The Two H's.... Akropolis provided a good breakfast with a big pot of coffee and the highlight was homemade apple cake. Hof to Hennef - All Roads Lead to Italy - CycleBlaze
The Two H's.... Akropolis provided a good breakfast with a big pot of coffee and the highlight was homemade apple cake. Hof to Hennef
Another long day of dragging our bike, trailer and ourselves on and off trains
Hotel Akropolis was a great choice for weary travellers - it is directly across the street from the train station, is very comfortable and newly refurbished and the Greek/German owners are very hospitable. We walked for quite a distance to find some food. The area near the train station in Hof is pretty run down and grotty - no stores were open but we eventually found the historic centre of town and ate in the only restaurant we could find that was open - an "American" hamburger - over 1 1/2" thick for Barry and pasta for me. It was really good. After having been in trains for most of the day, it was good to walk and get some fresh air.
Akropolis provided a good breakfast with a big pot of coffee and the highlight was homemade apple cake.
What fun - when I tried to express our appreciation for breakfast in German - she tried to teach me proper pronunciation. We both ended up laughing when I was defeated by the guttural sound needed. She did her best!!
A good sleep, good food and nice people - we feel ready to attack the challenges that may come our way today. We are off to Hennef, via Nurnberg, Wurzburg, Frankfurt, Siegen and then finally Hennef.
The first train of the day from Hof and we need to go underground to access the correct platform. The elevator is too small for our bike, but we are happy to use it to transport our bags and trailer.
Charmaine RuppoltI was always glad to see an elevator to use vs. having to haul my bike up/down stairs!! What do the handicapped people do?! Reply to this comment 1 year ago
Well, this type of access is not ideal for our big rig - a single door on the train car, stairs and 90 degree turns are not our friends - but we were the only bike at the station when the train arrived, so we were able to get on - yeah!
We met this lovely German couple (Ron and Tina) - both teachers - who ride a Co-motion tandem on the train to Nurnberg. They were returning from a cycling trip and heading home. We talked to them for a long time and had a great visit. They have toured extensively with their tandem in Europe, South Africa, Pacific Coastal route to San Diego and Quebec, Canada as you can see from his jersey.
We really like Co-motion bikes and tandems. In fact, it was our first choice of tandem before we discovered the bliss of riding a recumbent tandem. Having test ridden them we appreciate the quality of their bike. Like our Rans Seavo, they also have S&S couplers which make it easy to pack it for flights in smaller pieces.
Train stations always give us a sense of anticipation for an adventure ahead. The magic of travel for Mary Ellen began early in her life as she and her family travelled a great deal by train as her dad was a Conductor on the CNR (Canadian National Railways) and the family had free passes for the complete system across Canada.
Charmaine RuppoltWow!! Mary Ellen was very fortunate to have free passes on the train system in Canada when growing up!! Reply to this comment 1 year ago
We really liked the train from Wurzburg to Frankfurt - easy access for Seavo.We had a bit of time in Frankfurt between trains and Barry disappeared to get us some food and surprise, surprise....beer! It was refreshing and felt so decadent, as we are not used to open consumption of alcohol in Canada. The only downside was that the beer made us want to sleep. Two more trains to go!!
We were so excited to make all of our train connections - some were very short (15 min with a platform change) and at our last station (Siegen) we made a mad dash the length of the platform to catch the earlier connection to Hennef. This cut one hour off of our day. That means, 9 am to 7 pm, instead of 9 am to 8 pm. We needed an earlier arrival time as we knew we had a super hilly ride to our campground located near Akkurad
We were forced to resort to old practice on this brute of a hill with Barry riding and Mary Ellen walking - a couple of km at a high gradient.
To put it mildly, Barry is suffering. To add insult to the fact that we have no motor, Barry is pulling an extremely heavy trailer with our 2 batteries inside. I walked to lighten the load and he rode alone.
Near the top we met this young woman on her horse at Hofen. She was very encouraging as she told Barry that the top was near. The countryside is beautiful here and the views are worth the climb.
