Daisy pauses in Schwäbisch Hall, 4224 km behind us, a mere 1000 to go

We’ve been taking a one-day break in Wackershofen, deepest SW Germany, with Annette and Robert, the former once leading soprano in the East Berlin Cathedral Choir where we sang 1977-81.

That’s them on the left/above, with formidable breakfast lined up in the kitchen (originally a stable) of their beautiful 400-year-old half-timbered home just outside Schwäbisch Hall.

Posting this quickly before heading onwards to Heidelberg, we’ve had time to calculate our exact mileage so far, and it’s 4224 kilometers in 10 weeks, or 2640 old-style miles, with roughly 1000 km still ahead in the 18 days we have left. A mere bagatelle…

(Purple line in the top photo is where we’ve cycled in S Germany, the red bits being short train trips.)

This last week we’ve pedalled along and up (well, down really, with the flow of the river) along the Rhine first to Basel and then, with a brief swing out West into hugely-different France, north through Baden-Baden (heaving with Russians) to Heilbronn where for decades my dear late Mum would visit friends every Easter.

As with so many German cities we’ve been to these past two months, pedalling through reminds us brutally how much of Germany’s urban landscape had to be rebuilt after being flattened by UK and US bombing in WW2.

In today’s understanding, and however understandable at the time (like racism, sexual violence and so much else in human behaviour), the Allies’ carpet bombing of cities like Heilbronn was a war crime for which in my own clear view Britain one day needs to apologise.

At least the Heilbronners bring a sense of humour to their rebuild – a rather enjoyable brass sculpture to the left/above (take a close look), reflecting also just how much art Germany now routinely builds into its public spaces.

It would be good to write at much greater length about our conclusions from this trip, but struggling with writing as I do (not the writing itself, but the carving out of time and focus to do it), just a few sweeping thoughts:

• How well organised Germany is, in building and above all maintaining systems and infrastructure that will last +- including, yes, cycle lanes.
• How much of Germany’s economy is built around family-owned businesses, whether in engineering or the bakery on the corner, that care for and are embedded in their local communities. Long-term investment in the future that’s in glaring contrast to the quick-fix short-termism of the UK way.
• At the same time, there’s a streak of individualism and rebellion in the collective German psyche, of refusing to do what parental authority might recommend, that expresses itself in very much higher levels of public smoking than in the UK or US – and in tattoos, everywhere.

• And that’s against a background on the other hand of almost obsessive conformism. As a pedestrian, or cyclist, NEVER cross the road against a red light; no noise, lawn mowing or bin emptying of an evening or a Sunday; almost no litter.
• Our German friends and relations, and so many folk with whom we strike up conversations (often about the bike, the likes of which no-one has of coure seen), there’s a weary, sad bewilderment about Britain’s vote for Brexit and its departure from the common post-WW2 project. We’re asked again and again if and when Britain might rejoin the EU, and we have to say it’s unlikely in our lifetimes. Thankfully though, there’s no German bitterness or anger about Brexit, and being English (at least one of us) elicits a universally warm reaction.

• Musing about life as we pedal, I have much to say too about climate change and sustainability. Germany plans for the future, and given the realities of our present global systems, manages its resources well. But following the science as closely as I do, and noting the crazy levels of heating turbocharged by a new El Nino that are now showing up in our oceans and on land, I’m clear that there is no longer-term future (as in, collapsing in decades not centuries) for our present civilisation.
• Colleagues have heard me say this for many years now, but the evidence is overwhelming, and (the drought we’re witnessing across Germany as we travel is but one illustration) it’s much, much worse than either politicians or media yet dare admit.
• As well as being unachievable – our entire existence as eight billion humans, every single thing we make or so, is built on fossil fuels – net zero won’t make any difference. With more than a trillion tonnes of CO2 already pumped into the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution, there’s already 10 degrees (TEN DEGREES!) of global heating built into the system, and it’s not only human life that cannot survive that rise. We need to start both naming this reality and preparing to meet it.

Ah well. Cycle now while stocks last. I’ve written that now, so don’t need, at least on this trip, to say it again.

I’ll conclude today’s post with the usual photos. After the rant/lecture above (I’ll be interested in comments…) hoping these balance the message at least a little. I’ll add captions later.