August 6, 2015
From Bad Soden to Fulda: This is the reason we were going to catch the train to Fulda
I knew that there was a reason that we were going to take the train from Frankfurt to Fulda and today I was reminded of it. It was very much a ride in two parts.
The first 20km were great as we glided along the Kinzig river. The first exciting place we came to was Steinau ad Strass. Steinau is a dreamy fairy tale village of framework houses where the father of the brothers Grimm worked and lived with his family from 1791- 1796. Today there is a museum 'The house of the Brothers Grimm' but we were too early for that. Directly in front of the castle is the market place surrounded by historical buildins and in the centre of this is the fairy tale fountain erected for the bicentenary of the birth of Jacob Grimm. The next town was the lovely modern town of Schluchtern with its pretty ancient heart
It was after this that everything began to turn to custard in the form of a 5km hill at about 8% and by now the temperature was around 35 degrees. I was struggling and needing numerous stops. It amazes me how fit Ken is and he was having little difficulty and helping me on my way by pushing my bike when I had a small walk. After this of course was a nice downhill but the undulations continued all the way to Fulda. We stopped for coffee - I had a fanta to see if it would work its magic. Arriving at the baroque city of Fulda was a relief and we easily found our very nice hotel which was for once not up a hill and what is more it had a lift so we didn't have to cart all the luggage up many flights of stairs. I don't feel very proud of todays effort. Clearly spending lots of time on the coach watching The Tour de France is not a guaranteed method of getting fit.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 177 km (110 miles)
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