June 11, 2014
No thunder storms - vineyards as far as the eye can see: Schweinfurt
After a hot night in the tent, we headed out and chose an alternate route that was not very good. We eventually got back to the original trail. That was the second frustration of the morning. Prior to this, as we left the village of Schwarzenau, Barry's new prescription sunglasses fell off and then we ran over them with our heavily loaded trailer. The good news is that the lens did not break and we think that they can be fixed - the bad news is that they broke in the middle and the screw is broken in half. We will have to find a Maui Jim dealer soon.
A bit of background to this frustration: a month before we left on this trip, our 2 pairs of Maui Jim sunglasses were stolen while camping and we had just paid to replace them. So this makes this problem sting just a bit more.
The third frustration of the day was an intense headwind. At one point, we were going downhill and our maximum speed was 9 km/hr and we were pedalling hard.
Today's riding was all about vineyards...we were in the heart of wine country with vineyards in all directions, dotted with picturesque villages that have thrived with guesthouses based on the wine industry. Particularly charming was the village of Sommerach.
We had a lunch break at a Metzgerei in Volrach with a visit to Optic Koch to try to fix B's glasses. The woman at the shop confirmed that we had to find a Maui Jim dealer and she kindly founded us one in Bamberg.
A ferry ride got us to Obereisenheim and we continued on to Wipfeld where we took a break in a shady spot - that is, Mary Ellen napped on a park bench and Barry luckily found a bakery open and returned with cold drinks and a delicious wildberry cake.
Our intended destination for tonight was a campground in Schonungen. While waiting for a traffic light in Schweinfurt, a fellow cyclist asked us what we were doing. We said that we were headed for this campground and he was most concerned as he told us that it didn't exist anymore. Thank goodness he told us as our GPS also had a listing for it.
So, we turned off the trail and found a bike friendly guesthouse - Gasthaus Mangold with a vacancy and here we are. A cold dinner in our room - breakfast in the guesthouse and on to Bamberg.
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Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 496 km (308 miles)
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