Uniquely in Germany, the city of Stuttgart is in a deep valley; one result of this is the Zahnradbahn or rack railway running 2,2 km or 1.3 miles from Marienplatz in the inner suburbs up to Degerloch, 204m or 670 feet higher.

As can be seen it also carries bicycles which came in useful last month when due to my usual lack of organisation I managed to arrive in Stuttgart with the touring bike, right at the start of the rush hour when bikes are otherwise banned from the tram network. Even better they’ve recently introduced new trams and much longer bike trailers, so I could be fairly sure of getting a space for the bike.

This used to be my regular commute from college, but at the time the older trams pushed a much smaller wagon and it was always full in the afternoon, so I’d leave my commuter bike locked to a lamp post at the top of the valley. From there it was a mere five minutes ride to the forest that surrounds the city and thence to my home village.

The bike was never disturbed; it was such a posh neighbourhood I was more worried about it being removed as a vanguard of a peasant uprising than being stolen…