It’s quite unbelievable the amount of traffic that goes up and down the Rhine. I have heard that it is one of the busiest rivers in the world and after riding along its shores for a week or so now, I have no reason to doubt the fact.
Tourist boats, oil tankers, coal tankers, soil and sand tankers … the list of boats going up and down the river is almost endless.
Add to that railway lines on both sides of the river that come and go every few minutes and it pretty much full-on all the time.
Last night at Assmannhausen (or at least directly across the river from the town) I thought I had the perfect campsite to escape persistent rain.
Right on the bank of the river (literally) and under a huge tree. After enjoying a few drinks with a couple of Kiwis, I finally hit the sack looking for a good night’s sleep. But that’s just what I didn’t get.
Between the diesel engines of huge tankers going up the river and trains on both sides of the river sounding as though they were coming right through the tent, I basically didn’t get any sleep all night.
The comings and goings were relentless and with the deep Rhine Valley echoing the sound, it was quite unbelievably loud.
So as you can imagine it was pretty hard to get going this morning despite the prospect of better weather and a day full of picture postcard castles.
And unfortunately the day just seemed to go from bad to worse, with a ferocious headwind kicking in mid-morning in combination with a thick mist that` made photography impossible.
As a result I decided to call it quits after just 44 kms, about 17kms short of my target for the day, Koblenz. Fighting into a fierce headwind after a night of next to no sleep isn’t a good combination!!
This part of the Rhine is amazing with castles on both sides of the river all along. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will cooperate so I can get some worthwhile photos!!!!!!!
captions: Pic 1: The castle I toured the previous day Pic 2: The castle above the campground. Pic 3: Beautiful buildings. Pic 4: A particularly good section of the Rhine track
Sorry the weather has been so bad, hope now it's better as you are in such an interesting part of Germany. Have you been through Boppard? We stayed there on the Rhine for a few days, remember well the continual passage of every type of boat and the wonderful castles.
ReplyDeleteCertainly will miss your untiring blogs and pics, wonderful effort, understand the difficulty. Hope you find the rest of your journey trouble free, not far to go now, peddle safely. Love Mum X
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have just been looking at google maps to see where you are and I didn't realise that the Rhine went all the way to the Netherlands and into the North Sea. Are you following the Rhine all the way into Holland? I am learning so much with your travels, Mum and I are always poring over the atlas to chart your course.
Richmond beat Brisbane Lions yesterday 105 to 86 and the Lions have dropped down to 11th on the ladder. Good news for some the Hawks won again yesterday, 6 in a row and are now back to 8th on the ladder. They played Essendon in a thriller on Friday night with Buddy kicking 2 amazing goals. I was there in the freezing cold and the rain to see the game, 3/4 of the way into the last quarter the scores were level, so was a very exciting finish.
Its such a shame about the weather, it certainly makes a difference on a trip, lets hope when Rayleen arrives the sun shines the whole time for you both.
lots of love xxx
hi you are certainly experiencing some weather changes arnt you on your travels !! I imagine you will be pleased to ship your trusty bike back home to Oz !! I hope that the trip has matched your dreams of it and from the comments and fotos it looks as if it has and imagine you are so pleased you have done it.keep going !!! Not too far now xxx
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteWimbledon starts today, can you believe it is 4 years since we were there!!
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