Summer in Spring

Well, it sure felt like Summer out there, even if the blossoms and the almost fluorescent bright green of the sun-light through the new leaves belied the true season. For the last two weeks we've had weather more appropriate to late May than late April: I've read that Germany has just experienced the warmest and also the driest April since records began in 1901. Of course, this should be sending us into a rabid panic - this IS global warming at work folks! - but most people have managed (as people always do) to push the nasty long-term implications from mind and just enjoy the good weather. And to be honest, I was one of them.

Ever since I got back from the trip along the Nagold I had been studying the bike map for a new adventure. I finally settled on a trip through the forests to the north-east of Stuttgart. Thinking myself a bit macho, I wanted something with more hills than the last ride (as pleasant as that was) and I figured that without heading south to the Alb this was the best place to get my "fix". So with my brand-new cycling accessory, the handlebar-mounted map-holder, I set off on Sunday the 22nd on the train to Schwaebisch Hall.

Arriving at my destination around 10am, I spent a bit of time walking around the largish small town (if you get my meaning) of Schwaebisch Hall. Although my sister liked it very much when she visited, she didn't have a very exciting cycling trip to do on the same day, so unlike her I didn't spend very much time there. Maybe I'll come back in Summer when it's too hot to do any cycling and just wander through the streets and along the river.

Striking out west towards the forest I immediately got lost in the less salubrious light-industrial hinterland of Schwaebisch Hall. Blundering about a bit I eventually came to a sign pointing to a village on the map and I was off and away. After a short ride across farmland I eventually came to the Naturpark Schwaebisch-Fraenkischer Wald, essentially a large region of forest. Although the boundary of this forest is rather large, it shouldn't be thought of as a monolithic block of trees: there are some villages scattered throughout it, and pastures or cropland surrounding the villages. The forests in Germany are not anything like national parks in Australia. Yes, there are some restrictions on what visitors can do within the forest, but the forests also serve an important economic role in supporting the lumber industry. On the day I went, however, there were far more recreational users than foresters - manic mountain bikers, sedate strollers and the odd gaggle of nordic walkers.


After a few hours cycling I reached the crest of the hill where the panoramic shot above was taken. The view for lunch was equally lovely, but I'm afraid that my camera's batteries died and so I can't show you any shot. Since most of the time I was in the forest, this trip didn't offer nearly as many scenic opportunities as the others I have been on. The most memorable aspects of the ride - the sedate cycle along the small forest streams, the exhilarating climbs - can't of course be captured on CCDs.

In general I was pleased with how things went, although because of some rather poor choices of route my legs felt like they were going to explode by the time I reached Marbach - I'll have to pay more attention to those pesky contour lines in future. In terms of setting a route and sticking to it with a minimum of fuss, however, this trip was quite a confidence-builder. Indeed, that feeling of content at good navigation is no small pleasure of these weekend outings. Last Saturday I bought the maps to cover the trip to the Bodensee. I've already begun to chart a course to get me to the lake, hopefully in two days. I'll have to start booking accommodation soon, as I plan to be departing Stuttgart in just over two weeks time!

Write like a real man!

I've just discovered this, and I think it rather incredible. It may even have some profound implications:

http://bookblog.net/gender/genie.php

My posts indicate that I'm a man; trying it out on my sister's blog it says that she is a woman. I've tried it out on two physics papers by women and one by a man (not very scientific) and these give "male" results. I'm not motivated enough to do a "statistically significant" sample but I'd guess that since all scientific papers sound the same - at least at 11pm - this could be a more robust feature of the technical "voice".

I wonder if there is any preference between the sexes for reading passages of a certain gender?

Of course, there is an alternative, and that is that this is just an exercise in finding correlations in large data sets using statistics. Certainly, the gender analysis is not foolproof, and the algorithm used is only a simplified version of the original one proposed by the Israeli scientists who discovered this effect. So is this just another silly internet test, or does it really add something useful to the ongoing debate about inherent cognitive differences between the sexes?

