Wiesloch has a plaque, a pharmacy and a very good claim to be the birthplace of the filling station. In August 1888, Bertha Benz, halfway through her pioneering drive from Mannheim to Pforzheim, ran out of fuel and stopped at the town's pharmacy, where she bought ligroin, a petroleum solvent usually sold in small bottles for cleaning. The pharmacist, so the story goes, had no idea what she was planning, and by the time she left the shelves were bare. That makes the Stadt-Apotheke in Wiesloch the world's first petrol station, and the town has not forgotten it.
The rest of Wiesloch lives quietly in the shadow of that story. It is a pleasant town of about twenty-five thousand people at the edge of the Kraichgau, a rolling area of loess hills and orchards between the Rhine plain and the Odenwald. The old town has half-timbered houses, a market square and some good coffee shops. It was once an important mining town, with silver and lead extracted from the nearby hills since the Middle Ages, and the museum covers the local history. Today the vineyards and cherry orchards on the surrounding slopes are the real business.
For riders, Wiesloch is a fine point to leave the flat Rhine plain and start climbing. The road rises through vineyards toward Rauenberg and Dielheim, with long views over the plain, and the bends are gentle and rhythmic. The Kraichgau is not a mountain landscape, but the hills have shape, the traffic is moderate, and the surface is generally good. Be careful in harvest season, when tractors and trailers can cover the road with mud. In winter, mist often lies over the plain below, and the hills stand above it in bright sun.
There is fuel in Wiesloch, as you might hope, and plenty of supermarkets and cafés. Two thousand years of cultivation have left the region full of small wine estates, and you can try a local Riesling or a Spätburgunder. Spring and early summer bring asparagus to the menu, and in autumn there is Zwiebelkuchen, a warm onion tart, served with new wine.
Pause in front of the pharmacy, whose sign recalls the 1888 stop, and raise a glass of whatever you are drinking to a woman who solved the world's first range problem with a hatpin.