Day 25 - Castle Country

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Today we travelled from Koblenz to Bengin. We casually walked our bikes out of our room and past reception just after 8am, loaded them up outside and we were off. The B&B Hotels are clean and functional but provide the bare minimum and the rooms are quite small. I suppose they serve their purpose when we are only there for a short number of hours.
We wind our way out of the city and today we spend the whole day on the banks of the Rhine without any significant side deviations. The surrounds of the river now form a "V" shape with hills rising up on both sides. The hills are liberally covered in vineyards, sometimes it looks like the vines are almost vertical they are on such steep ground. The constant flow of barges is still present and, on display in this windy part of the Rhine, is the skill of the captains as they navigate the bends in the river. This section of the Rhine is particularly trecherous with rocks protruding from the river making navigation for the barges very difficult.
For our morning break we stop and the delightful town of Boppard. It's obviously built for tourism with the way it is presented, the number of hotels and the fact it actually had retail and cafes open before 10am.
The other constant for the day is an almost continuous stream of castles as we ride. About half way into our ride we stop at St Goar and visit Rheinfels Castle. It is situated right on the road but 60 meters up the side of a hill. We ride the bikes part way up and then lock them up and complete the final ascent on foot. The castle is owned by the town and provides a steady source of income for them.
Once you see the castle up close the enormity of the construction effort comes into focus. The only "technology" available would have been block and tackle and human labour, they are truly incredible. This castle was built over a 1000 years ago to protect the customs offices which turned a tidy profit. At one stage there was a one year siege on the castle that failed after duties were increased. Our timing of touring through the castle was impeccable as it coincided with quite a strong rain shower.
After the castle we rode down into town and Jeff registered his first flat tyre. A convenient time as we were able to order and eat lunch while attending to the tyre.
The last 30kms of th ride provided plenty more panoramic scenes of the river and we cruised into Bingen and up to the Hotel Krone at about 4pm. For dinner tonight we are going to cross the river on the ferry and meet up with Jeff's friends Michael and Baerbel again.
Tomorrow we head to Frankfurt and will have a rest day there.
Distance travelled today: 68kms
Distance travelled so far: 1453kms

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