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Published: July 10th 2012
Day 4: Altrip to Germersheim 55km
Weather: A little dewy when we woke but we were up at 6:00 and on the road with dry time by 8:00.
Today was, what we hope is the hardest and most troublesome day of our entire trip. We left Altrip and about 10km out on our way into the small town of we felt like we were just slogging along. When Denis checked we realized we had a flat on the back tire. No problem except that we had to unload it all to change and thus it took a little more time. We fixed it and headed to town to pick-up our picnic lunch. We then began riding again with plans to eat lunch in Speyer. Speyer was to say the least, magnificient! This town celebrated its' 2000 birthday in 1999 and the church is 900 years old. The town area was absolutely stunning and everything one would expect to see in a quaint but modern area of Germany. After lunch in the Plaza with music on the giant xylephone we began looking for a campground (it had been closed down). We were disappointed to find nothing and I regret not
arranging for a warmshowers or couchsurfing host ahead of time. We then headed south again and shortly after leaving our Dual Drive hub stopped working and we stopped again to try to repair. Coincidentally, a German couple (Patrick & Tina) stopped to ask if they could help. The were riding recumbent bikes and had, as it turned out, rented them from a shop about 20km south in Gamersheim. We asked them to tell the shop owner that we were headed his way. He was to come and pick up rentals at 6:00 & 8:00. We limped along and made it to the shop after six and thus went to eat supper in a lovely little place just up the road. The owner came out and translated the menu so we could get something to eat. We then went to the bike shop to wait and by 8:30 we gave up and left a note saying we would come back at 10:00 am (luckily I had printed a sheet of labels out of my travel card). It was Saturday night and the shop was not to be opened on Sunday. There is no campsite in Germersheim except for an RV site
with no washrooms (almost a parking lot). We went anyway & asked some Caravaners (as they are called here) about staying and they were "incredibly" kind and suggested we stay anyway as no one is likely to check. It was $3.00 euros for the night. After we setup and were pretty discouraged our neighbors knocked on our tent and passed in two cold beer! Wow, they were the best beer ever as we thought the trip might be over :-(
Next morning we woke to rain drops and within minutes it was pouring steady. Denis arose in search of a washroom. He returned and we headed to the bike shop. Wolfgang arrived at 10:00 am much to our HUGE relief. He looked at the Dual Drive and immediately fixed it. The bent steering from our fall off the path in Speyer was also straightened. We thought these were the big problems, but they were not. Our tires were worn wrong due to the bent steering and we needed to replace them. Again normally not an issue but the rims were off a bit and it took Wolfgang a very long time to replace tires and tubes and he is
truly an expert with trikes as we could not have done this ourselves. He and his friend, Deter, were simply amazing. They made me coffee, allowed me to charge the Ipad and really set us up for success. We could not have been more lucky as to break down when we did as we are certain another location would have meant the end of the trip that we had planned. So the lessons learned this day were huge, but the most important one is that the people we have met are amazing and that is exactly what we know will remain the strongest of memories. It could have been the worst day ever, but only two days later we are thinking it wasn't so bad and that we are glad it happened as the trike is in better shape than ever. We headed out and were on the road by 1:30 which was pretty good considering we thought we were not leaving town at all!
Laterbourg A side note, Wolfgang's shop is called Rad-Schlag which is a play on German words. He and a friend arrange the largest Recumbent Bike Show is the world which occurs in April. He
even said if we had needed to order steering for the Trike that he would have given us two single trikes for us to use while we waited. He is truly the nicest bike shop owner we have ever had the good fortune to meet! He rents for anyone that would like to rent recumbents while traveling in Europe!
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charlene deglopper
non-member comment
Always the people !
sounds like you are having a good adventure.......yes, it is always about the people....enjoy and you will always be surprised !