August 9, 2014
We leave the Rhine and start travelling along the Main: Tail winds make for easy travel
Our room last night was tiny, very hot and had the railway going straight through the middle of the room.
What a lovely surprise this morning when were about to start. The wind was just as strong as yesterday but miraculously in the opposite direct. This of course meant a very easy ride and what is more the temperature only got up to the mid twenties. It is Saturday today which is always a tight day for accommodation at this time of the year as is instanced by a German man I was riding with for a while. He said they were riding out from home for the day, staying the night in Frankfurt then riding home tomorrow. We saw a large number of cyclists today who looked as if this was the sort of thing they were doing. Accommodation I know around the edges of Frankfurt is somewhat trying so I settled on Florsheim a small place around 20km from Frankfurt and booked us a room there.
The woman at the Tourist Information last evening had told me that the route to Mainz on this eastern side of the Rhine is much more attractive as it passes through the wine producing villages of the Rheingau. The track is largely paved and as much of it is only about 2years old has a perfect surface as the tree roots have not yet done their mischief. Our coffee was at the beautiful little wine village of Eltville and I am afraid it is here that my 'no added sugar diet came to a sticky end'. It is said that some of Germanys finest wines are produced here. I wouldn't know about that but I do know that this is a beautiful town festooned with roses and with wood-framed houses and some of the best Kaffe e Kuchin in the world.
It was today that we left the Rhine and started our journey up the Main. The Main is a much smaller river and where they joined we saw one of the many cruisers coming from the Main into the Rhine on its way back to Rotterdam from Budapest. This cycle way looks as if it will be easy to follow. We stopped for lunch and a few kilometres later Ken went to photograph some swans. A mad dash and he was back to our lunch spot and luckily his camera was still there. We arrived at the hotel embarrassingly early and what a way out place it is. Hollywood is the theme and our bedroom and sitting room are decorated in a way that would really suit any cool teenager. It is so comfortable and such a change from last night. We have walked the town, sat at a riverside biergarten drinking bier and watched the world go by. Perhaps the highlight was meeting some Austrian cycle tourists from Innsbruck and having a pleasant time with them. I have bought food for a picnic and we will go down to the river and eat there on this glorious evening.
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Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 309 km (192 miles)
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