Frankfurt to Rudesheim: A comedy of errors

August 31, 2017

What an amazing day! We started by getting the first day kinks out. It was really rather hilarious. We were up early because our body clocks are still a bit confused. We were both wide awake at 6 AM so had some breakfast and were on our way at 7 in the morning. Our earliest start yet. We headed out geared up for the weather we experienced when walking to breakfast - warm and humid.

Ready to go, just outside of the Sheraton.

We emerged with our bikes though, and it was raining. The horror of it all! I jinxed us by writing in the blog yesterday that we would be four years in a row without rain to start the tour. So our first stop was to dig out the rain gear and put it on.

She who likes to think she is more organized buried her rain gear at the bottom of her pannier. I was over confident about not needing it, that is for sure.

We didn't get more than 200 m further and we both had to stop to raise our seats. We chose an underpass to perform this manoeuvre in the dry. Then another few hundred metres of riding and I had to get Keith to adjust the angle of my seat. He was getting a bit tired of getting the multi tool out at this point. We thought it would be smooth sailing after that, but then we arrived at the dreaded umleitung. A detour. In Germany these are not a suggestion, although we tried to go around it anyway. We retraced our steps, took the recommended detour and arrived at the staircase of death. It was steep, and the road works people had helpfully zap strapped planks down the side of the stairs to roll the bikes down. Slippery wet wood. Keith took one look and ordered me not to try. I wasn't planning to. I was looking with a great deal of interest at the workmen nearby and considering asking them to carry my bike down. Instead, Keith carried his down and came back for mine.

This was long, steep, and wet planks zap strapped to a staircase were intimidating!

Our next drama occurred not much later when we missed a turn. The bike path became much rougher and had a fair bit of gravel. I slowed and slowed and slowed. I have certainly become confident again after my fall, but gravel makes me nervous, and riding a loaded bike requires a bit of getting used to and we were only about 3 km into the day. Fortunately Keith turned around, and I followed, but he thought I was right behind him and instead I was having a crisis of confidence and was going so slowly I was practically walking. Not a good idea as of course speed makes a bike more stable. To make a long story short, Keith came to the intersection and turned, confident I was behind him, and when I got there I had no idea which way to go. I stopped and waited for so long I started to worry he wasn't coming back for me, but of course he did. I couldn't believe we managed to lose each other within 3 km of the airport, but we did.

The next minor drama was trail repair. Someone thought it was a good idea to lay a couple of inches of sand on the bike route. The first section we just chose to avoid by going a different way, and the next section was short so we rode down the side of the bike path rather than through the sand. I assume they are going to tamp it down at some point.

If you fell in loose gravel last year, would you want to ride in this??

After that the route was smooth sailing. Until Keith told me to go ahead. He was stopping to take a picture. I got so far ahead that I stopped to wait for him. He pulled up to me and was deeply unhappy that I had stopped. He had figured out that those dark clouds I was admiring in an 'isn't it interesting how dark clouds are when the sun is shining into them' kind of way were about to dump on us. The wind came up, the heavens opened up and the rain was prodigious. We both huddled under different trees with Keith still muttering to himself about people who get to be my age and don't understand what black clouds mean. Fortunately the cloudburst, while dramatic, only lasted about 10 minutes. And now we know our panniers are waterproof. Sure enough, good shelter was just down the bike path, and had I not stopped we would have made it. Oops. Keith was kind enough not to say I told you so.

Me riding along, dressed like a pylon, just before the sky opened up.

So we managed to cover all the bases in under 20 km and after that it was just super. We stopped in Mainz for lunch and a SIM card. Both experiences were excellent. We had a super guy at Vodaphone who spoke excellent English. Just to make us feel completely inadequate, he also speaks German, Greek and Italian. Wow. We rode to Rudesheim on the east side of the river and just loved it. We stopped for some time in Eltville Am Rhein. What an amazing place. We got to crash two weddings at the Electoral Castle (Kurfurstliche Burg) and we loved it.

To find the ceremony for this wedding just completed.

And then shortly after the bride arrived for the next wedding. Two weddings in ten minutes in a castle is our unexpected sight of the day.

The town of Eltville Am Rhein was beautiful and would be a perfect place to stay.

We arrived in Rudesheim at about 4 PM and are happy and comfortable in the Weingut Zur Lindenau. A terrific spot. Keith, who didn't sleep well last night, had a shower and a nap. We have been for a traditional German dinner and have explored the town. The rain, which other than the dramatic cloudburst was mostly spitting, has stopped. I am so happy to be bike touring I feel blissful. What a great day.

In the reception area of the Weinstube Zur Lindenau. Of course we bought a bottle, and it was delicious. Breakfast is in the historical wine bar. Sounds good to us!

