Day 36 - Sun 5 Jul: Mannheim
Estimated km: 0; Actual km: 20; Total km: 1426
20km, 25-38deg, fine and hotter.
Our first task for the
day was to change hotels as it was just too hot sleeping without aircon, the
thing wasn't even blowing air, hot or cold, and there was no breeze coming
through the window. Wendy ended up wetting
her singlet and a towel and trying to sleep under that; she managed a few hours
but they were not very restful hours. We
have an 80+km ride on Monday in heat forecast to be 37deg so we want to be
refreshed before we start. The hotel we
were in gave us a refund of the cost of the second night without question as
they knew they were conning people by not saying anything about the busted
aircon before they checked in. The new
hotel (Kleiner Rosengarten) was absolutely luxurious and the staff
amazing. We dropped off our bags at the
new place and set off on the bikes to explore.
The hot conditions are much more bearable on the bike and we covered a
lot more territory.
First off we checked
out the Water-tower. It was built in the
Baroque style in the 1800s for drinking water but is now a major attraction
with its beautiful surrounding gardens and fountains. Next we rode along an avenue created as a
memorial to Dr Carl Benz, the car man. A
bronze life-size replica of his first car was there.
We then rode around the
massive Leisure Park with its gardens, sports facilities, lakes, tea gardens
and swimming pools; a very popular spot on a hot day. This brought us onto the Neckar River, past
the giant communications tower and eventually onto the banks of the Rhein. Despite the fact that it was Sunday there was
a steady procession of barges going upstream each carrying about 4,000 ton of
cargo. They were pushing a lot of water
at the bow. A wander through Germany's second largest Baroque Palace got us out
of the heat for a while. Built in the
1700s for the then rulers of this independent state, which later became part of
Germany, it must have been an amazing place to see back then. Like most German
buildings it suffered extensive damage during WWII. It is now mostly a University
but it has an impressive section of the old palace with furniture and treasures
preserved for us tourists to get a little taste of what it was like.
By the time we were
done in the Palace, it was over 35deg in the shade (41deg in the sun) so we
retreated to the hotel for some lunch and a bit of Tour de France on TV. We had
an in-house dinner, Italian style like most of the restaurants in the area, and
it was nice. A short wander and ice-cream
for some of us, finished another great day.
Second last day of
cycling tomorrow, which is really sad.
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