TdE - Day 18 Miltenberg - Bad Mergentheim

Route: Miltenberg - Main - Wertheim - Tauber - Bad Mergentheim 
Distance: 93 km
Elevation: 442 m
Duration: 5:04 h
Weather: cloudy, more sun in the afternoon, 19 C

Today I moved from the relatively big river Main, to the much, MUCH smaller Tauber. The day started in Miltenberg, with some old buildings and then I quickly hit the Main. 

When traveling with my father from Frankfurt to Bayreuth (where he worked many summers in the festival orchestra), he used to explain me during the trip all the different rock layers. It seems that around Miltenberg there is the layer of red sandstone to judge from these pictures. 

Midway through to Wertheim, there was this castle and it wasn’t the only one today:

The kilometers until Wertheim passed pleasantly but without other outstanding views. In Wertheim however I took a longer break. First to buy a new cycling shorts. With the current bicycle related shortage I was lucky to find a well fitting pair at a local cycling shop. I needed a new pair as one of the shorts I brought, has a loose seam in the chamois and I think it creates some unpleasant friction. Not what I need!

After that acquisition I went (literally pushing up - and later DOWN) to the castle above the city, where I enjoyed the view and lunch on a balcony above the city,

Wertheim was also my goodbye to the Main and up the Tauber I went. And while there wasn’t a lot of ship traffic on the Main (less than what I had expected at least), the Tauber is a small river. Probably the smallest I have been riding along on this entire ride. Definitely smaller than the Sauer. 

Being a smaller river the valley is also different. Sometimes much narrower and generally less flat. So I did have quite some ups and downs to master today. Which I did. If I remember correctly the only time I pushed the bike was up to the castle in Wertheim, which had a crazy incline (e.g. 14 % according to Komoot). 

Along the way there were several nice small towns/villages:

One of them, Tauber Bischofsheim, a town that for me is very famous for its sports school for fencing. Not sure if all Germans know about it and think it is famous, or if you need to be of a certain generation or just have a strange liking for fencing… At least for me it sounds like the place where all the German fencing legends trained. I haven’t done fencing myself nor have I any connection with that sport, but I guess I liked it when watching the Olympic Games. And it helped that Germany was very successful in fencing, at least back in the day. 

An other quick stop I made on my way was at this abbey with a nice small garden in front. 

The day concluded in Bad Mergentheim with my daily wash, this time also including the bicycle which got very dirty yesterday. The hotel didn’t want me to wash it on their premises but instead recommended a car wash, which turned out to have a very long hose and no one seemed to bother that I was using it for a bicycle not a car. While I don’t wash the bicycle every day, I do wash my cycling clothes daily… and then need to find innovative ways how to dry them.

TdE - Day 17 Bad Homburg - Miltenberg

Route: Bad Homburg - Main - Seligenstadt - Aschaffenburg - Miltenberg 
Distance: 107 km
Elevation: 305
Duration: 5:42 h
Weather: cloudy, sometimes rainy, 18C

Back on the road and bike. After a week of “rest” at my parents place, today on the second rest day of La Vuelta I continued my ride towards the Danube. 

I explained my ride to my parents (and my father continued to forget it, so I explained it over and over again), but I got some good tips, e.g. Miltenberg, a small but very picturesque town along the Main, which is where I am sitting now in the oldest restaurant of Germany!

I started quite late today (after 10:00) with my parents holding awkwardly the bike in front of their house:

The first few kilometers were along the road I took to school by bike for many years. I stopped along the way for this Thai temple (it’s one of two in Bad Homburg):

Strangely enough only a few meters behind my school “terra incognita” started. It seems I never ventured beyond that point. But today I did. The general plan was to follow the Main river, but from Bad Homburg you need to get there first. I planned a basic route yesterday with Komoot. Wasn’t for sure the best route, but it got me to the Main. The nice part started once I had crossed the river with a ferry in Rumpenheim:

From there onwards I followed a bicycle path along the Main. It was well indicated but I also had my trusted Garmin to show me the way. 

At about 25 km I took a relatively short break for half a sandwich brought from home and then decided that Seligenstadt sounded like a good next stop. I remember hearing that name as a child, but I somehow connected it with gliding not with a nice small village with a huge abbey and a very interesting garden, which I found by pure chance (the public toilet was closeby).

