Castle hunting continues. This is what’s left of Obernau Castle, lurking around the back of a village of the same name. I actually rode past it even though I was looking for it.

Still, it’s another castle closer to the goal of ten visited in this year.

It’s not yet proper tourist season locally, but the warm weather is bringing an increase in cyclists in the valley.

As this is the way back from the local big town I often find myself passing touring bikes while carrying groceries, toilet rolls, and on this occasion, a mop.

Tübingen’s local government has several load carrying bikes for use in the old city centre, and we have a contract to maintain them which includes pickup and delivery. This used to involve driving a van to the council office, but it’s much faster for me to ride in, take my folding bike out of the box and ride back.

Also, there isn’t enough money in Tübingen to persuade me to drive a two-ton van down those streets.

Passing the Catholic Cathedral of St. Martin in Rottenburg am Neckar on the way to work…

…and on the way home.

At some point I’ll try and take better pictures, and also attempt to make sense of the rather complicated history that involved this town being part of Austria longer than it was part of Germany…

Riding down the hill between the “other” railway station and my village. This is why I’m fussy about keeping my brakes maintained.

Last week, DHL decided that when confronted with a delivery address that led them to large building with a big sign, an open door, and several people inside, they couldn’t possibly deliver the parcel to that address, and it needed to be deposited in a parcel centre. They then looked at a map of Tübingen, found the pickup point half a kilometre away from the shop, ignored it, and instead deposited the parcel on the other side of the city.

Thankfully we now have the company Bakfiets for this sort of thing. Here it is sampling the new bicycle bridge over the main railway station…

Riding from the “other” railway station to my village. This is the Gaü region, an area of limestone plateaus and big skies between the Black Forest and the Swabian Jura.

Of course, this cell-phone image can’t possibly do it justice, as it fails to show either the Black Forest to the right, or the lumpy Swabian Jura directly ahead, and on one of the more pointy lumps, Hohenzollern Castle, glowing in the sunset.

Between the castle and me, is the village where I live, 130m (426″) down in the Neckar valley. This is why I only ride this route in one direction.

On the way to the railway station this morning.

The day after the Sortof Audax, riding back to Tübingen to catch the train. Notice Beautiful Daughter is ahead of me.

Easter saw the first of hopefully many “sort of Audax” rides with Beautiful Daughter. Audax or Randonneur rides are generally fairly long distance rides (200km+) with a set route and moderate time pressure. On official races, some checkpoints include a question that can only be answered if you are physically following the route.

Our version was 50km/30 miles and with no time limit, but lots of questions to keep Beautiful Daughter interested.

The day started with Beautiful Daughter finding the route on the map…

And then we were off…

Answering one of the questions at the Jewish Cemetry in Mühlen: Beautiful Daughter had to find the gate and draw the symbol…

Turning point at Glatt Castle, which normally looks like this.

The ride was 50k, with the second half downhill and with a tailwind in case she got tired. Thankfully the Neckar valley cycleway barely touches a road…

Returning through Horb…

I don’t know why I worried about Beautiful Daughter getting tired out…

As we approached home, she thundered past shouting “Quick: there’s an Ebike coming and I don’t want it to overtake us…”

She wants to do it again, so I’ll be looking for a new route. I think I can make that one a bit more challenging…