24 kilometers

Slim phoned up this morning to suggest a bicycle ride along the Neckar river. I played hard to get, not least because I haven't ridden a bike in about sixteen years and am really unfit, but she talked me into it (I'm a pushover).

It was wonderful, I loved every minute. I hadn't seriously considered bike riding in Stuttgart because the city is enormously hilly (330 metre change in altitude, San Francisco's famous hills are only 285 metres); but the river runs through a floodplain that is almost dead flat. The change in altitude between Bad Cannstadt and Remseck (where we turned around) is only eight metres - for a 12 kilometer ride. The (eastern) riverbank is almost untouched by industry or for that matter housing, we rode under trees almost the whole way. There was a Kneipe or Gasthof or Café every half-kilometer (this is southern Germany) in case one should suddenly be in urgent need of refreshment.

I finished the ride with no blisters or sore spots, and only a reasonable amount of muscular tiredness - but the proof of the pudding will be whether I can stand upright tomorrow. I shall have to reconsider this bike thing.

And I think I've understood the situation with Slim, too. She likes to be in control: Her choice of event, her timetable, her invitation. She seems to dislike being committed to anything in advance: Every time that she's called me has been to suggest doing something right now. Does that make me Mister Faut-de-mieux? Probably.

Understanding that doesn't excuse her from not telling me that she'd changed her mind, I still think that was pretty shitty behaviour; but as you may have inferred I don't hold grudges. Is that generosity or weakness?