The garden was so interesting because it used vegetables and fruit trees with a clear decorative purpose. 

But not only vegetables, I got a grilled sausage at a local butcher’s. Tasty and quick. The weather looked as if it was getting worse over time, so I didn’t want to spend too much time on lunch today. 

After this stop I continued along the river. Twice today it rained. Once it wasn’t actually that bad and a tree provided sufficient cover. The second time I got lucky and found the roof of an outdoor pool, without any guests and waited for the shower to pass. It was never a very long rain. From tomorrow weather should become better. 

Aschaffenburg to my by surprise. I didn’t have any specific expectations and probably I haven’t ever been before, so I was very surprised by this huge palace along the river.

In Aschaffenburg the cycle way was a bit convoluted but I found my way back to the river cycling path.

At some point I passed an other solitary female cycling tourist (the first I saw on my trip), and later on she passed me (because I had been hiding from the rain). So I approved her and we road maybe 20 km together until the camp grounds where she will stay tonight. Nice chit chat. She is riding from Frankfurt to Nürnberg. So depending on the river side we chose tomorrow and our departure times/speeds we might actually meet again tomorrow on the road. 

The last 20ish kilometer into Miltenberg I road again alone, before arriving at my hotel smack in the center of the village. (But I am not staying in the oldest inn of Germany, only eating here).

TdE - Day 10-16 Bad Homburg

Routes: in and around Bad Homburg 

Walking: 44 km

Cycling: 17 km
Weather: Getting colder, generally cloudy, but not that much rain as the weather announcers promised 

This last week a welcome break at my parents house, with a washing machine, my mothers cooking, late starts, some shopping and a lot of walking.

As on the bike I only bring one “off bike” set of clothes I had shipped a small parcel to my parents with more normal clothes. 

On the Monday (TdE Day 10) my mother wanted to go shopping for her, and we found 3 very nice dresses here in Bad Homburg for her which she has been wearing ever since. And I also found a nice dress for me. 

The next day (TdE Day 11) we wanted to do some hiking and took the city bus up to Saalburg, an ancient Roman fortress, which however this time we didn’t visit (we went there with Matteo only a few weeks ago). Instead we hiked over to Hessenpark, an open air museum and then back. On the way out we got slightly lost in the forest, not really lost but didn’t find the most logical way, so when we arrived at the Hessenpark we were hungry. Since the 23/August the “3G rule” applies which in German stands for vaccinated, recovered or tested (geimpft, genesen, getestet) when visiting an indoor location or a restaurant. In some places they just ask in others they duly check at the entrance. At Hessenpark they checked in detail, but we were all in the “geimpft” (vaccinated) category and could proof it, so had no problems. 

After lunch we hiked back taking a slightly different path and this time following an officially indicated hiking path, which came by this newly created pond complete with a bench, where we observed a caterpillar  crawling up and down the table in front of us, apparently without a clear idea where he actually wanted to go. We couldn’t help either. 

In the evening Matteo came for one night and on Wednesday (TdE Day 12) we made a trip together to the newly built “Altstadt” (old town) of Frankfurt. Scenic it is, and for sure nicer than the ugly post war city hall that was occupying that space before. 

We had lunch together and then Matteo departed while we went for some long planned shopping in the city. Due to Covid-19 my parents weren’t in Frankfurt for over a year, maybe even 2 years. Not that they were going to Frankfurt frequently before then either, but since Covid they avoided to take public transport plus most shops were closed for a long time. Nevertheless the shopping list of my mother wasn’t that long either and we managed to get everything in a single street and then had cake in the same street as well before returning home by commuter train. I was surprised how much the busy city center of Frankfurt did stress me out. Living 4 years now in small Leiden and never going to Amsterdam has had an effect. And we’ll, Tokyo or Osaka is just not the same stress level (for me) as a busy European town. Maybe the fact that we needed to look constantly not to loose my father was also an additional stress factor. He orientates himself well in Bad Homburg in areas where he always is, but he wouldn’t be able any longer to orientate himself in Frankfurt or be capable of taking some actions to get back home. 

