June 19, 2018

 Our day started with a quiet breakfast, the children were not eating until 8:00. The teacher we spoke to last night said he had a good nights sleep and all the children were accounted for. Ralf had heard a couple of the boys saying they didn’t get to sleep until 2:00 a.m. The teacher laughed and said they will regret not getting enough sleep today. 

We hurtled down the hill to Bacharach and had a little cycle around the Town before continuing our journey along the Rhine.

Ralf noticed the the three layers of walls – the inner city wall, the railway bridge and the outer city wall.

 This is not a windmill (Mat), it is the entrance gate to the Town.

Looking at the Hostel from the road, it doesn\’t seem that far away, but it was up a very steep hill, 16 degree incline.

The route took us a little way off the Rhine today and through the agricultural areas including small wheat fields, and vineyards.

A couple of the areas were a little rough through woods, but it hasn’t rained and we didn’t get bogged down in any muddy areas.

As we were away from the Rhine there weren’t as many castles to see. There was even one section of the Rhine that had no activity on it, no boats it looked very peaceful.

We negotiated the streets of Mainz and didn’t get lost even though there was a couple of detours. The area along the river was being prepared for a week-end festival. There is even a “beach” in Mainz.

As we left Mainz through an area that is undergoing rejuvenation, we spotted some graffiti. When is it graffiti and when is it art?

I noticed this sign and initially wondered why it didn’t have the usual famous places like New York, Sydney, London etc. Then I realized that they are all wine routes. We have cycled from Adelaide, Bilbao (Spain), Porto (Portugal) we are in the German wine areas of Rhineland and Baden and we are heading towards Italy. Is there a method to my cycling?

As I cycled through the vineyards I was trying to work out how many bottles of wine this area would provide.  We met a man many years ago that told us that one area of his vineyard was for his family he bottled 600 litres of wine for him and his family.  The rest went to the Winzergenossenshaft (wine growing co-op). 

We saw a couple of storks – one was in its nest and had a baby in the nest. I don\’t think it was a human baby waiting to be delivered, but it was difficult to see as the nest was quite high up.

The other was tidying up its nest for the morning – even storks have to do housework.

Trivia, the storks use the same nests year after year.  When they return from their winter in the sun (Africa), the male generally returns first and prepares the nest for his female.  They were thought to be monogamous but they have been found to change partners over the winter.

The other storks we saw by fields that the farmer had just harvested the hay. I am not sure what interested them in that area.

We got to the Town of Oppenhiem to the campsite where we were hoping to stay. Unfortunately, it was a permanent site for mobile homes and tents were not allowed. The restaurant said we could stay there for E5.00 but there were no shower facilities. It was only 2:00 so we decided to carry on to Worms. We thought it was only another 25 kms. However, there was a detour and that added about 5kms. My longest day in the saddle for a long time 110 kms. I felt good even at the end of the day.   Tired and hungry but good. We are once again at a youth hostel in Worms cost E63 including breakfast.

We passed a commemoration of the Battle of the Bulge. This was a wide area of the Rhine that the Americans crossed during the second world war.

 

Our last push into Worms was along the top of the berm, fortunately this one had been cut and was a little easier to negotiate.

The Rhine barges have changed their cargo from coal and gravel to trucks – 100 trucks on this barge.

Worms (pronounced Verms) has a large cathedral which is almost impossible to get a good photo of due to the surrounding commercial and residential buildings. Martin Luther (the founder of the Lutheran Church) was the first guy to break away from the catholic church. He was excommunicated as a priest, for failing to denounce his writing and beliefs, from the Catholic Church in Worms (1521). There is going to be a commemoration of this event in 2021.

I like reading Dan Brown’s books, are these signs that he would recognize? – the Luminati and the sun through a prism? These two “signs” were on the doors to the Trinity Church

 

Another good day of cycling, the sun was out when we headed out, but it clouded over quite quickly so it wasn’t too hot.

Windmills. Ralf 1 Jacky 0 Running Total is Ralf 13 Jacky 6 Mat 5 so long as you count towers that look like windmills without their sails!