Long Way Round to Heppenheim – up a few hills in the Odenwald, through the famous Fuerstenlager Stadtpark, a cold beer at the Kirchberghauschen and on to Heppenheim (and its Scotch Whisky emporium)
Greetings viewers. Today I’m traveling to a place called Heppenheim which is about 15 km 16 km on the flat south from where I live. Doesn’t sound very interesting. Heenheim is that flat 15 km isn’t. So we’re going the scenic route up into the hills in the Odinvald and uh down and up and down and up and eventually Heenheim. I think you’ll like Heenheim. It’s got a beautiful alcheat. It’s also famous for being the birthplace and childhood residence of uh Sebastian Fettle, former uh Formula 1 world champ. And it’s got the best whiskey store for miles and miles and miles around. We’ll be going there, obviously. We’ll take in some nice scenery along the way. I’ll tell you about Heenheim when we get there. And uh we’ll most probably go through the vineyards at some point and have at least one glass of the wine produced in these vineyards. Quite decent wine actually. So what I’ve done is I’ve climbed around the back of this hill here from the Bergstrass at the edge of the Ryan Valley way down there. You can maybe make it out in the in the mist uh way in the distance there. And then we’re going to continue climbing for a bit and then go all the way back down in a few kilometers and visit the Fen Lagger Park. And having reached the highest point on my route, such as it is, I’m not going to go deeper into the Odin Vald over there. Tempting though it is on such a nice day. I’m going to go down this road here and then hang a right at the end of it and head back down into the Berg Strasa. Really important to keep topping up with water and electrolytes on a day like this. 30° in the sunshine. [Applause] [Applause] This is the Fen Laggerstad Park. [Music] and somebody struggling up without power assist on a regular road bike. It’s a bit of a claim. Now, normally I’d stop here for a beer or a glass of wine at the kiosk over there, but not today because if I want to get to uh Heenheim. That would be a bad idea. So I’m making my way up the long gravel ascent at the back of the for lagger and that will take me up to another plateau and then I’ll descend down into a valley and up the other side and that’ll take me to a little place where I can get a beer. might actually have one this time uh on the way to Benheime and then I’ll go down into Benheim and through the vineyards to uh he so in the Fen Lagger park we’ve come up that uh gravel climb there from the F and Lagger buildings we’re going to go down this road dip down into the valley over there past these buildings. You can see the white buildings and then climb back up to the next hills. You can see and just on the horizon there you can possibly see the turret of uh Schlloth above Heenheim which is where we’ll end up. So down this bit up down into Benim round into Heenheim. Cracking day. now. These vineyards behind me here produce some quite decent wine, but you won’t be able to get hold of it. The Germans are no mugs. They keep all the decent stuff here for local consumption. Looking south down the Bergstrasa towards Heenheim around the corner from the hills you can see there is H Highleberg Benheim in the foreground here in the misty mark on the horizon there is Mannheim down by the river Ryan and in the distance you might be able to make out the hills on the other side of the Ryan Valley the west side. So, I’ve traveled from uh back this direction, which is to the northeast and we’ll be descending in a minute and heading towards the edge of that line of hills there. That’s Heenheim in the distance. [Music] This little place is called the Kersburg Hoyen. Good place to enjoy a beer on a Sunday afternoon. [Music] And there’s where we’ve just come down from down into Ben. There’s a bit of a festival going on in here, [Music] but we’ll pass that. I’ve decided to uh walk through the center of Ben Alstad. Could have cycled around the outskirts, but uh this is prettier, or at least it would be if they weren’t putting away this morning’s market into these vans. You’re not allowed to uh cycle through here. So, you have to get off the bike and push. There’s a little river that flows through the center of the Alch and in the pedestrian area. Plenty of places to uh eat, drink, and generally hang out. [Music] [Music] So, I’m doing the last part coming from Ben Sign, which is back that way about 4 km along this gravel path to the west of the vineyards. Maybe going to the vineyards later. Bit of climbing if there’s any battery left and on this way into Heenheim. So yeah, some really good cycle pass around here as I’ve said