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.
No comments:
Post a Comment