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 76 km (47 miles)

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Carolyn van HoeveHi Kathleen, I'm not even sure you'll get to read this message as I'm commenting way back here. I enjoyed your Portugal/Spain journal so much I started reading your older journals. And then I came to your accident and my heart stopped. I had to write you a message. I had an almost identical experience earlier this year, a bike accident on gravel going downhill (in New Zealand where I live) and dislocated/broke my shoulder in 2 places (no surgery and no broken pelvis thankfully). My husband became the same rock as Keith and quickly had to acquire the same hairdressing skills. Luckily we were at least in the same country but still had to make the journey home in a car which took quite a number of days and we made the most of it.
I was determined to get back on my bike again like you so I did my physio religiously for 9 months. Bike touring is something new for us and we've only had one overseas experience of it, loving it so much and desperate to go again (then covid came along). I had the same anxious feelings getting back on my bike 4 months later and like you went from nervous to cautious but regaining my confidence. I was determined to go ahead with a plan to do a tour in France in September, which we did, and had the most amazing time. I had the same feelings as you when I first hit a bit of gravel. I still really dislike it and avoid as much as I can, but I'm a little more confident on it now.
I stopped doing my stretching exercises for the month we were away thinking I was done with it, but it stiffened up again, so I'm making it part of my daily return and also accepted it will never be quite the same. I would be interested to know if you still need to do stretches this far out and if your shoulder has completely settled.
I'm so sorry you caught covid after that wonderful trip but glad you're on the mend. It sounds awful. My husband started with a sore throat on our way back too but thankfully only a cold.
I'm restlessly trawling through journals at the moment desperate to start planning the next trip. Loved the sound of Portugal and Spain.
Hope to read another of your journals next year!
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2 years ago

Kathleen ClassenTo Carolyn van HoeveOh my goodness. It sounds like exactly the same experience. It sure isn’t fun, is it? I am so glad you got in touch. I had exactly the same experience with my shoulder on our first tour post fall. I was oh so proud of me for doing the physio and working so hard to regain a full range of motion. Off we went on tour, and it wasn’t until we were on the aircraft going home and I was trying to put my pannier in the overhead bin that I realized I had lost some of that hard earned range of motion 😱. So back to the exercises and fortunately it didn’t take long to come back, but I was shocked at how quickly it went downhill when I didn’t stretch it. I think that is improved now. I try and do daily yoga at home but certainly didn’t keep that up while we were away. I meant to, but you what they say about good intentions! The shoulder held up just fine though and I popped that pannier in the overhead bin no problem.

New Zealand is such a beautiful country. We have only been once, and only the north island but we absolutely loved it. We are talking about coming over again this year, perhaps with Bromptons, or perhaps renting bikes and doing day rides from a base. Very casual talk at this point but we would love to do it.
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2 years ago

Carolyn van HoeveLovely to get your reply Kathleen! I almost feel like I get to know people reading all their journals. I love your positivity and joy. I can relate also to the gratefulness for everything after coming back from an accident like that. It sure felt wonderful to be back on tour when that seemed like a remote goal at the time. Wasn't it the worst pain ever, couldn't wait for the rescue crew (a helicopter in my case) and their pain relief.
I stumbled upon the Andersons in CycleBlaze when planning our first tour in Adalucia and Puglia. I've been a groupie ever since. Such an inspiration. I'm not sure we would have ventured off this year if not for them.
New Zealand is beautiful but it was a revelation going to France and experiencing the amazing cycling infrastructure and consideration shown by cars. Unfortunately there are far too many drivers here who seem intent on killing you! All the main roads have little to no shoulder so cycling anywhere on main road feels dangerous. But things are getting better and in Auckland where we live a lot of cycling paths have been put in place thankfully.
However if you base yourself around Queenstown then you will have access to lots of great cycle trails (mostly not sealed but ok surfaces to cycle). I had my accident down there on a round the mountains trail (3 day bike ride). We were only an hour into it and the scenery was stunning. I have been persuaded to have another attempt this January. Feeling slightly nervous about that! The first part of it is a gravel road, not terrible though. It was just unfortunate the person in front of me slammed on their brakes going down a hill.
I'm not sure if Bromptons would be the right thing. But there are plenty of bike hire places (normally about $NZ50 per day, so not cheap).
If you need any information at all I'd be very happy to help!
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2 years ago

Kathleen ClassenI totally understand the nervousness. It was just this year I finally seem to be past it. A woman was telling me her tour guide’s advice when the going gets rough. The first thing was to remember speed is your friend. When I get nervous on gravel I was slowing down so much little old ladies and babies on strider bikes passed me (seriously, they did) and I have finally come to realize that that was not helping. The next advice was to trust the bike. Last was to always be looking about 10 m ahead, not down at your front wheel. I took all that advice to heart next time we hit gravel and it really helped!

I thought I would share my email address. I am really enjoying our conversation and it would be fun to continue. I was trying to figure out if there was a way to do it privately over the last few days, but I haven’t figured that out 🤷‍♀️. I think posting it here is pretty low risk though. Here it is: classenkj@gmail.com.
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2 years ago