Today, the seventh biking day, was once again near-ideal for cycling: great roads, wonderful small towns and countryside, a slight tailwind, and cool temperature. Partway through the ride we had a long, very steep uphill climb, and when we got to the top we found ourselves in the middle of a town with a parade going on. Numerous colorful floats went by, with people in various traditional dress. We found out that it was a parade in celebration of shepherding, as we were in the middle of sheep country.
After the parade ended, we continued on to our destination city of Stuttgart. The city has a population of just under 600,000, with 5.3 million in the metropolitan area (both numbers similar to Boston). It is sometimes referred to as the "cradle of the automobile", since the claim is made that the first automobile powered by an internal combustion engine was invented here by Karl Benz around 1880. Mercedes Benz and Porsche are both headquartered in Stuttgart, and it has the highest prosperity level of any city in Germany.
Photos from our ride today:
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| Leaving Karlsruhe |
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| He'll get there more quickly, we'll be in better shape |
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| With such a fine, quiet road, who needs the bike path |
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| Postcard-pretty town |
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| From the Shepherd Parade |
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| More from the parade |
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