I just about managed to keep up my goal of cycling to work (around 24 km each way) at least once a month, after finding a nice route back along the bicycle “Autobahn” through the ex Spinelli barracks in Mannheim, adding a few more photos to my commute collection on the way.

It’s not all idyllic, but I can ride pretty much the whole way on cycle paths with this route, though on the final stretch, I made a detour away from a cycle route running along a loud main road. It’s great to have the option of doing this, along with the tram, or the folding bike and train… though they all take significantly longer than the car, or - naturally - working from home…

Alas, there are idiots out there who have “fun” dangerously manipulating parked bikes at school. My daughter had already had her front quick release axle loosened last year (we replaced it with a fixed one), and just on Friday the brake cables had been slipped out of their housings:

The way some peoples' brains work, how they are hooked up to pursue “tee-hee-giggle” nastiness is quite sad. Maybe they get a thrill, maybe they feel some kind of peer pressure towards and acceptance from the deed, but they really don’t think things through for the risks they are generating for other individuals and - by extension, in the worst case - their families.

There’s something of that in the Trump movement - some just don’t care any more and get that “tee-hee” thrill when it goes worse for others.

Societal norms are important, as are support structures for all, including those - hopefully just temporarily - teenagers seeking dumb-ass thrills.

A night ride back home from Ladenburg over over the weir in Heidelberg, after meeting up with colleagues from where I worked previously

Somehow, I managed a 50 km cycle today, over two stints: to work, and back. I definitely struggle on the ride back, after a normal day at work, and (whilst probably only marginally) back upstream along the Neckar.

Still, Ladenburg is always a welcome sight: my photo was rubbish in the end, though, since I moved the phone whilst it was still taking the night-time shot. Kind of arty, but pointlessly so. The cloud layer over the illuminated water tower could almost (well, not at all) have been an aurora.

Thermal management in the autumn is tricky, but rewarding when out on the old Panasonic again

Last week I was at an offsite business workshop, where the key players gathered to hammer out the setup and highlight the hurdles for the next phase of our major PLM project. This offsite was in Ladenburg, that charming historical Roman town between Mannheim and Heidelberg on the Neckar river…

… though of course, our hotel’s location was in the industrial outskirts of the town, where the charm was of distinctly another flavour. I didn’t stay at the hotel, choosing instead to cycle there and back, a lovely ride along the Neckar (going past the spot I’d been recently on my Panasonic road bike).

The hotel even had a section dedicated to bikes in the garage, which was greatly appreciated.

One lunchtime walk to escape the noise of such a large group took me to the fields outside Ladenburg, with a view to an old-looking chemical factory. See, it does have its charm:

Great to get out on the old Panasonic road bike again, along the Neckar by Ladenburg. Definitely need to replace the old tape and hoods, though: they’re getting exceedingly manky…

I drove to work at my new job for the first time on Monday and it was indeed around 15 minutes quicker than my usual bike-train-bike commute - but it was miserable. Stop-start, drivers with different priorities and etiquettes, the concentration required, the noise. And then, the classic traffic jam on the way back which negated the time advantage, whilst maintaining all the downsides of the morning’s commute in.

Nope, I genuinely prefer the train, and the little bike sections make all the difference to how I start the working day.