before and uh I just stick on this one for another couple of kilometers and uh I’m in Heburn. Uh later on, as I say, I think we’ll perhaps go up and visit these vineyards over there. Uh just at the edge of Heenheim, very edge of town. And here’s a place that doesn’t look like much. However, I can tell you it has the biggest and best selection of scotch whiskey for tens, possibly hundreds of kilometers around that hill. You can see just behind it there, that’s the Starkenburgg. Hell of a climb up there. All cobbles. Might do that later. Not today though. And I might come back through here on the way home just to have a look. You understand? I’m not going to buy anything really. [Music] [Music] [Music] What was that? [Music] [Music] I’m happy. [Music] [Music] [Music] There’s the view up to the Starkenburgg at the top of the hill from Heenheim Market Plats in the Alstat. As you can see, that’s quite a steep climb and I know from past experience, it’s cobbles all the way up. Not even going to think about doing that today. [Music] What do you think? Shall I go in just for a look? As I say, I mean, look at the place. What a selection of scotch. Highland, land specialist, you name it, they’ve got it. Um, I’m particularly fond of the Highland Park, my family, coming from the Orton Islands and the Shhatland Islands way back when, and this one here, Highland Park, Germany, that’s a particularly good one. But then for that kind of money, it should be. I’m also very fond of this one, the Abereli. And a top tip, the 12y old is as good as the 16y old tastewise and about 2/3 of the price. It’s just an outstanding selection. You won’t find anything like this for miles around. Right. I know I said I wasn’t going to buy anything, but what’s the point in having an expandable saddle bag if you can’t make good use of it for this kind of thing? Yeah, for sure. Handy things, these expandable saddle bags. Eh, right. So, somewhat to my surprise, given all the climbing I did on the way to Heenheim, I’ve been to Heenheim, I’m heading back and I’m going to take a detour up through the vineyards here as I’ve still got, as I say, a bit of battery left. I’ll go over the top of that hill around the back down into Benim and then the flat route home because I think I’ll be a bit out of puff by then. The only real issue with this is the first bit is uh a bit steep. There’s a ramp coming up here. Quite a short ramp, but then it’s a 15% ramp, but we’ll get up and over that and then things get a bit easier. So, ramp first. And these kind of ramps, as has widely been reported on other channels, are the kind of ramps where the hub motor kind of gets bogged down and runs out of oomph, but that was okay. So from there up through this rather lovely vineyard which produces very decent wine and around the back of this hill and down into Benim and straight on unless I’m sadly mistaken is the road that should take me into Benheim. [Music] Yeah, back up over the hill. There’s the rain valley away in the haze in the distance. Right, I’ve come up over the vineyards round the back of the hill. And if I went down this little path here, I’d end up almost back where I started near Heenheim. And you can see the rain valley down the in the distance there in the Hees. But we’re not going to go that way. We’re going to go this way exiting the vineyards and down the descent into Benheim. When we get down to the bottom of this descent in about 3 km time, I’m going to turn left, which will take me into Benine. If I turn right, it would take me up into the Odinvald. But I think I’ve done enough claiming for today. Yeah. And nearly at the end of the uh easy route home at Swingenberg, 3 km away from where I live. Nice view of the vineyards up the bank there. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed our trip to Heenheim, a town of history, both ancient Roman times, medieval times, and modern. Hometown of Sebastian Fettle of Formula 1 fame. So, thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed it. Maybe see you next time. Fernando Alonzo and Sebastian Vettle are in the jungle. It’s getting dark. So they decide to make camp and put up their tent. In no time at all, they’re both in the tent and fast asleep. And then in the middle of the night, Fernando wakes up. There’s no sign of Sebastian. And he can hear a kind of a commotion going on outside. So he peaks outside the tent and Sebastian’s running round and round the tent being pursued by a great big lion. He shouts to Seb, “Seb, you’d better speed up, mate. That lion’s catching up with you. Sebastian Vettle replies, “Don’t worry, Fernando. I’m already three laps ahead of him. 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