Vineyards in Stuttgart
Ich hätte mein Kamera mitbringen sollen. I should have brought my camera. Very tough grammar for me.
Today I went riding with a couple of guys from work and we hit what I was hoping to find this weekend. Stuttgart basically sits in a big bowl-shaped valley and almost all the hillsides are lined with vinyards. Winding up through them are paved roads that, though hypothetically for traffic, go relatively nowhere enough that no one drives on them. I spent the better part of the afternoon climbing up some of the worst hills I've ever seen on a road bike. For those of you in the know, it makes the Ceasar's Head climb seem short and a bit shallow. After a while of this, I got the old familiar semi-metallic taste at the back of my throat that signifies burst lung capillaries due to aerobic effort. Very cool. They grow back.
Stuttgart in particular is known (in Germany) for wine making and all the vineyards were labled with grape variety and layed out in straight rows right up the hill sides. We stopped at the top for the view, which is the entire city spread out below and the surrounding hills (or small mountains).
Afterward we went to my team leaders's garden house. Also new for me. Because land and private outdoor space is so scarce here, people buy small plots of land and put what we would basically call a nice storage building on it. No plumbing, some have electricity or solar power, but the point is to go and have a place to garden. Your basic yard away from home. We stayed there, had a beer, and talked a while, and then had to head out because it was getting dark (around 8:30 these days).
Of course, we left too late and Klaus had a flat which took some creative repair. His spare tube was also flat and he needed an extra long valve stem for his wheels. Some patching and a drunk passerby later we were back rolling. There was a dedicated bike path for us along the Neckar river, though not lit at all, so we rode single file in the dark between traffic and trees on one side and the river on the other. Total ride time as a group was probably no more than 20 minutes but it seemed longer and out of the ordinary, much like things you remember doing in college but think life no longer has room for. Tonight was just such a night.
The last 5k or so was back through the parks and was actually lit in places. You think a little about the dark and the big city and being alone but I saw several young female joggers and figured that was a good indicator. Besides, I weigh over 200 pounds and criminals don't have guns here. Made it home around 9:30 ready to get Friday done with so I can try the vineyards again.