April 27, 2018
Meeting Wonderful People in Worms and Beyond
A day of contrasts
We had a day of contrasts, starting with the warm, family hospitality of Hotel Boos in Worms....to being engulfed in a large group of enthusiastic South Korean tourists...to riding in the countryside...to the industrial landscape of Mannheim followed by the frenetic, traffic through its narrow streets. To put it simply, we had a great day full of unexpected pleasures and challenges. It is great to be on the road. And as we approached the region close to Germersheim, velomobiles and strange bikes like ours started to appear. The excitement is building. We are getting close to the Spezi.
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Hotel Boos in Worms has been run by Peter Boos and his wife for over 40 years. Now the next generation, his son Patrick, is involved as well. This is a delightful place to stay with genuine hospitality.
The charming breakfast room at Hotel Boos with great food and many artistic tributes to the Niebelungen saga.
Even the placemats show the dragon from Niebelungen - we later learned that this is an image from one of the many large stained glass panels that Peter has made and installed throughout the hotel.
In the bar, we enjoyed an audio and visual presentation re-enacting and explaining the Niebelungen Saga. What a labour of love this hotel is. We learned that the framed letters on the wall are about a musical choral score of the Saga that Peter wrote. It has been performed and is being published. Peter is a man of many talents and has a passion for his city and the Niebelungen saga.
The following stained glass panels by Peter and his son show the details of the Niebelungen saga. As well as being a comfortable, reasonably priced hotel, staying here gives one the experience of being in a living museum.
This piece is quite special the catching the light and casting a magical glow as we climbed the stairs to our room.
The choice of glass and the colours of the dragon really caught our eye.
Aren’t we lucky...
We can’t recall staying in a place that offered so much more than accomodation. Their passion for their community and its history are shared freely with guests in a whimsical and entertaining way.
We stopped to visit an historic sight in the town centre of Worms and were immediately consumed by a large group of tourists from South Korea. To say that they were intrigued and excited by our bike and journey is an understatement. Many photos, selfies and conversations ensued.
We had a delightful time visiting with them. We have plans one day to do a tour in South Korea and Taiwan and we have always known of their love and appreciation of bikes. After today, we realize that we wouldn’t need to worry about an itinerary as we would spend much time in one place talking with locals.
Worms Cathedral is over 1000 years old and of much historical significance in Germany.
Riding out of Worms, we admired the striking historic town gate. In retrospect, we are glad that we couldn’t find camping here as our stay was enriched by our stay at Hotel Boos. The Boos family gave us a unique appreciation of their city and its history.
The signage is very good and this sign shows the Rhine route we are riding in Hessen region from Sankt Goar to Mannheim.
We are enjoying seeing the colours of spring, as in this rape field (for the production of canola oil). The photo also shows that we are soon going to be riding in the industrial area of Mannheim.
Travelling in April is quite delightful as the tourist crowds haven’t arrived yet and we get to appreciate the emergence of spring. The nights at camp are very cold still, so we do have to wear layers when we go to bed.
We stopped briefly in a village for coffee and a break before heading on to Mannheim. The smell of “Hanchen Grill” (chicken rotisserie ) was very tempting.
Crossing the bridge to Mannheim.
We do love seeing storks - this fellow was very close to us which allowed us to appreciate his size and character.
We have read about the perils and challenges of riding in to Mannheim, but so far we are having a great ride through this beautiful forest in a park with wildflowers creating a carpet of white. Did I mention that we are loving it here in spring!?
We must be getting closer to the area where the Spezi (bike show for recumbents, tandems...) as we are beginning to see unusual bikes. These two men are from France and are riding, like us, to attend the Spezi. Their trikes have been customized by them with solar panels creating a roof over their trikes.
We will be riding through a very impressive industrial area for some time. Roche, Dove are a few of the big companies here. Energy is provided to Mannheim and the region by this plant.
We are happy to have pretty good signage and routing through this area with huge trucks and much traffic. However, this changed in the centre of Mannheim as we had to share very narrow streets through town with a high volume of traffic and no cycle lanes. It was a challenge but ok, so we couldn’t capture any photos as we were pretty focussed on remaining safe. There was an area where we wish we could have stopped that felt like we were back in Istanbul. Great looking food, markets, street cafes and just the general exotic feel that we loved in Istanbul.
We had a long day of riding, over 75 km, and we had an incredible day. This culminated in reaching our accomodation in Romerburg, zum Engel Landgasthaus where we had dinner in their dining room.
This Bike & Bett guesthouse is in a charming old half timbered building and we will be staying here for 3 nights so that we can attend the Spezi for the next two days. It will be a pleasant 13 km ride to the village of Germersheim tomorrow morning -can’t wait.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 382 km (237 miles)
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