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Published: October 4th 2008
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October weather on the Rhein
Even gloomy days can be quite beautiful. We have finally found an internet cafe that will let us upload pictures! Make sure to look back at our previous entries to see them! We left our Koblenz hotel room by 10:00am on the first of October, and had a rough time finding our way across the Rhein to get back on our bike path. The bridge was definitely made more for cars, and the bike route was poorly signed. The bridge was incredibly windy, which made it difficult to steer straight. After finding our bike route again, the clouds became gloomier and threatened to rain. We were hit by several sprinkling showers, but nothing serious.
The first day's ride along the Rhine was very scenic. It seemed that as soon as we lost view of one castle behind us another would pop up ahead. They just littered the steep valley walls. About midway through our ride we rolled in to St. Goar. A nice little town, but quite the tourist trap. Not only does St. Goar claim to have the largest free-hanging, hand-carved coo-coo clock in the world, but also the world's largest beer stein. Fantastic...
We rode on between the train tracks and the river.
While such a position for a bike path was great on the Mosel river, the Rhein river valley is a gateway for far more traffic, and loud noisy freight trains passed us a bit more frequently than we would have liked. Nonetheless, the ride was beautiful.
We rode past the Loreley cliffs just after leaving St. Goar. These cliffs mark a dangerous pair of bends in the river which caused many transport ships to crash and sink on some shallow patches in the river. The legend of the Loreley tells of a maiden standing on the cliffside whose beauty could easily distract the sailors and cause them to lose their course. Apparently she has no effect on cyclists.
It was't until a few miles outside of our campground in Bingen that the rain really started. We donned our rain gear and kept on riding. We rested every now and then under whatever cover we could find. The rain abated, and we strolled on in to the campground. The woman at reception was friendly, but I think she thought we were crazy for wanting to camp in a tent in this weather. We paid and started to set up
Castles!
Along the Rhein under a walnut tree. The only place we could set up. Then the rain started to come again. Thankfully it didn't really pick up until we got the rainfly on. Then it poured, the wind blew like crazy, and walnuts were coming down like mortar shells all around us. It was terrifying, yet tasty.
By the time we finished showering the rain was back to the usual on and off sprinkle. We cooked dinner from inside the tent and went to bed.
We awoke to find things surprisingly dry. There seemed to be much less dew than usual. Sara still had some wet clothes so she threw them in the dryer (a clothes dryer at a campground? amazing!). We packed up and pedaled on upstream. It definitely feels like October. Especially in the morning.
The ride was less interesting on this day. The geography definitely changed however. The river valley started to flatten out. Steep, canyon-like walls gave way to more open, flat farmlands. We rode through Mainz today. For some reason the bike path took us through an industrial wasteland, followed by a European-style highway 99 area. It was quite disgusting. Things got better when we
Our Humble Abode
Hiding in the tent during a storm. rode through some orchards and farmlands. We were definitely tired most of the day and didn't feel rested enough. We quit a tad early and tried to find a campground. After wandering through messy, closed roads and dirt paths full of potholes we stumbled across a campground. Or did we? It seemed like a ghost RV park with a fancy restaurant. We walked into the totally empty restaurant and asked the guy about camping. He was an awkward person, but he was nice and he let us camp for free. Though the showers and toilets were locked. We used the restaurant bathrooms and ate dinner there.
The next morning we heard strange noises that sounded like cannon-fire in the distance, but must have been someone banging around in the campground. We rode off along the river on a dirt path through a nature preserve area. Oddly enough those noises continued. Eventually we came across a sign that said in German and English, 'Caution: Danger to Life. U.S. Military Training Area.' Why should there be a U.S. military training area doing here?
We rode on and got to Hamm before we realized we were starving. We rode through town
Rainbows in Mannheim
Our view from our hotel room after an autumn shower. wondering where everyone was on a Friday morning. It was nearly noon and no one was about. Not only that, but everything was closed! We bumped in to a couple old men, and asked them if there was a backery anywhere. They assured us we wouldn't find one open today. Confused we asked if it was Sunday and not Friday. The explained to us that today was a national holiday: Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity).
Now we knew that everything would be closed all day. Good thing we had ABSOLUTELY NO FOOD! What were we supposed to do? We had a couple of dates and some noodles. Not enough for second breakfast, lunch, second lunch, and dinner. We ate our dates and rode to Worms. I'll give you one guess which place was open today. That's right, McDonalds. We had no choice, we were starved. We walked in and got a couple orders of fries and a salad. We topped that off with a muffin and a smoothie. We wouldn't dare eat anything else.
We rode out of there and through Worms. It might have been nice to stay a bit, but the weather encouraged
Mannheim
Our hotel was just around the corner from the city center fountain. us to continue on. It was supposed to be relatively nice for the rest of the day, then rain would consume the next couple days. Or at least that's what McDonald's TV told us.
The rain came and went as we entered Ludwigshafen and rode through another disgusting industrial wasteland. Bad smells and horrid sights. Why does the bike route go through here? We didn't care too much. We were tired and it was the most direct route. We didn't feel rested enough after our rest day in Koblenz, so we made an executive decision. We would ride in to Mannheim and stay at the hostel for a couple nights. We got there only to find the hostel fully booked. They pointed us in the direction of a hotel and we checked in. It's nice to have a bed at night. Plus this place has an amazing breakfast buffet. It's incredible. Mannheim is ok. It's nice to just rest.
Today we went to a couple bike stores to get a few things, and to a mega outdoor store resembling a Nordstrom's carrying REI's catalogue.
After writing this up we'll head back to the hotel and attempt to clean our bikes a bit. They've been doing lots of riding in dirt, mud, and sand. They could use some attention.
Thanks for reading, auf Wiedersehen!
-Paul und Sara
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