To Boppard

August 28, 2021

Today’s weather looks pretty dreary, as do the following three. It looks like we’re in for a string of soggy days before seeing much of the sun again. Today looks like the wettest of the lot, and with 40 miles to our next booking in Bacharach. We discussed this situation last night, looking for options beyond getting soaked or holing up here for a day or two more and then hopping a train south.

We can’t stay on at our so-so hotel here even if we wanted to; and on short notice there’s very little available in Koblenz at all this Saturday night. So staying here is out. Another consideration is that tonight’s lodging is no longer cancellable, though the ones beyond it still are. We have a day we can free up from a two night booking in Heidelberg so we decide to do that. We check with our hotel in Bacharach and they’ll let us move our uncancellable booking there out one day, so we do that too and also push out the following day’s in Oppenheim. Finally, we find a room in Boppard for tonight almost exactly halfway to Bacharach and book that.

So, we have a plan. a short 14 miles today to Boppard, 16 tomorrow to Bacharach; and after that hopefully conditions will have improved. If not, there are still frequent trains that could be hopped if it comes to that.

We hang around our room until about 10:30 and then walk out to explore Koblenz for a few hours, leaving our bikes and baggage at our hotel. Our plan is to take a loop through the old town and along the waterfront for a few hours and make it back to the hotel about one, aiming for what looks like the most promising time of the day. We don’t need much of a gap for the flat downwind 14 mile ride to Boppard.

We don’t get far. A block from our hotel it starts raining, hard enough that umbrellas quickly pop up around us and we head for shelter - first under the nearest awning, and then at a covered outdoor table at a bakery. We sit there for about two hours drinking coffee and having snacks while we watch the umbrellas go by and periodically check the weather to see if any gaps in the rain are opening up yet.

Where’s the nearest coffee shop or bakery? Looks like we need one.

Not much business today at the small market in the pedestrian zone beside our bakery.

The squash vendor sits masked in the opened back of his car, his wares getting soaked on the roof.

It’s still sprinkling when we head back to our hotel at one, just as the most promising break in the day moves in from the north. When we arrive four other bikers are also just arriving, looking soaked and imploring the hotel to grant them an early check-in. We wheel our bikes out of the small garage as they wheel theirs in, and we’re off.

Or we’re nearly off. First one of the four cyclists, a solo traveler coincidentally arriving at the same time as the other three, starts up a conversation. He’s Russian, but living in Ireland and biking his way up the Rhine himself. He asks about our journey and then which direction we’re traveling. We tell him we’re following the Rhine down to Heidelberg, which confuses him. He starts telling us of a pathway closure ahead and the need for a detour and then brings up a map to show us where it is. We’re not going that direction though. We’re going down to Heidelberg - down, as in down south. Silly him, he thought I meant down as in down river. Hence the confusion.

Finally I break off the conversation, saying we should ride while it’s dry.

Leaving Koblenz, biking south and upriver along the left bank of the Rhine.

The bike path south of Koblenz is varied - sometimes asphalt, sometimes pavers, sometimes dirt, sometimes muddy dirt.

Luck is with us as the rains cease and the skies inspire enough optimism that I can sneak in a few shots. Schloss Stossenfels ahead.

Most of the ride is on pavers like this - a surprisingly decent riding surface.

Rachael looks out of place in this crowd, without her sail.

Going up the Rhine. There are castles all along. I didn’t look up any of them, but did look up at them.

Oh, OK. This is Marksburg Castle, if you really want to know.

With about four miles to go, it’s clear that we’re going to arrive dry. We can afford a bit of time to look around, which is nice because this is a particularly dramatic stretch as for the next three miles we follow a tight bight in the great river. Our destination, Boppard, gradually comes into view as we round the bend.

Along the Rhine. Train traffic is heavy - at least a half dozen passenger and freight trains pass us in today’s short ride.

Riding this stretch of the Rhine feels similar to the Mosel but on a grander scale - more water, more castles, more traffic.

Boppard comes into view. For a town we’ve never heard of before it’s surprisingly beautiful.

We arrive at our bike-friendly inn at about 2:30, break out the masks and vaccination cards (now required everywhere we stay, and at some restaurants), and quickly check in to our room and get changed. It looks to be dry for a few more hours, and Boppard - a town we’d never heard of before last night - turns out to be an unexpectedly beautiful place waiting to be explored.

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Ride stats today: 15 miles, 300’; for the tour: 612 miles, 15,100’

Today's ride: 15 miles (24 km)
Total: 613 miles (987 km)

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Tricia GrahamI really like Boppard particularly because it has a wonderful bike shop that saved us
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Tricia GrahamHere we thought Boppard was a big discovery, but when I search for it on CycleBlaze fifteen posts come up. - you, the Grampies, the Klassens. We’re always the last to know.
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3 years ago

Lyle McLeodForget about Boppard. What about Spay a few km's to the north on the big bend in the river? K and I rode through here in 2013 going north. In Spay it looks like you ride rode through the work yard of Schottel Gmbh, as did we. They're one of the worlds largest producers of ship side thrusters (propellers that point out the side of ships, not the back) that are used by all dynamically positioned ships. Much to K's dismay, when we rode through the yard there were a number of thrusters packaged up ready to be loaded onto barges to be shipped to some far flung ship building yard. After about half an hour of me crawling all over them and taking pictures we were ready to keep pedalling north. I'm surprised you don't have any pictures or mention of this amazing place!
That's one of the beauties of Germany, you can go from industrial setting to quaint medieval village in the space of a few km's.
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3 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Lyle McLeodSpay? I had to look it up on the map. You’re right, we blew right through it without noticing - but then we were on a mission trying to arrive dry. Such an amazing area, all the way from Trier to roughly Bacharach. One village after another looks like it would be a brilliant place to stay over. Obviously worth more than one pass. It’s about time we made it through here!
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3 years ago