Wine Country

Summer officially ended in the last week of September, and we are now very much in the depths of Autumn. Dead leaves clutter the paths, the days are quickly getting shorter, and the cold air on the ride to and from work makes my eyes water. Although I do like this time of year, it makes me a little sad to think that I have probably no more than a fortnight left on the bicycle. I had wanted to head south to the Alb, but although Sunday the 30th was forecast to be fine, the weather to the south unfortunately looked a little dismal. Reasoning that there was no point climbing a mountain if I couldn't enjoy the view, I decided instead at the last minute to head north to clearer skies and cycle from Marbach to Heilbronn along the Neckar.

In the event, the day turned out to be quite fine, but I did not regret my choice. I had visited the area around Marbach on the very first trip I did this year, when the leaves were still not yet out on the trees and the vines. Returning now at the end of Summer, it was almost difficult to recognise the place. I remarked before on the sense of aridity that the terraced vineyards produced in Winter. This time, with the vines in full leaf, the overall impression was of fertility and bounty, a fact reinforced by the vintners picking the grapes. I was most struck by the strangely sweet, sharp stench of over-ripeness that hung in the air, as the fallen apples rotted underneath the trees, and oozing grapes on neglected vines shrivelled in the sun.

A word on the grapes of this region is in order. It seemed to me that the most common variety growing along the Neckar is the Trollinger, a variety that is used to make the signature red wine of the region. I must confess that I don't really like it very much - it is too sweet and insipid for my tastes. Truth be told, I haven't been much impressed by any wine in this country, as they are usually not dry enough for my palate. Methinks the Germans should stick to making beer.

For lunch I climbed out of the valley, up to the plateau just behind the small village of Klein Ingersheim. This was actually quite close to where I ate lunch the first time I was here, and my next destination was the scenic lookout which marked my northernmost progress in March. I didn't take a panoramic shot this time, but you can at the left a photo of the lock (with a ship approaching) and the vivid green on the vines on the steep slope in the background.

Cycling a short distance through the forest I eventually arrived just above Besigheim, where the river Enz joins the Neckar. It is a reasonably large town, and the speed with which I got through it owed more to luck than any plan (actually, the plan had been to avoid the town altogether, but I took a wrong turn coming out of the forest). Passing a couple of more "heim" towns (Walheim, Gemmrigheim, Kirchheim am Neckar) I came to the most memorable part of the day. After curving around a bend in the Neckar, just opposite the nuclear power station at Neckarwestheim, I climbed out of the valley through orchards of bright red apples. Reaching the top, I gingerly crossed a major road and came to the edge of the strange elliptical valley of Lauffen.


The valley curves around in a smooth ellipse-like shape, with a very steep outer rim but on there inner side there is a very gentle slope up to a small hill in the middle. I'm not quite sure what the deal is here - naively looking at my contour map, it seems that once the Neckar flowed around the edge in a great bulge. But eventually the river cut through the small spit of land at the edge of bulge, closing off this loop for good - forming a so-called Oxbow lake. This would have eventually silted up, leaving the fossil river we see today.

Coasting down through the vineyards to Lauffen, I set out to investigate what appeared to be a Medieval walled city (this can just be seen as the long smudge on the right of the panorama above). Indeed it was, and took sometime to slowly cycle through it. But like the walled city of Marbach, the evident care with which the buildings had been maintained verged too close to the twee for my likings. The view over the Neckar towards the church was nevertheless worth the detour.

After a short-cut across the rolling hills of the Neckar valley to Nordheim, I rejoined the Neckar for the sedate 5km remaining to Heilbronn. Of course, I got terribly lost in Heilbronn itself (why don't they put signs to the Bahnhof? That's where I want to go after all). Sitting on the train back to Stuttgart half an hour later, the cool wind blowing through the open window, I reflected on the wonderful day I had enjoyed and wondered if I would not come this way again next year, if indeed I am still here.