Day 18: Oberwesel to Mainz, Germany

August 8, 2015

The people in the camper that was beside us last night put a liter and a half bottle of water in thhe fridge to cool last night, and presented it to us this morning. We transferred it to insulated storage, but that was not really necessary as we drank it and many more liters quite quickly in the rising temperatures. Quite a bit later in the day, in fact, we found ourselves wondering when or if our distance (in km) might exceed the temperature (in Celsius). We ended triumphant, with 60 km on a day that only went a little over 40 or 45 Celsius!

The first town up the river for us was Bacharrach. This is famous only because we remember Rick Steves (the travel guide writer) saying that this is the ideal town to stay in while visiting the middle Rhine. As we passed by, we vaguely looked for what Rick might be going on about, but really did not spot anything earth shattering. Maybe once back home we will review his videos and say "Ooh, so that's it!".

The next town along was Bingen. Somehow I always thought of this as a really good one. Maybe it's just the name. We pulled in toward the pedestrian area, and learned that the big claim to fame is Hildegard. Hildegard of Bingen, 1098-1179, was a mystic and scholar, who established two monasteries. In 2012 she achieved saint status, thanks to Benedict VXI. The great thing about the Hildegard info panel was that it listed where to go to buy Hildegard souvenirs. Greater still, was the info on where to get Hildegard inspired foods, for example at Cocktailbar Rheingau-Treff. Try as we might, though, we did not spot any Hildegard cocktails or Hildegard burgers.

We did find a fountain in the square we hoped to find a market, and this depicted historical scenes from Bingen's past. There was a Hildegard scene on there, but my exposure was poor, so here is a substitute, or ersatz, scene.

Overall Bingen seemed pretty normal too. (Of course, "normal" is by German cute town standards. Bingen would blow away absolutely any town in North America for cuteness.)

The Rhine near Bingen - making Rhine Wine

Scene from the fountain at the market square.

Our info showed that we could be on road or by the road if we would stick on the left bank of the river, so we jumped on the ferry across to Rudesheim. From there the map gave the impression that it would be a short cruise by Eltville and Wiesbaden, before we would have the choice of taking a bridge into downtown Mainz, or continuing to the camping on the right bank, just across the river Main, that joins the Rhine appropriately enough at Mainz.

The short cruise seemed to go on forever, as we wound this way and that, generally following the signs for route R3, which is also Eurovelo (EV) 15. At Eltville, we got shunted inland a bit, which did afford the opportunity to look at some different streets. Wiesbaden, which was or is a spa town, seemed to have lots of ugly industry now, though there was a large Schloss, all made from attractive red sandstone.

Somewhere along this way, out of the constant stream of approaching cyclists, I picked out one that flashed by. This one caught my eye just because the rider had a rather flashy shirt, and was situated in the middle of an oversized pile of luggage, and was also wearing a medium sized backpack. I thought nothing of it, until a little later..

In one plan, we would go to the camping and set up, dump our gear, and then cycle into Mainz for a look in the Cathedral. On the other hand, we guess that once set up in the camping, we would probably just flake out. So we went to Plan B, go to Mainz first and then toddle over to the camping.

The ferry to Rudesheim. 5 euros for both with bikes

The constant stream of oncoming cyclists these days

A small, beleaguered looking group of Asians near Rudesheim. Where is everybody?

The story of a destroyed bridge over the Rhine. The Whermacht did it in 1945, two months before the end.

It must take a lot of explosives to do this.

A hotel on the way to Wiesbaden. Beautiful!

This schloss at Wiesbaden has a restaurant in it, so one could visit at least a part.

We crossed the bridge (very windy!) and were just milling around on the other side, remembering which way to the Cathedral (Dom). Actually, or detailed plan was to go first to the Dom Cafe, which we remembered for good eis. At this point, the flashy rider with the much luggage flashed up and said "I met you on the other side". Actually, it was just that she remembered flashing by us over there.

In flashing by, the rider -Franceska - was demonstrating that she was turned around, for she gave her day's destination as Ludwigshafen, which is 70 km south (and not north at all). We (all) decided she should accompany us to the Dom Cafe for a rest and reorientation.

The Dom Cafe was closed for some reason, so we found another nearby. Of course, we gathered Franceska's story, which was interesting. She had cycled from Poland, though her home is indeed in Germany, up by the sea in the extreme north east, by Poland. She was heading for Basel and maybe Vienna, with no fixed agenda or end date. What happened was that her husband had found another woman, and suggested that Franceska could stay, in a menage a trois. She responded by grabbing her bike and beating it. Eventually she will find another place in Germany to live. She is a horse specialist.

Naturally we gave Franceska our blog information, and she showed us her equivalent: Three heavy notebooks - one in which she is writing her daily observations and thoughts, and one, her guestbook, in which she is collecting the contributions of people she meets. The third, I think, is a photo album. While at first Franceska's blog entries were briief, they have expanded to multiple pages. This, she says, because she is seeing and thinking so much on the trip. Similarly the Guestbook is growing, because so many people have taken an interest in her trip. While writing a paper blog is inefficient, we think, getting people to write in a guestbook seems good. We have found that few people we meet and to whom we explain about the Guestbook for this blog ever make an entry.

We sent Franceska safely off south, and went in search of the Tourist Information. By now we were super hot and tired, and a Guesthouse sounded really inviting. We remembered the tourist information as being in an improbable, impossible to find location not near the old town or Dom. Armed with this previous info, we did mostly find it. Not only is it hiding in terms of its location, but it is only open Wednesday to Friday. Oh, that;s when it is not closed for the Summer, like now. Closed for the Summer???

Right now our 3G internet is not strong enough to effectively run Trivago or Google Maps, but we did fire up the offline search in our GPS program, and headed for the nearest hotel, which was called Hotel Ehrenfels, right below the DOM. The price was 100 euros - according to what little we could see from Trivago, that was not totally our of line. We went for it.

Our room is large and has windows on three sides. They are all wide open, and creating a cross breeze which alone could be worth the price.

Since it was quite early and we were basically at the DOM, we went over for our customary look inside. We found it closed, except that an organ concert was about to begin, with entry by ticket. An hour in the cool, listening to music sounded good, so in we went. It was disappointing, really, though an experience nonetheless. First off, it was not actually all that cool. Warming up a stone basilica takes some doing, but it has been really hot for days.

Next, the organ did not really, or not at all, fill the space with bone rattling tones. It sounded more like a really good hifi, playing up at the front. The music too, did not thrill us. It had no really detectable melody, or emotional content, that I could decipher. Sometimes it sounded an awful lot like what the mad genius might play in some sort of horror or sci fi film.

Everybody who has worked hard to attend the organ recital at Passau Cathedral - do you think I am a total cretin for this review?

Tomorrow we will head off up the Main - so I can pooh pooh Frankfurt from the opposite bank!

Dodie rides off with Fransceska in search of an eis cafe

Poring over the map of all Germany, talking about where we all have been and are going.

The view from our hotel in downtown Mainz

Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 936 km (581 miles)

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