There's something about Mary ...

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It was with some irony that after my last long blog, I stepped out of the internet cafe in Mannheim, only to be hit by yet another shower of rain. Still we had a lovely hostel to keep us dry and all was good with the world really. Actually, I got to thinking after I sent of the last blog that I may be giving the impression that we're not enjoying ourselves, which is definitely not true. We've met so many good samaritans, seen so many wonderful little villages and sites along the way that my only real complaint is that this stupid camera I'm stuck with can't really capture any of it and cameras are almost double the price in Europe than they are in Tasmania.

Anyways, enough of that. We were told that the route to Mainz would be boring and industrial, but we loved it. Pushing our bikes up stairs and over canals, weaving in and out of big industrial centres and then into tree covered parks, getting lost, finding ourselves again, getting lost again, getting even more lost ... we always seem to cycle about 10 - 20kms further than we think we will each day as we take extra-curicular excursions, and the only reason we don't end up where we started is those countless god samaritans who see two obviously hoplessly lost individuals and take a few moments to point us (or lead us) in the right direction. Yes, despite following probably the biggest river in Europe (Keep it on your right stupid!) we just seem to constantly head off in the wrong direction.

So, we headed out of Mannheim, and 30kms, lots of indsutrial stuff, several wrong turns and many potato fields later we arrived in Worms (it's a town and it's not pronounced as it is spelt). We met Mary in the tourist information office. Mary is 73 years old, American-Swiss lady who was also happily cycling from Basel down to Rotterdam (sort of made us feel a little less like adveturerers really). Mary also had this cool conditoin called 'lazy brain syndrome' or something where if she didn't take enough caffeine or other stimulatns she would just fall asleep. Imagine that - being diagnosed to dirnk coffee and coke!

Mary was lovely, but like us had made many wrong turns in the proceeding potato fields and was very keen to join us for the remaining days ride up to Mainz. We didn't take any convincing to let her come along, and when she shouted us our morning Cappachino's she had two guides for the day.

To be honest, it was an absolute delight to have Mary with us, she told us all sorts of interesting stories, and because she spoke German she could talk to all the peope around us! We met a very old (and i think lonely) lady in one small village who wanted to tell us that she was in the third reicht during 'the war' and helped many Americans escape, we were able to ask more people when we got lost which way we should go, and we even managed to get Mary together with two other cyclists with whom we had been passing for the last 2 days. 'twas great.

Unfortunately, due to our many stops for chats, our occasional wrong turns, and our inability to read the map, it was getting on towards 100kms for the day and 6pm by the time we approached Mainz. The rain had come down and we were all feeling a bit tired and cold and ready for a stop. Unfortunately the first camp stop we stopped at was right under a highway, then the Youth Hostel was full, so we eventually had to opt for a little hotel in the centre of the town which was well outside our normal budget. However, we ignired that as we had a lovely hsower, our bedroom window looked straight out at the main Cathedral which couldn't have been more then 50 metres away, and we had a lovely dinner with Mary, sampling the ocal red wines and foods from all the crops and vineyards we'd been cycling through for the day. It was a perfectly wonderful day, and a real highlight for our trip.

To think that we'd been told to skip this sectoin by cyclists coming the other way.

More Pictures

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