Day 24: Mainz to Ludwigshafen

May 6, 2022

It is a common trait of smokers worldwide, that banned from practicing their habit inside buildings, they stack up right at the entrances, and fumigate anyone also trying to use the entrance. This morning we had to move our bags and bikes we were trying to load, to escape this phenomenon. And jumping ahead to tonight, we were happy to be given a ground floor room near the hotel entrance, until the smokers/talkers piled up in front of our windows. Smoking is much worse in Europe than in Canada, and Germany seems pretty bad, but France, we think is worst.

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Leaving our hotel was a matter of going up, which seemed strange for people trying to descend to a river path. But yes, it was true. This matter of Mainz having its own sort of mountain was a surprise to us. always in the past we have approached from the north and clung to the river, except to dash in to the Dom square. Live and learn, and climb.

Since we parachuted into the Rhine from the land of rapeseed, we were not thinking Rhine Wine and that vines would be everywhere. So when we ran into vines up on the Mainz hill, it was "Hey, look at that!". Of course pretty soon it was vines everywhere, and back to one of our classic modes: Riding up in the vines.

Some thing we have seen before , but did not expect here was self serve flowers, in this case tulips. It made us feel like being in Holland. The cost was 60 euro cents per stem, quite a lot, we thought.

Something else unexpected in the early going was descending a forest path. This Mainz hill thing was turning out to be a major geography feature for us.

Here we emerged from forest to find more vines, and a distant view down to the Rhine, where we were supposedly going.

Here is a brief pause to check out Dodie's fingers. They look terrible, partly because she keeps banging the blisters on stuff. We still do not have a diagnosis. Once we were thinking sunburn and then chilblains. But now we are actually leaning to Covid, though Dodie has never had any symptoms and we tested her negative when this came up. This has also affected Dodie's nose, but no way you are going to see a picture of that! Poor Dodie.

We finally did reach the river, allowing me to proclaim "Grampies have reaached the Rhine!"

We quickly set out along the famous Rhine Radweg (EV 15), only to be immediately almost stymied by a barrier. Dodie went and asked a worker what gives, and he fairly apologetically opened a barrier for us. We were on our way!

But wait, not so fast. Despite its immense fame, the Rhine Route is not a cycling super highway. In fact, parts of it are prone to flooding, which is what may account for the trail condition shown here.

Possible poor condition or not, this route really is iconic. It is the subject of my favourite map of all time, a kind of cartoon depiction of the whole thing. I think we bought this last time in Koblenz. It is cast just at my level, and I love looking at the castles and cathedrals coming up.

So yes, the vines are back, and of course, they are set on hillsides facing the sun.

And we are back to riding the vines!

Here is a new vineyard being started. Instead of wood, everything is steel. It is very precisely laid out and constructed, and must be expensive to do.

Despite the cartoon map (plus real map, and GPS) we professed no advance knowledge that the town of Nierstein was coming up for us. No matter, we dove in and immediately lodged at the first bakery. I got to sit at an outside table and look at the scene in the photo below, while Dodie went in.

Dodie scored big time, with not only an erdbeeren schnitte and a mohn danish but two mohn schnitte's which turned out to be the best ever. I am just finishing the last of that as I type this. I got Dodie to carefully taste and analyse each part of it, saying I needed the info for trying to make my own at home. "You'll never achieve it" said Dodie, and she was not being mean. I know she is so right. We will just have to keep coming back here!

With the erdbeeren, the gelatin was really nice and firm, and cold, and the overall flavour great. I do have a chance of reproducing this, and already got the cake base recipe from Birgit and Anja in Leipzig. The gelatin comes from a packet sold here for this exact purpose, and is often red.

Still in Nierstein, we cut up into a litle square to get a photo of the old wall that can be seen below. The man pictured came over and asked us some UQs. But, of course like many here, he also knew something of bikes and touring. He laughed at my cartoon map, but approved Dodie's GPS, and he quickly scoped out and approved the Ortlieb bags, Magura brakes, and Bosch drives. However he detected some schmutz on my front shocks, and insisted that they be cleaned before I wrecked them.

What the man was actually doing was to set up for a market in the little square, for which he is the organizer. That triggered some discussion about organising markets, which we have also done. In due course, the man wished us a good journey and said goodbye. That would not be the last set of UQs and good wishes for the day, as many more followed.

Or last observation in Nierstein was this grape vine, trained over an arch and along a wall. cool!

Nierstein may have been something new to us, but of course it is old hat to those who may have have lived their entire lives there. It also became famous as the first place the Allies crossed the Rhine in 1945, and the role of the 249th Engineering batallion - Patton's bridge builders. We learned about this as we came upon an emplacement by the river, telling the story.

The whole memorial was put in in 2017, with the participation of the city of Nierstein. I did not know quite what to make of it. We're the Americans still gloating over their victory? What do the Germans think of this? The sage Dodie poined out that the text is fairly anti-war in general, and that the Germans themselves, until forced by the Ukraine situation, have been strongly anti-war themselves. Maybe Germans and Americans equally appreciate this memorial?

A glance back at Nierstein - the Rhine bank is stuffed with hotels and eis cafes. This is a good way for the town to be.

A really major and very historic town on our way was Worms. In looking for bookings, Dodie had considered Worms, but we instead settled on Ludwigshafen. With the difficulties leaving Mainz and the often poor path surfaces, we were running late for Ludwigshafen, and felt we coud not afford much if any time in Worms. We did snap the first attractive building we found. In the photo, note the ladies with head scarves and long dresses. We found a lot of people looking like they were still in Africa, or wherever. They added an interesting and exotic touch, and showed the role of Germany in receiving immigrants from far off places.

Totslly by accident, in the north end of town, we encountered the synagogue, on Judenstrasse. It's not an objective of this tour to seek out or mull over German synagogues, but when we stumble on one, we will tend to take a look. Typically they are humble buildings, as was this one. And they are not, or seldom, used for actul religious services, tending to be more of museums. Paradoxically, it appears Htler's final solution actually worked, as jews no longer seem to part of these towns. It also seemed as if this synagogue had a security guard, as we got bossed around about where to park the bikes, to wear a mask, and to wear a head covering inside. Also paradoxically, though I didn't ask, the guard appeared to be of a Muslim ethnicity.

With a quick shot of one more attractive house, and some amazingly early bearded iris, we made our way past a tower bridge and out of town, without really seeing anything!

The Rhine along today's ride has some major refinery or chemical industries. A really large one is BASF, which we were told has 50,000 employees in the area.

At one intersection along the route, two couples on ebikes overtook us, and stopped for some UQs. From them we learned that they had come out on their bikes just to go to a distant Biergarten. From us they learned about our itinerary and where we came from. One was very interested in salmon fishing in Canada, and we were able to discuss that a bit, especially after I clued in that the man in speaking about lachs was talking salmon.

After the UQs the couples zoomed ahead, but it was clear when we ourselves reached their destination. And though we might not have recognized the people, we sure knew their bikes. So we paused, and got to share an additional round of goodbye waves.

Shortly after this, we think we came to the answer of what is planed in those elevated square rows - potatoes.

Ludwigshafen does not appear to be a very remarkable city, and indeed it's only a couple of hundred years old. But we did not expect the rathaus to be a high rise. Unless we are sorely mistaken, that's it in the photo.

Our budget hotel is actally called Budget Hotel. Except for the smoker/talkers outside our window, it's fine. The internet is good, and our bikes are behind three locked doors in a large and secure space. What more could we want?

What gives meaning to life today? Mohn schnitte!

Today's ride: 83 km (52 miles)
Total: 1,381 km (858 miles)

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