Something that surprised me about the Rhine River valley vineyards was that the rows were planted "vertically" towards the river, like the ones in this photo. They aren't concerned about soil erosion, else the rows would be planted "horizontally" parallel to the river. Apparently the rains are always gentle enough so that one isn't worried about damaging runoff. That seemed to be the case with the rains I experienced in Germany.

Middle-Aged Man in Lycra. The first time I saw that acronym was on Cycleblaze... Peter Brown, I think?

MAMIL?

I hope they both require ID but, of course, I'm not a teenager. :-)

The cigarette machines require an ID as proof of age, so under 18 no cigs. I don't know about the wine vending machines. Might be the same.

We have seen these in farmer’s fields. Honestly, we thought they disappeared with the dark ages.

Great idea! Maybe I'll use it as a Bingham Cycle Tours promo, if the company lasts longer than this week. Probably want to crop it a bit though. Wouldn't want to scare off customers. :-)

Honestly, for me, there's no point in trying to hide it. It would be completely futile. Embraced. Just don't stand too close when I turn my head.

That makes sense.... interesting.

Thanks, Suzanne! I'm learning all kinds of things from you!

Haha, people in the UK are a bit scared of swans (in the same way that Scandinavians are apparently fearful of badgers). The classic story is their necks are "powerful enough to break a man's leg" - I have no idea if this is true, but legless or not I give them a wide berth!

Love it. I really like Luxembourg, it's an underrated country!

Once they invented bike helmets, all the style went out of cycling. Might as well embrace our dorkiness...

A great advertisement for bike touring!

"Limo" in German can be any carbonated citrus drink and I guess lemonade is usually understood as limo.