July 10, 2022
Going Rogue - Bernkastel-Kue
from Trier
It looked to be an easy day of riding. Cool weather, short distance (<50 km). So a quick pose by the Porta Nigra and off we go! Serenity only lasted so long....
As usual in a larger place, it take a little while to get out of town. Here, riding in an urban setting, we are happy that it is a Sunday, relatively early, and all seem intent on optimizing their zzzzz time. We cheated by riding on the sidewalks to evade the bricks. No people, and smooth.
Quickly, Komoot magic took hold and we were in some type of bicycle lane, with bushes and trees urging us along It was actually quite cool, about 17 C, and that started me thinking. We were complaining about 27 C a little while ago, and now 17 C is uncomfortable? How fragile are we? We cannot survive in 70% of this earth (unless you are really really good at treading water), and most cannot live above 4,000 m comfortably. And we are clothed (thank goodness say you all), and yet we are only somewhat comfortable in a ~10 C range? Damn, how did we become the "apex predators"?
Then, to interrupt my reverie, Komoot says "turn left now", and I don't see anywhere to go. Then I see this little trail....
And soon after, we are back on a road. We had decided to "cut across country", instead of following the river, (best designs and all) to decrease the duration of this route, since the Mosel is so sinuous here. So after running on the various roads and pathways for some time we come to....
This was a fairly large road we had to pass. We tried going around it and met up with concrete and huge embankments. We rode through the construction site - sand and gravel, not easy with panniers - and came to what looked like a dead end, even to Canadians. Hmmmm. I looked at the map and saw that maybe, we could wind our way through a gargantuan industrial park to get to another highway crossing. So off we went, and after many wrong turns, and frazzled looks at komoot and google maps, decided we would have to take a big detour. Seems like a huge road work project was going on. So we took off (of course it went up), then through an airport, down a few km on a brand new paved road shut to traffic (bikes rule!), and eventually to another crossing of that damn highway. About 10 km and a loss of about 5 years of marital harmony ensued. We finally found our way across that pesky highway, and encountered some beautiful agricultural areas that we would never have seen.
Then, after climbing something like 10 km of vertical - okay, it wasn't that much but it was a lot, maybe 500 m, summiting, then heading down - we see grapes. Yes! That must mean we are getting back to the Mosel river!!!! For those of you who don't know, that means flat!
So down we went, giving up all of that hard fought elevation gain. However, there were two smiles in evidence.
So we are descending and we start seeing these cute towns again. We must be getting closer.
We do finally reach the river, and the grapes are now everywhere. I know I mentioned several times how vertical the grapes are, but sheesh! Without machinery, it would be very hard to plant, weed, trim, fertilize, and harvest these plants.
We did eventually climb again over this hill, and roll into our hotel for the night. We tried the halbtrocken (half dry) Riesling - fab - and I tried a "whisper" of the spatlese (sweet) version - also really really good, but maybe sweet with food - and decided to go with the halbtrocken for dinner.
Tomorrow we are off to Cochem for a 2 night stay. We plan to follow the sinous river this time, for 70 km - choosing distance over elevation gain. Once again, I chose Cochem for a 2 night stay based on the amazing photos of this place on bing images. There must be a more scientific way to choose these places? I don't know, but it is working out well so far.
The map is in 2 pieces as I got Komoot so mixed up with 17 turns that I just reset and started a new route plan just after the airport we rode across.
Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,228 km (763 miles)
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