Day one Lingenfeld

92 miles 2310 ft climbed

Perhaps it’s a little bit corny but we have been looked after royally by our twin town. Getting up in our hotel this morning we got o no our bikes and made our way to the town hall which is in the magnificent Heusenstamm castle.

Here we were met by the Burgermeister of Heusenstamm, Stefan Ball, and some of the friends of Tonbridge we had met the previous evening. We then enjoyed breakfast with them before exchanging a few presents and thanking our hosts for such a fantastic reception.

Stefan was keen to stress that Heusenstamm is the best town in Germany and the I 🧡 Heusenstamm pennants adorned our bikes all day. Thank you to them all for such a fantastic send off and start to our adventure.

Leaving our hosts behind we then headed out through the forests that surround the town enjoying a quiet start. This was a relief as much of the day we would be cycling along a busy and built up river valley so this quiet start was just what we sought.

On leaving the forests we then traversed several small and not so small attractive towns. Whilst on occasion busy, cycle paths and respectful drivers made the journey safe if a bit stop and starting with traffic lights and the swapping of lanes.

Our first stop was at Frankenstein castle, rumoured to be the inspiration for Mary Shelley’s monster. The only issue was this was at the top of our only real hill of the day. Over two miles and plenty of gradient.

As expected Dom has taken over from Nick to be the tours mountain goat and fairly sped up leaving Richard and me for dust. As arranged we then met Nigel and Monica for our coffee stop in the castle car park before having a quick wander round the castle. No monster was seen.

Leaving the castle we had a terrific downhill initially winding through beech trees before the road opened up and we were able to speed on before heading back to the river valley and the built up surroundings.

The weather was mostly kind and we only had a couple of spots of rain until just short of our lunch stop when a brief but heavy downpour meant rain jackets were deployed for five or six miles.

As is common in Germany the dedicated cycle paths cut between towns straight through fields and we enjoyed the smells of strawberries and celery, seeing carrots and much to the annoyance of Richard, lettuce in amongst usual cereal crops and quite a few vines.

Our route then took us into the pretty university town of Heidelburg Whilst it was lovely it was also full of tourists which meant some very slow and careful cycling.

We did managed to get our trip passports stamped at the tourist office in Heidelburg which was a plus though.

Leaving the town we then headed out on some busy roads before once again entering a big forest. Here we had arranged to meet Nigel and to humour me all agreed we would venture into the forest to see the original Jim Clark memorial which is now deep in a reforested area as the Hockenheim circuit has been dug up and drastically shortened.

This involved a bit of bike packing and walking through thick undergrowth. Nigel came with us having previously checked it out. This is compulsory cycling entertainment on an NBJ Tour.

Emerging from the depths of the reclaimed forest we suddenly found ourselves on the only bit of the original long Hockenheim Grand Prix track

An almost completed virtual lap of Hockenheim was completed with a stop at the new Jim Clark memorial stone placed close to the new circuit rather than in the middle of the forest near where he had his accident in 1968.

Leaving the circuit behind and heading through more forest we then had a link section to get the the bridge over the Rhine to Speyer and its impressive cathedral which is an official Santiago de Compostela waypoint.

Unfortunately as we didn’t get there until 5.30 everything was closed so we were unable to go in anything and the same applied to the massive transport museum on the outskirts of town which had many planes including a Jumbo jet, trains and all types of other transport too.

Leaving Speyer we only had 5 miles to go to our first campsite of the tour and Richard led us at speed along cycle paths skirting the Rhine. Our site is small and although its facilities are good they are about a five minute walk away as it appears it has contracted somewhat in the past couple of years.

Nigel managed to enjoy a quick swim in the lake but we cyclists were happy with a shower, a beer and the first appearance of Monica’s famous apple and beetroot salad.

After a successful and as ever long first day in the saddle everyone was too tired for cards, but even so it was 10 pm before anyone got into their sleeping bags

A fantastic start.

Oh, Nick. I almost forgot to mention this evening we heard the NBJ Tours cuckoo calling for the first time. It was missing you!