Travelling along the Rhine Route is very similar in many ways to a child’s join the dots colour-in book.
You have no idea where you are heading, just follow the signs and see where you end up!
That was basically the story of the cycling today, with my aim to stay away from big, confusing German cities and just stick to the track.
And once again with very few campsites along the way, I racked up bigger kilometres than I had planned before finally arriving in Worms where I have booked into a hotel for 2 nights.
With the World Cup soccer on and Germany playing Australia in the first round, the town’s main square has been converted into an open air venue complete with huge screen for broadcasting the game live.
And it’s right outside the hotel where I am staying, so it promises to be quite interesting – unless Germany loses and then I know who won’t be the most popular guy in the crowd.
Worms is my sort of town. Not too big, right on the Rhine Route, has lots of history going back more than 1000 years and has plenty to see. So it wasn’t difficult to make the decision to shout myself a couple of nights at a nice hotel for some R&R so I could check the town out properly.
The fact that the town doesn’t have a campground also had a big bearing on the decision. German campgrounds, when you can find them, are not like campgrounds in any of the other countries I have cycled through.
They are more like mini villages with hundreds of people living there in small caravans with very basic facilities. Certainly the two I have stayed in so far didn’t have a very good vibe.
It’s amazing what great people you run into when cycling along a dedicated cycle track such as the Rhine Route. Yesterday it was an elderly Swiss couple who I cycled with for 30 or 40 kilometres trying to work out which way to go together.
Today it was Jaap from The Netherlands who was cycling in the opposite direction towards Basil in Switzerland. He was sitting in a bus shelter eating his lunch and could see I was confused after I missed a vital sign and quickly put me straight.
We ended up talking for quite some time and he even gave me the great maps he no longer need for the next leg of my trip. Unfortunately I had already thrown mine out – anything I don’t need gets thrown away straight away to try to keep my weight down.
After basically comparing travel notes, warning each other about confusing areas ahead we exchanged email address to keep in touch basically to find out how the remainder of our respective trips went.
captions: pic 1: I thought this was a particularly good shot. Pic 2: Its an old joke, but I am still finding plenty of signms to that town Ausfahrt!!!!!!! Pic 3 Jaap, the Dutchman I met along the way Pic 4: There was a veterans tennis tournament on at the Worms Tennis Club Pic 5: The engrance to the old bridge over the river at Worms
We missed you for 3 mornings, and I have just read your blogs to dad, sorry you couldn't make it to Baden Baden and was hoping you would see Heidelberg, but obviously it has to be a day to day decision, so many elements involved. Gosh you look well only thing I notice the hair is getting long! I wonder if you will go anywhere near Weisbaden, another favourite of ours. You talk about your trusty bike, how good is it! other than punctures it has carried you safely with all that weight into your 4th country!!! Hope the celebrations of the German soccer fans didn't keep you awake. We are so enjoying your pics.
ReplyDeleteLove you Mum X