A couple of weekends ago a friend of mine decided to try out a 13 kilometer hike that she'd heard of around Murrhardt, and asked if we wanted to join. And so early one Saturday morning we packed a day pack with water and snacks, suited up Leo in his harness, and headed to the Hauptbahnhof to take the train to Murrhardt.

We arrived at our scheduled platform about 10 minutes early, when we saw that another train which had been delayed was still waiting to leave. Not a big deal. I was content sipping on my Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks as we waited for the other train to leave. So we waited. And waited. And waited. 

Finally, we asked one of the platform conductors what we should do, but she had no other advice than to continue waiting. Apparently there had been a strike that morning by one of the freight companies, and it was causing a three hour delay for many of the commuter trains. It was already an hour after our train's scheduled department, and no trains in that direction had left the platform since that time. (I should note that despite the popularity of public transportation, strikes and general tardiness of the trains is in my experience extremely rare in Germany.)

Determined to go on some kind of hike (and make use of the Baden-Württemburg ticket that we'd purchased for the four of us -- Leo included), we decided to hop on the next train leaving for Heidelberg instead. From Stuttgart, it only takes about 45-50 minutes on a regional train, so it's very close, and the city is easily walkable, making for a great day trip...