Day 35 - Sat 4 Jul: Heidelberg to Mannheim
Estimated km: 23; Actual km: 30; Total km: 1406; Ride time: 2h09m; Av speed: 13.9 kph 30km, 23-37deg, find and hot. Brekkie in our room again this morning and then we headed off about 8am to beat the worst of the heat. It was easy finding our way to the Neckar River bike path where we spent most of a fairly short day. It was a gradual downhill (the Neckar River flows down into the Rhein River at Mannheim) with a tailwind all day. On spec, we changed over to the other bank and rode away from the river a few 100m to a place called Ladenburg, a gem of a medieval village with many fine examples of 12-15th century architecture and remnants of the town wall. The people there had been very clever and built a lot of houses in/on the town wall using the same coloured stone and brick; giving the effect that the houses were always there. This village is seriously old; it dates back to 3,000BC. The Romans took over in the first century and made i...