Pete, great writting and photos, I am sat here working the night shift and this has put a huge smile on my face, A German with a sense of humour ! LOL seriously you are a breathe of fresh air from all the big bike gung ho attitude bigger is not always better and you are proving that with your fine adventures.

I can't wait for your next mini adventure,

very inspiring and makes me just want to get out and explore and every ride should contain a good beer and a good feed :):scooter:

Dave and stuxtttr,

thank you for your kind comments. I am a bit late on my latest trip report but am looking forward to give some more impressions of my country. And yes, it will contain some food shots ... no beers anymore, though (having been diagnosed a diabetic as of lately).

Bonding with Suzy
 

Bonding with Suzy

Imagine you´d be barreling down the Autobahn on your way to Eastern Europe. Mannheim might be one of the big hubs you would have to pass. A look on your GPS would reveal how close Mannheim and Heidelberg are located to each other. Now Heidelberg seems to be a well known tourist destination. Maybe you would have enough of hours spent bahnstorming. Maybe you would think having a coffee on the market square of Heidelberg would be a good idea. And maybe, after a shortish visit you would remember having read this trip report and decide to stay off the Autobahn for some hours to see and enjoy a bit of Germany.

Now this is not about Heidelberg. Living not too far away I was hoping to find the opportunity to circumnavigate the Black Forest with my GS500E as a comparison to my scooter ride as of earlier this year. However, the weather forecast showed plenty of rain in the Freiburg and Black Forest region. So I decided to ride the scenic Neckar valley between Heidelberg and Bad Wimpfen, close to Heilbronn, instead.

I rode up to Heidelberg and took the B37 towards Neckarzimmern / Eberbach. On my way out I took a crappy shot of the well known old bridge of Heidelberg just to show I had been there. See? Tell my Mom I passed through Heidelberg!!!!
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...pseccec9df.jpg
The more I rode upstream, the nicer the valley would look.
Arriving at the beautiful old town of Hirschhorn it was raining quite hard. On my scooter it would have been a much more pleasant ride. I did not feel like walking the pedestrian zone in the rain. So I stayed outside the old town.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps96da0f9b.jpg
So I skipped a nice cafe there and turned left, following the signs for „Schloß“ (castle).
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps4840bf80.jpg
These days, it is home to an upscale hotel and restaurant.
http://www.schlosshotel-hirschhorn.de/english/default.html
Visitors are free to visit the castle from the parking in front of the castle or by climbing the steep stairways from the old town. Eating is well worth it at the restaurant. Enjoying a cup of coffee and a piece of cake on the terrace while looking over the river and town is very nice, too.

BTW, the last battle at Hirschhorn has been fought in the revolution of 1849, when Badenian revolutionaries made their stand here. Being underequipped and undersupplied, they melted the lead of the windows to make bullets during the battle. Needless to say, they did not win.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps48342087.jpg
In the steamboat times the current of the Neckar river was much stronger. So the steamers had to haul themselves along an iron chain upstream, all the way from Mannheim to Heilbronn. These days plenty of locks provide shipping way behind the city of Stuttgart.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psf975c5d9.jpg
Finally the sun came out and I could snap a nice pic of Hirschhorn from the new part of town. Then it was time to hit the road again. We sailed over smooth tarmac and nice wide bends upstream to Ebersbach.

In Ebersbach I turned left to the village of Waldbrunn or more precisely to one of my favorite hotels and restaurants, the „Turmschenke“ just below the old volcano of the Katzenbuckel mountain.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps225cf4c2.jpg
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps85614927.jpg
http://www.turmschenke.de/

Highly recommended, this is a great place to explore the Odenwald region and more. Great affordable food, you gotta give it a try. They are part of the restaurant label „Schmeck den Süden“ („Taste the South“) marketing locally produced food.
http://www.schmeck-den-sueden.de/kategorie/essen-gehen/
If you are there, make sure to walk the trail from the restaurant over the tower on the mountain top to the old quarry on the eastern side, it is well worth the visit.

Now ze food shots:

Amuse geule: lard with rye bread, salt and pepper, on the house
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psa0528542.jpg
Asparagus creme soup …. Mmmmmmhhhhhh
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psde9b4bbe.jpg
Salad …… Yesssss
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...pse5478b58.jpg

The main course: :funmeteryes:
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps3da187db.jpg
Entrails of game (heart, liver,kidney, lung) with a bit of dumpling and Spaetzle noodles. I know, this is not for everyone. The gamey taste and the taste of entrails was a bit strong but we happen to like things like that in the German South … tripe, kidney. I love it, my wife would not touch it with a long stick. Another Mmmmmhhhhh from me! (Maybe some Booos from you girls and guys … )

With a full belly I rode back the twisties to Ebersbach and continued upstream. Zwingenberg castle, the stupid things are everywhere.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psf088096f.jpg

Look whom I met at the lock!
Meet Mister Martin „Flat“ Marten.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps3f4e7369.jpg
He did not make it to the emergency telephone … too bad!
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps3d9a77d0.jpg
So he pulled a teensy, tiny smallgame handgrenade and blew himself up …
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psbedefe34.jpg
The lock where he did the dirty deed ….
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psb66e413b.jpg
In Mosbach I should have taken the B27 to continue along the Neckar but I thought I was really smart. I ended up somewhere in the sticks. Dang it, one of these days I have to buy a real map. But then riding on those country roads was a real joy!

Finally I passed Bad Wimpfen, another scenic place and nice to visit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Wimpfen
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps1ef918c9.jpg

No time today to visit it but then we have so much old stuff in this country to see. Someone needs to tear down a couple of castles!

I dropped by at a clinic in Bad Rappenau to visit my BIL, who was at that time a patient there. He dutifully invited me for some coffee and we went for a walk in the park. Here he is still smiling after he payed for my refreshments.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...ps5142d274.jpg
This is where they pump saline solution out of the ground since about 150 years.
http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/n...psca53350c.jpg
Only chicks with crutches to see, time to move on! Some more nice riding and I was home.

I had more than 250 kilometers of fun this day. Suzy and I bonded quite a bit. Overtaking slower vehicles sure was a fun thing to do. I still had the occasional car tailgating me. Maybe that´s the drawbacks of living in a country with plenty of capable and highpowered cars. Maybe some cagers are a**holes, too.

The stock seat of Suzy is pretty good and the wide bars really make riding so much more enjoyable.

In terms of usefulness she probably has 15% advantage over my 125ccm scooter, mainly in the speed and acceleration department. The scoot still wins in the departments of protection against the elements, underseat storage, comfort, mileage and being nippy to ride.

Riding a youngtimer of 19 years I feel like the poor relative of the biker community. But Suzy and I will keep our heads high, no matter what!

PS:
also worth visiting and right at the Autobahn between Heidelberg and Heilbronn: Technikmuseum Sinsheim
http://www.technik-museum.de/en
Just make sure to have enough time! You are not going to go through it within an hour or so.