On Thursday (TdE Day 13) my mother wanted some time at home, I wanted to do some bicycle related shopping, so I took my father along on a bike ride that would bring us midway through to a huge bicycle shop. Actually the same bicycle shop where I bought a lot of equipment for my 2 month ride through Japan 4 years ago. This time I got a new helmet (same model as before as I find it quite comfortable) and a pump, as the old one at my parents place was loosing more air than putting in the tubes.

In the afternoon the weather was still fine (although the weather forecast was warning since days that it would like early autumn and rainy), so all 3 of us went for a walk through the park. Heidi and I each wearing one blue and white shoe as she has two identical pairs of barefoot shoes. (We we’re also wearing our new blue dresses bought on Monday).

We also admired a lot an electric substation that recently got painted as if it were a small temple. The “background” is actually the real background that would be visible if the substation didn’t block the view.

On Friday (TdE Day 14) we had an appointment at a restaurant at Saalburg where my parents first met and where they now 52 years later will celebrate their Golden wedding anniversary. Now it was only the organization what menu to choose, where the table will be… As the appointment was at 11:30 it was too early for us to have lunch right away, so we hiked instead to Herzberg (“heart mountain”) and had lunch there. My parents already told me, but really nearly all the thick forest that once covered the entire hike between Saalburg and Herzberg had gone. Fallen victim to a hurricane and the destructive forces of the bark beetle. 

As it was rather cold that day, all the sun was actually quite welcome but if you are expecting to hike in a nice, lush forest away from the heat, you are up for a big disappointment. 

Yesterday (TdE Day 15) we stayed in Bad Homburg and had a look at the extremely low key edition of the Laternenfest (“lantern festival”). In normal times THE festival of my home town, but this year a quite depressive affair. 

And no, this picture was NOT taken when it was still closed.

And finally today (TdE Day 16) we hardly moved, but we did go down to the nearest park where a traditional dog racing event was held. Although I am afraid of dogs, I do remember it fondly of my childhood days. 

And it was funny again. The best scene being one of these dogs deciding mid race, to take a poop. 

In the afternoon I helped my father to write the text for the invites to their Golden wedding anniversary and packed everything for departure tomorrow. 

 

TdE - Day 9 Boppard - Bad Homburg

Route: Boppard - Bingen (by ship) - Mainz - Bad Homburg (by train)
Distance: 43 km by ship, 34 km by bike, 60 km by train 
Elevation: 54 m
Duration: 1:31 h
Weather: light rain, heavy rain, sun, clouds, 22 C 

Yesterday I missed the boat in Koblenz and ultimately this was a good thing because psychologically it “allowed” me to take the ship today. And what a ship!

MS Goethe, a paddle steamer built more than 100 years ago for riding up and down the Rhein. 

It was a good idea also because of the weather which sometimes had very heavy rain in store, but also because I think this part of the landscape is best seen from a ship. The Rhine valley between Konstanz and Bingen is a very narrow, which means that the rain tracks are besides the road, beside the cycling lane. This the cycling lane isn’t probably really nice. It’s separated from the street, but really alongside. 

From the river however I had perfect view of all the castles that spot the valley. Not sure if this part of Germany is the place on earth with the highest castle density, but it must be close. 

So many castles that even the announcer on the ship only called out the most significant ones, like this pair at Kaub:

Quite interesting was the navigation around Loreley rock. We went super slow and there was even something like a traffic light showing if there was oncoming traffic from behind the bend in the river. The ships going upstream didn’t go straight through but rather sideways, so that they only needed to turn a little bit further at the bend at the exit in order to be again straight. I really could appreciate how difficult navigation on this twisting river is. 

Apart from an overflow of castles, there were also vineyards everywhere, as to be expected. 

After over 4 hours for only 43 km, I got off at Bingen, the last but one stop of the boat, from where I either could have taken a train directly to Frankfurt and then on to Bad Homburg (in case of rain) or alternatively I could cycle a bit onwards, which was the option I took. The valley widens immediately and the cycle path is generally far away from the road and in the meadows of the river. First with a lot of orchards (apples, plums…) and as I was getting closer to Mainz more and more private, small gardens. 

