Back to our winter cycling shirts today good job we didnt post them back  a chilly 10C when we set off from Villingen. Villingen is the recommended start point even though it is 9kms away from the source of tne Neckar. It is a beautiful old town totally pedestrianised and doesnot have busloads of tourists swarming the streets, a very relaxed feel. So a very enjoyable 2 nights there in spite of the efforts of the Domora hotel staff, a Fawlty towers type of hotel. They only activated our door card for one day so then we were locked out, they said sauna was avalable but then they couldnt un lock the door to it etc… anyway the girls were quite entertaining from Romania and Kurdistan but Im not sure tbat service skills were their strong point.

As we set off we met another couple who had just arrived by train. They had a week

to cycle the Neckar so it was quite fun bumping into them all day long. There was a steep climb up to the watershed of both the Danube and the Neckar but very pretty scenery even on a damp and grey day.The moorlands were signposted where the Neckar is meant to start from and there were several 17th century gravestones. I think it was always an easier option to put someone in a peat bog but I know you don’t always break down.The actual supposed source of the Neckar had its own plaque in a park where there had always been some sort of stone mark for 100s of years.My bike decided to fall on me at the  source probably due to some slap dash packing on my part as the panniers weren’t balanced, so I’m now sporting a huge bruise on my thigh to add to the collection.Lesson learnt pack properly, panniers evenly balanced weight wise.

Very well marked paths didnt have to consult the heavy guide book we’d lugged up the Rhine and Moselle rivers at all about the route.The area has a swiss feel about it, pine forests steep valleys , more up and downs than I imagined but nothing too steep.In fact this area belonged to Austria for nearly 500 years Germany got it back in the 1800s.Cycling on forest tracks through the Black Forest was magical, they had little wooden huts you could stay in with fire places pity we didnt have our sleeping bags with us.!

Prettiest town of the day was Rottweil, no I dont know if Rottweilers come from here.

Neckar is a beautiful river already very natural looking and hasnt had too much interference a few dams/ weirs and theyve put fish runs in so they dont get affected by the dams.

After 60kms we started looking for a bed and breakfast being a Sunday the 1 larger guest house in Sulz wasnt open till 5pm. We followed signs to one b and b, it was full. The other large guest house had a notice on the door saying they were on holiday for 2 weeks. The next b&b noone answered the door and looked deserted. The one good thing about the Guide Book is it does have a list of accomodation options so we saw a phone box and I rang up 2 more and the 2nd one did have vacancies. No, we still haven’t got our money back from the mobile we bought when cycling the Rhine.

Sulz famous throughout history for the salt trade here, also roman ruins abound, they knew about salt aswell

So we are now in the underground part of someones house with small windows onto the forests.All facilities including hotplates and fridge however it is Sunday so the shops are shut so we cant cook anything!So its emergency supplies for dinner, thank goodness as this fruit is very heavy.The supermarket is very close and does open at 6am so we can get breakfast supplies. No breakfast here as the house owner goes off to work at 5am.She was so excited when she heard we were from Australia, that she then doubled her speed of talking German….help.

The other couple were cycling another 12 kms to one of the side trips you can do up to the town Glatt,  which has the Glatt small river that runs into the Neckar. A popular route here is a circular one combining the Alb, Glatt and Neckar rivers. Another year…