Day 28 - Sat 27 Jun: Regensburg to Stuttgart

Estimated km: 0; Actual km: 5; Total km: 1182 

12-21deg, cloudy with a little drizzle on the way to the train station. Rain while on the train. Cloudy but fine in Stuttgart. 

Today we jumped on the train to Stuttgart so that we could avoid going over the same ground and to get across to the Rhein River (west) for more great cycling.  For A$17.50 each, including the A$7.35 for the bike, we got to travel 300km by train. 

We left the hotel about 8am after brekkie for a 15 minute ride to the Main Station.  We had plenty of time before our 9:32am departure; which was exactly on time as usual.   We had planned to go on the 9:19am train but a very helpful ticket lady gave us a better option.  We filled the bike section of the train with our 8 bikes and then more people got on with bikes so it was really chockers.  The train arrived at Nuremberg on time at 11:15am with just over an hour to get to the correct platform for the next train. This train which departed on time at 12:36pm, had more bike compartments so we were not so squishy.  Each couple had four seats so we were able to stretch out a bit.  A nice change to be whizzing along at 150 odd km/h watching the countryside slip by.  You realise that there's not very much wild country in Germany; it's either farms, houses, factories or managed forest; every square km is put to good use.  Just by looking at the beautiful crops you can see that the yields in Germany are obviously more per hectare than Australia; e.g. they get over three times as much wheat per hectare than we do.  It's all about the rich soil and great rainfall of course.  

What we did see a lot of were Solar Farms, particularly near the rail line.  They are up to 1 km long x about 200m wide. The Germans have a zero-emissions target by 2050 and going by the number of wind/solar/biomass (gas from cow poo) installations we've seen, they should romp it in. 

 We arrived in Stuttgart on time at 3:18pm and after negotiating the building sites at and near the train station, and roadworks or road closures everywhere, we made it to the hotel, the Mercure City Centre.  It was then a bit of a marathon to get four couples checked in, (lucky we weren’t a busload) but we made it eventually, and the bikes were secured in the very clean underground carpark. 

We dined downtown at a steak/burger place (Gunther and Yvonne’s choice). Nice food and wine.  A wander through the wide, busy mall, (even at 8:30pm) and via The Palace Square completed another good day.



#317 Mercure Hotel Stuttgart City Centre



Schlossplatz with Neues Schloss in the background

In the Mall at Stuttgart 

Waiting for the train at Regensburg

Bikes packed in like sardines on the train

The Mall Stuttgart 

Stuttgart 



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