I actually took some pictures but due to some problem with my phone those pictures didn’t get stored. Maybe storage capacity of the phone was limited. Finally later in this week I deleted a lot of old pictures, so I hope this will fix the problem. 

I cycled into Mainz, all the way seeing very dark clouds in front of me, but luckily I had tailwind so the clouds were moving away. I got dry and safe to the station, had just the time to buy a ticket, catch the next commuter train to Frankfurt, make a quick change of trains and out to Bad Homburg where it must have rained heavily shortly before I arrived, but it was dry for long enough for me to make the last 2.5 km to my parents place, where I now will stay for about a week. 

A few days ago I really dreamed about a hot bathtub but when I finally arrived it was warm outside and no longer bathtub weather. 

TdE - Day 8 Cochem - Boppard

Route: Cochem - Mosel - Koblenz - Rhein - Boppard 
Distance: 77 km
Elevation: 128 m
Duration: 3:57 h
Weather: initially fresh and foggy, then sunny and hot, 17 - 29 C

The forecast for today promised heat, too much heat for me to cycle. So I decided to start early and in principle the idea was to take a ship from Koblenz to Boppard, but this is everything I ever saw of that ship:

But well, I did manage to cycle to Boppard and will take the ship tomorrow instead.

But back to the start of the day, which began with what has been by far the best breakfast of this trip. A buffet with absolutely everything:

This is actually only a part of the buffet. And it was more surprising by the fact that the accommodation itself was quite simple (but clean and I had my own bathroom) and Cochem seemed to be a very popular destination, witnessed by the fact that I had for the first time some difficulties finding an accommodation. So this breakfast was a real surprise. There was even home made jam, all types of cheese, sausages, 4 different types of mustard…

With such an excellent breakfast although I started early (shortly after 8:00), finally I wasn’t on the road until 9:15, which was always going to be tight to make it until 12:00 the 53 km to Koblenz. 

However thanks to the early departure at least the first hour of riding was actually cold, as the mist was still hanging in the deep valley over a Mosel acting as a mirror.

The bicycle path today was present, but I think that’s the best one can say about it, as it was mainly just one lane of the main road. Not mixed with the cars, but not properly separated either and not specially scenic (if one dismisses the general scenery). 

Although catching the ship was always going to be a close call, I did press on attempting to get it. Was this a good idea? Well, it didn’t work out, but there weren’t also any really nice spots to stop along the Mosel today. 

Koblenz however seems to be a city built for cars in mind only, which is probably true, as it look like a lot of the infrastructure was built in the 60s and 70s. So trying to find my way through it to the jetty wasn’t a specially nice experience. 

The jetty area however was nice, and seeing that I had missed the ship anyway I took a break and a bratwurst in the shadow of some big trees and then proceeded to the “Deutsche Eck”, the place where the Mosel flows into the Rhein. Mosel from the left, Rhein straight ahead:

But it is also the spot where this rather ugly, nationalistic monument stands (rendered even more ugly by taking a picture against the sun):

I just learned that while the statue of Wilhelm I was originally erected in 1897, it got destroyed in WW2 but rebuild about 20 years ago. Um, I hope not a lot if my tax money did go to that…

Tucholsky did already describe this monument in all its monumentality a century ago. (See below)

After resting I took up the challenge of the last 22 km of the day in the intense heat along the Rhine (now river upwards!) 

After one more break along the way and filling up my water bottle at a campground, I made it to Boppard, a touristy, small town that seems to be stuck in the 60s or 70s…

My hotel for the night even seems to be right from the 50s (the interior) …

…the building itself obviously is even older:

After a cooling shower I walked a bit through town, had an ice cream, reserved a restaurant for tonight and came back to my room, where I am now sitting on the bed writing these lines, before starting momentarily to dinner! 

Tucholsky, “Denkmal am Deutschen Eck”:

… Und da war der Rhein, der kitschumrauschte, und, wie bei Goethe steht, da waren große Schiffe im Begriffe, auf diesem Flusse hier zu sein ... und plötzlich bekam ich den größten Schreck auf dieser Reise. Ich weiß es noch ganz genau:

Wir gingen auf der breiten, baumbestandenen Allee; vorn an der Ecke war eine Fotografenbude, sie hatten Bilder ausgestellt, die waren braun wie alte Daguerrotypien, dann standen da keine Bäume mehr, ein freier Platz, ich sah hoch ... und fiel beinah um.

