After a good nights sleep we wanted to be away to beat the heat but it was actually drizzling as we left and rain in the night seemed to have cleared the air.Easy navigation meant we were making good progress as the sky darkened our hope was to out cycle the storm. As we passed the mediavel town of Lauffen lightning forked above the turrets our cameras missed it alas.

We were half way up hill with no shelter in sight when the rain or rather deluge hit us. Somehow we got our wet weather gear on and peddled on. To make life harder a huge grass cutter was blocking the path and had left its wet cut grass all over the path.Now we had torrential rain and a hazardous track of wet grass going downhill at speed.Finally the rain stopped and we pulled over to remove rain coats we then discovered pretty little green  portacabins to shelter in. Why hadnt they appeared earlier?

A garden centre encouraged cyclists to pop in and use their cafe so we couldnt refuse.I like the way a lot of German cafes encourage cyclists to stop and tank up could be why there seem to be a lot of rotund cyclists around!

Again a lack of anything open for lunch so we had to turn off to Bad Wimpfen yes you’ve guessed it straight up a hill. Very upsetting when you resort to pushing your bike up the hill and a group of seniors sail past on their unladen electric bikes with no effort at all.Bad Wimpfen is known as one of Germanys prettiest towns, how many do they have! Suprise a great Thai restaurant right in the middle of the old town centre veggie catch up time.

Bad Wimpfen had the usual assortment of half timbered houses,town fountains  turrets, tiny streets, and one church tower totally trussed up in steel I think its falling down I didnt get chance to look at the other church as a funeral was about to start.It has had a tumultous history from Celts to Romans to being ransacked by Hungarians but it did survive world war 2 intact. In my heat deranged state forgot to mention that yesterday Marbach where we stopped for morning tea yesterday was the birthplace of Schiller whose famous works were books such as William Tell and Don Carlos.

Once we’d left the industrial area of Heilbron including the nuclear reactors it was back to scenic countryside with castles perched all over the place, some beautifully maintained others in ruins.

We’ve finished today in Hassmersheim which used to be one of the main shipping sites of the Neckar with over 150 ships registered here in the early 1900s.Rail however decreased the use of the Neckar for freight.Our hotel is overlooking the Neckar so we can watch the freight barges go by.

Tomorrow another hot and humid day so we’ll just do 55kms like today and then retreat out of the heat.Wildlife is being brought out by the heat brown little furry creatures with a short tail keep running across the path in front of my bike I think they are voles Apparently Germany often has plagues of voles and farmers arent allowed to use poisons so presents quite a problem.

We are seeing quite a few biological water treatment plants where bacteria and filters are used to clean the water and with vast acres of settling tanks. The germans are very proud of this with huge posters on the fences explaining all the processes.So advanced in some things and then you have doors which open down steps so you almost come a cropper which is illegal in Australia strange.

Just 2 more nights and then the Neckar river meets the Rhine our cycling is coming to an end.

Hotel zum Ritter   booking.com

Neckar strasse

Hasselheim