Biking at last

We had a late start from Mainz today.  I finally connected with someone at the consulate (a good thing), but then spent a long time filling out forms online and trying to schedule an appointment for when we return there (all productive, but time consuming).  Ellen spent a long time on the phone with Lufthansa.  It's starting to look likely that our backpacks and their contents are history.  We may be attending the wedding in Ireland in our bike clothes (just kidding).  Sadly, I had packed a beautiful Irish tweed sportscoat inherited from my dad.  A major bummer to lose that one.

It was after noon by the time we were rolling from the hotel.  Navigating our way through the city streets, and adjusting to the feel of the fully loaded tandem, were a bit of an adventure but all ok.  Mainz is gearing up for a celebration over the weekend so the area by the river was packed with carnival rides and booths, making for some tricky riding.  We were happy to cross the Rhine and start heading north on a bike path.

Waving goodbye to Mainz (across the river)

As we worked with our way up the Rhine, we ran into a couple of construction detours that put us on city streets, but drivers were polite and patient.  By Winkel we had to take small ferry across to pick up the main cycle route on the west bank of the river.  

As we waited for the ferry we were watching dark clouds build ahead of us and soon we were riding through a thunderstorm.  After a quick stop to put on rain shells we were rolling again.  A few km before Bingen it started to really dump: had we been in the car the wipers would have been on high speed.  We pulled over in a small village where a fair was going on, found a bit of roof to duck under, watched the rain pour down around us, and chilled in both literal and figurative senses.  We thought about stopping but there were no accommodations available nearby.  When the rain lightened up a bit we got back on the bike.  After a few km we were back on nice bike paths near the river.  Passed several campgrounds full of RVs (which tend to be smaller here), and rode through some long flooded areas solely on faith where the water on the bike path was literally up to our shoes on the pedals.  Even though we only went 52 km today it was an epic ride.

It was 7 pm by the time we rolled into Bacharach where we'd reserved a room at the Hotel Am Markt.  I spent a long time wiping the dirt and grit off the bike and lubing the chain.  We only had a few minutes to walk around before a nice dinner including an excellent local Riesling: dry and crisp.

View from our hotel room in Bacharach