Da stand – Tschingbumm! – ein riesiges Denkmal Kaiser Wilhelms des Ersten: ein Faustschlag aus Stein. Zunächst blieb einem der Atem weg.

Sah man näher hin, so entdeckte man, dass es ein herrliches, ein wilhelminisches, ein künstlerisches Kunstwerk war. Das Ding sah aus wie ein gigantischer Tortenaufsatz und repräsentierte jenes Deutschland, das am Kriege schuld gewesen ist – nun wollen wir sie dreschen! In Holland.

Zunächst ist an diesem Monstrum kein leerer Fleck zu entdecken. Es hat die Ornamenten-Masern.

Oben jener, auf einem Pferd, was: Pferd! auf einem Roß, was: Roß! auf einem riesigen Gefechtshengst wie aus einer Wagneroper, hoihotoho! Der alte Herr sitzt da und tut etwas, was er all seine Lebtage nicht getan hat: er dräut in die Lande, das Pferd dräut auch, und wenn ich mich recht erinnere, wallt irgend eine Frauensperson um ihn herum und beut ihm etwas dar. Aber da kann mich meine Erinnerung täuschen ... vielleicht gibt sie dem Riesen-Pferdchen nur ein Zuckerchen. Und Ornamente und sich bäumende Reptile und gewürgte Schlangen und Adler und Wappen und Schnörkel und erbrochene Lilien und was weiß ich ... es war ganz großartig. Ich schwieg erschüttert und sah Jakoppn an.

»Ja«, sagte Jakopp, »das ist das Kaiser-Wilhelm-Denkmal am Deutschen Eck.«

Richtig: da floß noch ein zweiter Fluß in den ersten Fluß, und es war, wenn man von den Fabrikschornsteinen absah, eine hübsche Gegend, viel zu hübsch für dieses steinerne Geklump, für diesen Trumm, diesen Trubas von einem Denkmal. …

TdE - Day 7 Bernkastel Kues - Cochem

Route: Bernkastel Kues - Mosel - Cochem
Distance: 83 km
Elevation: 178 m
Duration: 4:18 h
Weather: sunny and quite warm, but not yet hot. 24 C

Today my second day along the Mosel, and this time the entire day between vineyards in the deep valley of the river. 

My now traditional second breakfast today in the picturesque town of Traben Trarbach, …

… where I found a small local bakery and then ate down at the Mosel. 

In this region the Mosel really is winding it’s way through steep and relatively high hills, sometimes it even seems that it didn’t know where to flow so took a sharp U-turn to look if the opposite direction might have been better. Forcing cyclists to make slow progress. 

There were a few other picturesque villages along the way until Cochem, for example Beilstein:

But the best of the day so far (I am writing this before heading into Cochem for dinner), was this stop along the way in a local winery. They only had cheese cubes to eat, but sitting in the shades of some huge trees and gazing out onto the water was very relaxing. 

PS: also after dinner in Cochem I can confirm that the above was the nicest place today. Dinner was okay, but Cochem is a very touristy town and surprisingly noisy with raucous 50/60 year old people getting drunk. A bit like Ballermann in Mallorca but for the elderly (and much smaller). 

Today maybe I understood why greeting other cyclists isn’t such a thing at the Mosel. The weather was better today and more cyclists had come out from their hiding spots. So yes, today greeting every cyclist was no longer a reasonable option. So I resorted to mainly greet those I overtook. Which were quite a lot. Not because I am fast, but because most cyclists here are quite elderly and at it with a very relaxed pace. Nevertheless, specially the women often made faces that showed their exhaustion. It was a warm day, and most were hopelessly overdressed. So even on an ebike it must have been warm. 

An other thing I noticed, if a man and a woman cycle together, in at least 80 % of the cases, the men cycles in front. And that’s not, so she can enjoy a bit of drafting… reminded me about boot drivers in Leiden. They are also predominantly male, even if a majority of women are on board. 

