Up at 0630 and after a quick breakfast at Premiere Classe I cycled through Strasbourg to Kehl station. It was quite chilly at this time in the morning. I got to the DB station about 9, and an excellent chap sold me tickets with seat and bike reservations from Frankfurt to Venlo via Wuppertal, and also an international bike ticket for Germany & Netherlands. Moreover the price was cheaper than quoted by the booking office in Strasbourg. (Because that was SNCF and the operator was DB). I felt very relieved, as I had spent a few worried hours over the last days trying to work out how to get me and my bike to the Hague. At one point it was looking impossible and I was considering hiring a car!

So feeling much relieved I set off in search of a celebratory beer, but found none for ages! My route was along the German (East) side of the Rhine, through Auenheim, Leutesheim, Diersheim, Rheinbischofsheim, and the lovely town of Rastatt to Karlsruhe. Between the towns, there were very good segregated cycle tracks, but within the towns cycles had to mix with general traffic, but there was usually a fair bit of traffic calming and speeds were low. The only problem was that there was a fairly stiff headwind all day. I got to Karlsruhe about 1500, much later than expected. Karlsruhe is a big university town, so I was a bit disappointed to find that it was rather plain. The last few miles had not been much fun (industrial areas, and although segregated from the main trunk road, the noise of it was unpleasant) so I decided to call it a day and after a very late lunch in the station I caught a local train (which had lots of bikes) to Heidelberg.

The 'hotel' Blume was a short walk from the station. It was unstaffed, and entry was by a password that had been emailed to me yesterday. I put the bike in the sparsely decorated room, and walked to the river, then had a Chinese meal (duck) then half a litre of beer in the station where I used the WiFi, as there was none in the 'hotel'. Heidelberg is a fine town and quite a tourist hotspot, so I decided to spend tomorrow as a tourist and take the train to Frankfurt in the evening.