Fire Trucks, Terrorists and Fast Trains

Although June proved to be a very busy month for me, I did manage one other bike trek before I got overwhelmed with work. This was on Sunday the 17th June, when I decided to explore the river Enz downstream from Pforzheim. I had a co-worker arriving on Monday for two days of intense discussions on a paper, so I didn't want to do anything too draining: the well-marked bike track running along the Enz river as it snakes it way through the fertile, gently-rolling countryside to the north-west of Stuttgart seemed like the perfect choice. A nice change from the last two muscle-crunching climbs up the alb! The train-ride to Pforzheim did, however, pre-empt the only downside of the day - the bike carriage on the train was as full as I have ever seen it, and the cycle paths were clogged with retirees enjoying the good weather.

It may well be that Sunday morning is the only time in my life that I see Pforzheim. Although the short amount of time I spent there allowed me only the briefest of impressions, it struck me as a neat, largely new, middle-class satellite town. Not particularly memorable as such, but probably not an unpleasant place in which to live. This rather mediocre assessment set the tone for most of the rest of the day. The first hour or so along the Enz offered no particularly lovely vistas, but rather that strange agricultural-industrial hybrid that so characterizes much of the German countryside.

The section of the trip between Muehlacker and Vaihingen an der Enz was the most rewarding in terms of scenery - This is arguably the least developed stretch of the Enz between Pforzheim and Besigheim (where it joins the Neckar) and the steep sides of the relatively narrow Enz valley reinforced the pleasant sensation of isolation. The river snakes crazily in this region also, and just besides the small village of Muehlhausen an der Enz it curves around a long drop-shaped peninsula. Of course, one day the river will cut right through this spit of land and the village of Muehlhausen an der Enz will have to change its name - but this is still some time off.

I decided to get a better view of this by climbing out of the valley just before reaching the village. I soon found myself surrounded by fields of corn, now almost as tall as me. In the distance I could see what appeared to be a convoy of red trucks heading east. The unusual and intermittent sirens I could hear suggested that perhaps it was a military exercise - I commonly see signposts giving speed limits for tanks - so I went on my way without giving it much more thought, A little further down the road I came across several people standing on an improvised platform, cameras at the ready - immediately understanding the situation, I jumped off the bicycle and whipped out my own camera. The convoy was of old restored firetrucks - ranging from what seemed to 1920s to perhaps the early 1980s. There were an awful lot of them, and I have absolutely no idea to where they were headed.

Continuing further down the road, I found the view pictured in the panoramic shot below. At the edge of the photo you can see the old-style terraced vineyards which covered the sides of the valley. According to my map, a little further on the ruins of castle Altrosswang could be found - but they must be more ruined than poor Greifenstein, as I couldn't find any sign of them. The local I managend to accost seemed surprised to learn that such a thing existed, so I decided to head on my way and rejoin the Enz in Rosswang.


After one and a half hours I arrived at the town of Bissingen, the last major town on the Enz. Instead of continuing along the Enz until it meets the Neckar in Besigheim, I decided to turn south and cycle across the north-western outskirts of Stuttgart until I reached an S-Bahn station. After about an hour I found myself on Solitude Allee, a road which once connected the pleasure palace of Schloss Solitude with the seat of Ducal power at Ludwigsburg. Undoubtedly influenced by the severe geometry of the age, this road runs perfectly straight over its +10km length - it does not recognise the obstacles of topograghy, cutting carelessly across contour lines, an ostentatious symbol of the duke's control over his lands.

Travelling along Solitude Allee, the first building one comes to in Stuttgart proper is the infamous prison of Stammheim, rising like some strange concrete box from the surrounding fields of grain. Stammheim is well-known in Germany as it is here that the members of the Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorist organization are interned. The RAF belongs to the time when terrorists were educated marxist urban guerillas, and their murderous exploits almost seem petty by today's dismal standards. Active during the 1970s and born of the bitter disaffections of the student rebellions, the motivations of the group were complicated and perhaps even contradictory. Their actions touched a raw nerve in German society, as their targets were often prominent ex-Nazis, highlighting the very incomplete nature of the post-war denazification.

I finished my ride shortly after passing by Stammheim at the train station in the suburb of Zuffenhausen. While purchasing my ticket, I noticed a fast train coming in on the main line to Stuttgart, but not the usual white of the German ICE - rather the blue and grey of the French TGV. Yes, the TGV does come to Stuttgart: just this year, a new Stuttgart-Paris express route started up. A perfect weekend outing? Not sure exactly what the Parisians would want to see in Stuttgart ;)