So here are my best of lists from my cycling adventure.
The canal was just outright spectacular. Its unerring straightness was maybe a bit “boring” for lack of a better word, but this was peaceful, cute cafes in the lock houses, no traffic. Outstanding.
The Rhine Valley is just beautiful. You feel castled out after a while (at least I do) but you cannot deny the beauty.
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.
The weather gods were not clement today - we had lots and lots of torrential rain. Instead of getting up really early in the morning and riding all the way by bike, I spent some more time with family and then took a train down to Neuwied. OV to Koblenz is really quite short. It’s about 25 kilometres, which took me a bit over an hour. I was quite lucky as in that hour there was basically no rain, but some quite strong winds. So overall not nearly as long as some of the other days, but quite exhausing.
Only a short note today about a random encounter over breakfast. I came down to the restaurant at 8am and there was - again - one other person having breakfast (there were more coming later though…). We greeted each other and then randomly decided instead of sitting at different tables, to have breakfast together. A financial analyst from San Francisco, en route to visiting family in the Netherlands - and we had a super interesting, wide-ranging conversation about a wide variety of topics.
Quarter past 6, sunlight in my eyes from the sunrise. And it looks like a pretty good morning for cycling. So waiting for breakfast and will then leave the hotel relatively quickly and get onto my 86km ride down the Rhine through the Gorge all the way to Andernach.
This really is where the EuroVelo 15 route is coming to its full glory. The Rhine Valley is magnificent. Of course, I have been here many times, but going through it at a very leisurely cycling pace is so different than driving through. In the beginning, there was a lot of sunshine, seeing the vineyards, the castles, and the little towns dotting the Rhine is absolutely a sight worth seeing and an effort worth making. Here are a few of them as illustrations.
It seems like after missing the major weather events last week, I am now collecting them. But at least it also looks like it is only rain today and no thunderstorms. I guess I will skip the ferry and rather take the bridge.
I am still lazing in bed. 34km to go today, no rush really and the weather is nothing that fills you with energy. And it looks like the weather might be nicer in the afternoon, although the clouds will not break before 4pm and by that time I want to be in Bingen.
After a not very long sleep and a nice breakfast, I tried the LBS, but alas, no joy. My derailleur seems to be ok but my back wheel is missing a spoke. Let’s see how long that will go well, might have to get a new wheel before long.
After that, a great massage, a haircut by the most meticulous barber I have ever met, feels great! Shout out to Timing Cut Barber. I might have to come to Wiesbaden for haircuts going forward.
The first long one today, want to be on the road by 8am-ish, it’ll probably take me 2h longer than the usual 4.5h. I need to pace myself. I can really feel the multi-day load. Looks like there will be some rain passing through today with temperatures in the high 10s. But first breakfast. After the dinner last night, my appetite for an extensive breakfast was limited, so the usual Kafi & Gipfeli (aka Swiss Breakfast) was the way to go.
As anticipated, this was a well-needed day for recovery. The hotel was perfect for the occasion, starting with a huge breakfast buffet, good coffee, and what really turned into a leisurely brunch. Afterwards sauna, sleep, reading, writing, a bit of a walk through the very pretty old town of Ettlingen, and then dinner in the 1 Star Erbprinz Gourmet restaurant.
I chose the five course meal with matching wines and it was a solid 1 star performance. There was some “fingerfood” followed by an amuse bouche of salmon in joghurt sauce. Let’s call it interesting. Especially the asparagus water with raspberry vinegar was strange.
After the splurging last night in the fine dining restaurant, breakfast this morning consisted of a couple of croissants, jam, and a couple of cups of coffee. Then pack and go, 80k on the plan.
The 80k came with a bit more elevation (enough to be noticed) and significantly more wind. But - I was lucky, the forecasted thunderstorms passed through the area last night and I was able to ride the whole way without having to take the train.
