Day 26 - European heat wave, I don't think so

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Let's start with the night before. As I mentioned, we were meeting up with Baerbel and Michael for dinner in their home town just across the river from Bingen. We caught the ferry over and were taken to the top of the hills behind Rudesheim which afforded great views over the Rhine (see photo). We then went on to have dinner in a local restaurant that served authentic German food. There was live music playing and the place had a great vibe. We had an amazing time with our hosts, the meal, conversation and company were all perfect. We caught the ferry back to Bingen at about 11:20pm and didn't get to bed until after midnight.
This morning we both woke about 6:30am and began the ritual of packing up again - it is already getting tired. We wet down to breakfast and Jeff started the morning by dropping a glass which was met by stern looks from the hotel manager. After the clean up breakfast was great and we left Bingen shortly after 8am.
The forecast today was rain, rain, rain. The forecast was correct. We rugged up a bit but it didn't take too long before we both started getting a bit cold. I put my phone away to avoid any further water issues and Jeff took over the navigating duties. We were making reasonable time considering the weather. I was getting cold, which isn't good for me, and means I need to keep moving. At one point Jeff stopped for a photo and I rode on slowly and we ended up getting separated. No panic though as we can now communicate since Jeff got a SIM card. We met up in the next town at a Maccas to get a hot coffee (at least it was a McCafe). We got there right on 11am which is when it opened. After a coffee we went to the giant bike store next door, without doubt the biggest and best bike superstore I have ever seen. It even had a track around the store for people to try bikes before they buy. Jeff wanted me to mention the fact that it also sold ice creams so it contained both his favourite things. Bike heaven he said. Needless to say I had to drag him out of there as we had been stopped for over an hour.
We had seen hardly any of the river in the morning because we were riding behind a levee. We finally left the Rhine at Mainz and turned up the Main River towards Frankfurt. We had a late lunch stop under a road bridge, just enough time to eat - it was cold and wet and we wanted to keep moving to keep warm, not the best of days on the bike but still better than any at work!!!
We made it to Flemming's Hotel in Frankfurt around 3pm. I checked-in and was told we could put our bikes in the luggage room. As we were unpacking our bags in the lobby by the lifts the doorman almost had a coronary. He could see dirt and mud from the days ride dropping on the floor. He wasn't happy. He insisted we wiped our bikes down before continuing and gave us paper towels. As we were doing that a concierge came over to us and he made the doorman's reaction look mild. I think he would have turfed us out if I hadn't explained we'd already checked in and were told to clean our bikes.
Our room is on the 6th floor and we have a very swish room overlooking the city (thanks Baerbel for finding it).
We have a rest day tomorrow. We've only ridden 4 days in a row but the timing of the rest days will become very important in not running ourselves down and avoiding injury.
Distance travelled today: 74kms
Distance travelled so far: 1,528kms

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Photos

Michael, Jeff, Baerbel and me
Great dinner last night.

Rudeshein
Where we had dinner.