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.

A few thoughts

A few random thoughts about the events of the past week.

Cricket

Probably most of you were scratching your heads wondering where my sudden love of cricket has sprung from. Well, I've been playing cricket here in Stuttgart since last year as a social sport, largely run by the Indian postdoc in our department, Sreeraj. Every Friday we took over the nearby Kindergarten's soccer pitch, setting up our cardboard wickets and playing 4-a-side until light halts play. It's been fun, and on several occasions we have attracted a rather bemused audience of locals, some of which wonder if we're playing a strange form of baseball.

Conversation for the past month has inevitably turned to the cricket world cup in the West Indies, with predictions of a stunning India-Australia final being made. Unfortunately, India looks likely to return home next week, whereas the competition keeps on going for a month (it is cricket, after all). A more serious dampener, however, has been the suspected murder of the Pakistani coach. The mystery surrounding his death has cast a terrible shadow over the competition. I find it hard to take so much enjoyment from following the scores when I reflect upon the evidence that for some it is life or death.

NSW Votes

As a former New South Welshman, I've been following the progress of the state elections with more than passing interest. It's the first time I've followed an Australian election from overseas, and I found it quite an interesting spectator sport. A good warm up for November (?) when we have the federal elections (in which I am not voting). Anyway, the NSW results are now in, and the Iemma government has been returned with a workable majority in the lower house, although I'm not sure the ALP did so well in the upper house. At any rate, the re-election of the government had seemed a foregone conclusion for some time now.

It's likely that political hacks will study Iemma's strategy for years to come, and for its cunning cynicism it deserves our grudging respect. No one disputes that NSW is in a mess - transport, education, and health show serious failings, not to mention water! - and that the Carr government must shoulder most of the blame. Even Iemma's campaign more-or-less acknowledged this, with the inspiring slogan "More to do, but heading in the right direction". So how to seek re-election? Paint yourself as a breath of fresh air, and run against your party's record. Oh, and pour lots of money into promoting your policies through "public service ads" and add a nice dollop of attack ads aimed at the inexperienced opposition - right out of John "the Rat" Howard's playbook.

I'm not suggesting that the Liberals could do a better job, or that Peter Debnam could make a better premier. His inability to make any meaningful political capital out of the government's failings was pathetic, and sympathy votes don't win elections. Don't count on NSW enteirng a utopian period of centre-left government either - NSW will probably continue to bumble along with a creaking infrastructure, underfunded schools and substandard hospitals. You can read all this in the SMH online. What is for me most infuriating, and also worrying, is the triumph of "spin" that this represents - the "story" presented to the public is what wins elections, and if the story is compelling enough the (contrary) facts can be damned. What we have to be concerned about is that this kind of election could become the norm. After all, politicians will follow electoral strategies that keep them elected. This would be a catastrophe for Australia - as we face up to the existential environmental challenges that blight our land, we desperately need bold leadership, not the talentless party apparatchiks that fill our houses of parliament.

Cricket Bats of Justice!

For all those not aware (i.e. the world minus any country not (once) in the Commonwealth and maybe also the Netherlands) the Cricket World Cup is currently being played in the West Indies. Clearly not even in Germany am I immune to the cricket fever - I'll happily admit that I followed the India vs Bangladesh and Ireland vs Pakistan matches last night to their nail-biting conclusions. In about a month when the whole thing winds up I'll wonder what all the fuss was about. But there are some on this planet for whom cricket fever is clearly a chronic condition. People, for example, who might purchase a comic book about a cricketer with superhero powers. Wow - flaming cricket bats! Aren't normal cricket bats scary enough when wielded by an armour-clad crime-fighter?

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.

Der Fliegender Zirkus

The world is an amazing place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR7RHgdVTCg

The translation isn't perfect - its cakes and coffee not buttered scones. But the general drift remains the same.