TdE - Day 6 Metzdorf - Bernkastel Kues

Route: Metzdorf - Trier - Mosel - Bernkastel Kues
Distance: 96 km
Elevation: 242 m
Duration: 5:18 h
Weather: Cloudy but no rain, 20 C

In principle I had decided not to ride THAT much today, but if you reserve a hotel 60 km+ down the road at 13:30 before having had a lunch break, it’s kind of clear that I wouldn’t arrive by 16:00. Let’s see if tomorrow what I think I want to do and what I actually do will be better aligned. 

After a few km in Luxemburg down the Sauer (or Sûre in French) it flew into the Mosel and I took my third picture of a country sign …

… and then turned left, Mosel downwards. Strangely my planned route in Komoot thinks that over the 225 km from Metzdorf to Koblenz there will be 1,190 m of climbing, but today in 96 km of it I only did about 250 m and I can’t really see that there will be that much more climbing to come. After all I am cycling DOWN the Mosel. 

The Mosel, a river that is winding and winding it’s way. 

It isn’t the first time I am doing a cycling trip along the Mosel. I was here once with my father when I was maybe 10 years old, for a cycling trip. I remember that one day I suggested to take a shortcut. Just straight through instead of following the river. Well it might have saved us 20 km of cycling, but it did cost us time for sure. Because first we were pushing up the bicycles over a high and steep mountain and then downwards we couldn’t cycle either because it was a forest road and too steep for us. I learned an important lesson that day and will now vow to not commit the same error again. 

My first stop of the day was in Trier, an old Roman town as witnessed by the largest Therms outside Rome (which unfortunately for me got destroyed 1700 years ago by the Germanics! A real pity as definitely one of the things that is soooooooo missing from this cycling trip is the hot onsen bath in the evening. Such a pleasure when cycling in Japan.) 

Originally my idea was to eat something sweet under the Porta Nigra, but when I went to a bakery not too far away it also had savory stuff including “Fleischkäse”, so I was tempted. Not the best decision as it wasn’t a specially good one. 

Once out of Trier the Mosel trip proper started. Well actually no, and yes… it started in the sense that I was now riding along the Mosel for the entire rest of the day, but what one imagines for “Mosel”, i.e. the steep vineyards doesn’t start until a bit more down the river. First one needs to get through some “normal” and even industrial river part. 

What I also noticed, is how few people actually greet each other while cycling. Yes, in the Netherlands greeting other cyclist isn’t the most common either, but to a certain extend I do understand it. There are just too many cyclists around. However in the region in Belgium where I cycled, greeting other cyclists was the done thing. Yesterday where we met only a few cyclists the whole day. It was the dome thing. But today along the Mosel giving as little as a nod was already too much for 90% of the cyclists. And yes, there were many more cyclists than on a rainy day in a remote location, but much less cyclists than in the Netherlands, This lack of greeting capacity was very surprising to me. 

I quite consistently greeted other cyclists and even pedestrians. Maybe on average I greeted 75 % of people I encountered. But I got only very little back. 

An other observation was the type of cyclists. Mostly elderly couples, sometimes groups of elderly couples, a few young families, some groups of men and some solo men. But I think that in the entire trip so far, I haven’t seen an other solo female cyclists on a tour. Is it really such an outrageous idea for a woman to cycle alone through countries such as Belgium and Germany? I myself wouldn’t describe me as specially adventurous and I wouldn’t do a solo cycling trip in let’s say Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam or Argentine, just to name a few countries where my prejudice (?) tells me that it can’t be safe for a solo female cyclist. Or at least not safe enough for me to FEEL safe. But Belgium? Germany? 

After Trier, I had two more stops along the way to eat and drink (nothing to write home about) before arriving around 19:00 at my hotel for the night. Getting a good shower, doing my laundry and finally walking into the picturesque town of Bernkastel-Kues for a filling dinner (potato gratin with some local white wines). 

This castle is towering (in the most literally sense of the word) above this old village. I might actually have been there back on my first trip to the Mosel with a bike, as I remember that one night we were in a youth hostel which was in an old castle up-up the hill. Maybe at my parents there are still some old dispositives to check.