let the cycling begin (again)

 Donaueschingen 

It all starts at a spring, next to a royal castle in Donaueshigen. This spring is so important that it’s practically regarded as holy. A circular cement balustrade was the centre of attention in the beautifully landscaped park highlighting the beginning of the Danube. The balustrade circled the Danube spring so that people could walk down the stairs and see it up close I took a glass elevator down with the auld deer,  the water was glimmering in the sun there was lots of coins in the bottom next to green plants.there was also lots of little bubbles coming up to the surface; the Danube was trickling upwards, 

I had left Cameron`s house at just after eight AM I woke before my 07:30 alarm to an empty house Cameron and his housemates all go to work at six, my train from mannheim main HBF bahnhoff was at 9 I bought my ticket the day before, it came with a print out of my trains and platforms plus times of arrival and departure for twenty six euros for me and five euros for the bike i felt this was a bargain,
         I got to the tram stop at viernheim around 08:25, the previous night when getting back from town me and cammy nearly got rumbled without tickets by ticket inspectors, I bought a ticket this time i think the right one it was in German so i`ve no idea which zone? the tram came at half past this was going to be tight! the packed tram i had stood on holding my bike for twenty five minuets pulled into the main station at five to nine! I dashed to platform 10 and got there on time to realise my train was actually 09:30, Oh well,, this was an S bahn train that i would change from at karlsruhe which was packed again and stopped at every station, i got chatting to a scout who had his bike next to mine he was headed there to take part in demonstrations for the climate change crisis, I hadn't known it but this was the day of worldwide action and strikes and demos were going on all over the world this young scout wanted to be part of it, 

     

I had forty mins to get the loo and some food while in karlsruhe main station(one euro to use the loo!!) before boarding my RE train on platform 12 these RE trains are bigger trains and although busy with it being the double decker there was plenty space, the scenery out the train window gradually changed as the train headed up into the mountains of the black forest area, my ticket said i would arrive at my destination at 13:15 after three hours forty four of travelling and I did indeed, it was nice and sunny as i went to the start of the Danube up the hill in town, which is not only the start point of the Danube but home to the famous furstenberg lager 
    it was early for a beer though still so once I had taken some pictures I decided I would cycle the 35km to  Tuttlingen -  which is the home of more than 600 surgical equipment companies. Fifty percent of the world's surgical equipment is manufactured in Tuttlingen. chances are that if you have had an operation in your life the surgical instruments used on you would have been made there,