Can you email a couple of photos of the ride? Is Ken still happy to follow (or lead) unassisted?

Ah yes, we have seen Loreley and Lorelei.

I guess in a shorter cruise one would listen to a commentary and be on deck watching. But on a multi day one maybe one would end up in an easy chair and overeating at a buffet?

Hooray, I got one right!

I've been doing and following bike touring's for about 25 years now.. I can see why you prefer France, Germany and Austria.. There's no equal here in the US.. I did not understand before..

We were stationed near Kaiserslautern in the mid-70s, and one of the Germans I worked with told about a business trip he made several hours to the northeast. A guy in a gasthaus heard his accent and asked where he was from, so he told the tiny village name and another guy said, "Oh that's in Rheinland Pfalz, between Germany and France!" Everyone laughed because the area had been claimed and reclaimed by both France and Germany so many times in history.

Last year we used that method of'grinding up prunings which is much quicker knowing we wouldnt be picking the grapes. Ken however is a perfectionist and in an area like ours where the pressure of fungal disease is so high for vine health burning is the way to go.
W have a challenging but beautiful 10k ride from our new house which we are doing each day in an attempt to get some cycle fitness
keep safe
Tricia

Well, our clock has been a wall decoration for a couple decades now. Never had the continuous cucko mode. I would think that should be easy to fix. Probably some little cog worn out or something. Popular as they are, there should be a place you can get it worked on. (This is opinion only, and subject to total inaccuracy)

We enjoyed our short cruise. Saw the Loreli (however that is spelled) the Maus Turm and dozens of other castles. Long, long ago! Hard to remember much more than a few tiny snippets, and those are suspect in accuracy!

----->Bill

Quick google search of images matches to Burg Katz.

----->Bill

There was an older man holding forth in German ie bridge museum to a small group of what looked like family members with what seemed like reminiscences. But we realized it could not be first hand memories given how long ago it was now. Still we have the accounts from our parents and you have your brothers, so it is still kind of in living memory.

Mine currently has bouts of cuckoo-ing without stop. Should I try to get it repaired?

What was the Rhine cruise like? The ships sure do look interesting.

They will need the "wet" style chain lube.

We watched one farmer descending the steep rows with a machine that seemed to be grinding up the prunings. I think I remember a bit from Year in Provence where they had the bright idea of bundling the prunings and selling them to America for BBQ flavouring.

You seem to be right about ebike distances. In the two trips before ebike for Dodie our overall average was 50 km per day, and after ebike it's 65. That's a 30% increase, which seems consistent with the fact that on "eco" the Bosch powered ebike gives you a 40% boost. I think we also see this from the fact that pre ebike we would slog along at about 10 km/hr and now we zoom out at 14 km/hr. Notably, the people on unladen regular bikes go 25 km/hr and of course the lycra warriors can go 40 km/hr.

Interestingly, in a "River Route" your average was about 50 and in the "Miraculous Tour" it was also 50. You are just a more stable kind of girl than us!

It really feels so much better to ride in lighter clothing. The only problem now is that we are still having to drag all the cold weather gear around with us. All in all not the worst priblem to have on a tour.

You are so fortunate with the weather! It continues to be chilly and rainy up here, keeping us bundled up in our layers whenever we venture out on the bikes. I long for the days when we can ride with just our shorts and a light jacket!

Reminds us a little of the Lochside trail