Mainz to Frankfurt

July 16, 2024

The view from our hotel room overlooking the train station this morning.

After about a kilometer of easy city riding we were back on the even easier path riding. Our last day of cycling came with a moderate wind warning: there's a 15-16 mph wind out of the west... which means it's blowing in the exact same direction we're pedaling, and it really pushed us along.

After six days on the Mosel and three on the Rhine, we crossed over to ride our final day on the Main river. There were a lot of locks on the bridge from couples professing that their love will last forever, or at least until the city removes the locks.

The same bridge. I don't need a lock to profess my love.

Once away from Mainz, we had the path to ourselves until we got closer to Frankfurt.

We passed this sign marking the 50th parallel.

The path got a little rougher, but still good.

until, at one point, we realized the route guided us to something that isn't a bike path.

Of course, the cycling infrastructure is so good that we easily found a different path.

the original route, plotted by RideWithGPS

Thinking we might be able to get back on the original route, we rode back to the river.

But this was the bike "path." Not even an animal trail... nothing.

Once past that section, the route went back to its normal excellence.

The nice thing about the detour is that we found one of these benches to sit on for a few minutes. We've been seeing them here and there throughout the trip and have been wanting to try them.

Some interesting and very detailed graffiti

It's our last day so I couldn't resist one more berry stop.

A picture in front of the Frankfurt sign. We were only on this road for about 50 yards, then turned...

Gates on the river for practicing kayaking.

And what a surprise!!! My good friend Klaus, who lives in Frankfurt, came out to ride the rest of the way!! We met on my 2008 trip from San Diego to Jacksonville (he was traveling around the world) and we've remained in touch.

We made one stop before heading to our hotel, the Mövenpick. Even in downtown Frankfurt we felt safe riding.

We cleaned up, then met him for dinner at Sissi + Franz, a good burger joint he recommended.

Compare the size of Klaus' dessert to the size of mine.

It was particularly generous of him to meet with us because he's leaving the day after tomorrow to start the Northcape 4000, and has a lot of last minute things to do. The NC4K is a 4000 kilometer ride from Rovereto, Italy, to the North Cape in Norway which needs to be completed in under three weeks. That means doing more than 110 miles every single day for 21 days. He's been training since December, and lost 18 kgs (40 lbs).

[Addendum: he finished in 18 days, averaging 141 miles a day!! Mark M., perhaps this will be your next ride??]

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Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 264 miles (425 km)

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Mark M.Honoured to get a namecheck, Mr B. I think I'd need an immoral amount of cake to make that ride worthwhile though. Hats off to Klaus, and also to you and Heather for another successful tour, and a predictably compelling journal. Let's hope for more miles in the near future! 👍
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1 month ago

Mark BinghamTo Mark M.According to the books and journals I've read about Cake Morality, which is quite the engaging topic, when you ride 4,000 kilometers in 2-3 weeks, you have an ethical and moral imperative to eat as much cake as possible. For your health, and for ummm, ethics and errrr, morals.
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1 month ago