Day 13 - Koblenz to Köngernheim
The morning
Today is the last long cycling day, following the usual pattern. Tomorrow I’m just going to cycle to Mannheim train station and from there take the train to Basel. So now it is again quarter past six seems to be my preferred waking up time, and I am catching up on blog writing - and waiting for breakfast.
Right now I am looking out on blue skies, and the weather forecast tells me that it’s going to stay that way for a couple of hours and then become cloudy. But at least there’s not going to be any rain or thunderstorms today. So with all that, I will try to get out of here by 8ish and make my way down south. It’s about 103 kilometres today and that will take me a while, especially since there are over 300m elevation gain on the plan. So - leaving at 8am will get me there in about 6-7h I guess.
Breakfast was nice, but unfortunately (public holiday probably), the bakery had none of the bread delivered by 7am, so it was a bit less of what I wanted to eat. But it worked out fine.
Overall, a great hotel but the beds were not nearly as comfortable as all of the other hotels I stayed at. Something to keep in mind.
The ride
Well, so the text above is what I wrote in the morning and then reality happened… In the beginning it was a very nice ride down the Rhine Valley again but then about 48km into the ride, the second spoke on my rear wheel snapped, got into my chain and then everything stopped very abruptly. Thankfully, the snap alerted me and I did not crash. After taking a closer look I saw that part of the chain was bent out of place, which made continuing physically impossible.
The day was of course a public holiday, so there was no realistic chance to fix the bike - so instead of making my way to the next hotel stop, I walked 2km back to Oberwesel train station and began a rather long (about 11h) train trip back home. Unfortunately, due to this being a long weekend, there were no options for fast direct trains, but I had to take completely overcrowded regional trains. But at least I was able to get into every train and made every connection (of which there were a few), so I do not want to complain. It was just not the way I had imagined this trip to end.
Fine dining was the remainder of my Supernatural Fuel, which I can highly recommend. Tastes like food, comes in a resealable pouch, and does not weigh heavy on the stomach. In Basel SBB I had the time to pick up a pizza at Vito and that concluded my food journey today.
I will post a last post with my best of lists from this trip, but overall, I am happy I did this. The deceleration was palpable. My brain completely untangled, my body got fitter and I feel completely recharged, even though this was only 2 weeks. Usually I need more time to come down from my normal stress level. Also something to keep in mind.
And writing about it, especially for myself, really helped me appreciate the journey more. The initial negative thoughts were crowded out by just blissful cycling, enjoying the little wins, the scenery, nature. It felt like what I always thought meditation would feel like: thoughts about work did crop up, but I was able to observe them and watch them drift off. This is what I should aim at on a normal day, but how can I achieve that?