeter of the medieval walls. It's big claim to fame, however, is that Schiller happened to be born there. Alas, I was content not to spend too much time loitering about the old town - there is a fine line between charming and twee, and for me Marbach crossed it - too many pastel pinks and blues, too many impossibly intricate potted flower arrangements. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

All in all, I managed roughly 35km. My legs probably couldn't have taken all that much more, let alone my posterior. Dehydration is also an issue - I'll have to make a conscious effort to drink more on these outings. However, a few more of these weekend trips and cycling to and from work should set me in good stead for the major bike holidays I'm planning this year. Stay posted.