A trip along the Nagold

On Tuesday morning I woke up without the headache. A good sign, as it meant that I had managed to stay reasonably hydrated the day before - that's what 5 liters of water will do for you. Standing on the bus climbing out of the valley an hour and half later on my way to work, I realized I was depressed. I didn't really want to head back to my office, I just wanted to get on my bicycle and ride as far as I could. After Monday's massive endorphin high, the thought of a day behind my desk made me utterly miserable.

The funny thing, however, is that it nearly didn't happen at all. I was supposed to meet Lydia and Chen at Horb Railway Station, which is about an hour south-east of Stuttgart by the RE train. When I turned up at 9:20, there was no sign of my Tuebingener friends. Although I searched for an "arrivals" timetable to work out when to expect them, I made the rather poignant discovery that Horb is one of those towns people only ever seem to leave. So without a phone number (which I forgot) and without any idea when/if Lydia and/or Chen would turn up, I settled down to a quiet snooze in the sun. By 10 o'clock I had decided that it was a no-show and it was time for plan B - cycle along the Neckar to Tuebingen and then on to Stuttgart. Just as I was leaving the station, however, who did I meet? Lydia and Chen, at the end of a quick dash from Rottenburg. Apparently the track was being repaired and they couldn't take their bikes on the replacement bus, and since I refuse to own a mobile phone they just had to assume that I would be patient.

We got underway around 10:30, starting with a brisk climb out of the Neckar valley. Our plan was to connect to the Nagold river, and make our way along the bike track as far as Pforzheim, probably a bit more than 70km away from our starting point. With a minimum of faffing about we connected to the Steinach, a tributary of the Nagold, which was such a small trickle that I could have easily stepped across it - a bit like rivers in Australia! After about an hour's ride downstream we had connected to the Nagold proper - a much wider river - and entered the deep and narrow Nagold valley. Happily thus confined to the banks of the river, we then had a very leisurely day ahead of us. For the most part the trip was scenic without being particularly spectacular, although the few times when the valley widened out for a good view or narrowed to almost a canyon were memorable. The picture illustrates a historic waterwheel we came across just before Wildberg.

On a day like Easter Monday we find it easy to understand why our pagan ancestors regarded Spring to be a mystical time. After the darkness of winter, suddenly all is again alive. The grass turns emerald, the flowers come from nowhere, and once more nature plays her time-worn trick of being young again. One of the most delightful things about the ride was the number of butterflies out and about - dark marmalade ones, pollen-yellow ones, black ones with white stripes - all fluttering from newly-opened flower to newly-opened flower. But where had they all sprung from? Either the pupae or the eggs survive the winter - I favour the former scenario. In any case, perhaps the abundance of butterflies was due in part to the mild winter we experienced? I just hope the leaves are all out in time for their eggs to be laid. For all the comforting regularity of nature, these creatures dance forever on the abyss.

I parted company with Chen and Lydia at Calw (yes, that is how it is spelt) as the late start made continuing on to Pforzheim difficult for them. I also decided to abandon Pforzheim and instead make my way to Weil der Stadt via Monbachtal to catch the suburban train system. In any case, the bike path over the last 20km of the Nagold, which joins the Enz in Pforzheim, runs beside a busy road, so it was no great loss (apart from the section just north of Calw, where the photo on the left was taken). After the seemingly interminable climb out of the Nagold valley I made it without incident, passing through several near-deserted villages on my way to the S-bahn train. As I was now on the plateau I had rolling farmland for my view, and I immediately felt a sense of freedom and expansiveness that was absent in the valley. The sun was getting low, however, and even though I might have liked to linger, I'm glad I didn't as I made the 6pm train with about 30 seconds to spare (it would be another hour before I got to the University S-bahn station).

All in all, it was a wonderful day for the gentle and pleasant ride, the beautiful weather and the excellent company - the latter I hope to enjoy again sometime this year! I'm also now well and truly into the cycling mode, and I've pegged a possible weekend in mid-May for a 4-day excursion to the Bodensee (Lake Constance). That will be the longest I've ever been on a bicycle, but after Monday's trip I'm more than convinced I can handle the distance.