Monday, August 4, 2014

Day 74--Just a Few Fish Swimming Upstream

Today, Christian and I continued our ride up the Rhein. I have continued to notice far more touring cyclists going the other direction. There are just a few of us "swimming upstream". Case in point, here's a couple of photos of the downstream swimmers.


There were some going our way, but not many. I think it's because the wind blows the other way. Christian thinks it's because people think it is more down. I suppose that is true, in theory. Afterall, the river is flowing downstream.

The first big town was Koblenz. I've heard Christian talk a lot about Koblenz as it is not so far from Mainz. In Koblenz, the River Mosel joins the River Rhein. 
The confluence of the Mosel and the Rhein. 

The Mosel is green, and the Rhein is brown.

There is also a statue of the Kaiser, Wilhelm the 1st.
The story is that during WWII, the original statue was destroyed (used as target practice). In just the 1990s, a man paid to have this new statue done to replace the destroyed one. 

We continued riding along the water. There was a lot of people. Christian was riding through them like a bull in a China shop! I told him this later. I went a bit slower so as not to crash into anyone or scare any old people.

As we rode along the river, we saw several castles--the most I have seen in one day.
 
The most famous (it was the only castle not destroyed in the war) castle was Marksburg. It was on the other side of the river. Christian says there are so many castles on this part of the Rhein, because the area was wealthy from taxing boats that went up and down the river. That all changed when the government said all boats could travel for free on the river. 

Here's a couple more castles.
These two castles were built by brothers who were enemies.

This is a very big castle near Loreley, where we are staying tonight. And the one below is across the river.

We came into Loreley just as a parade was starting.


The village was packed. We wanted to stop at a cafe. Christian hadn't had any coffee since breakfast! We found one that was quite crowded, but we shared a table with another couple. I had a delicious Schokolade Küchen, und Heiß Schokolade to drink. Interestingly, the cake had a thin shortbread crust on the bottom. It had begun raining during the parade, but by the time we finished in the cafe, it had stopped. 

From the village it was just a couple of kilometers to the Campingplatz. This is my last night to set up my tent. I've made it as perfect as possible (considering it has 6 repair couplings holding the poles together). Here's a photo of our tents with Loreley Rock looming behind.

Tomorrow is my last riding day. I'll wait to post this blog when I get to Christian's (would have to pay for wifi here).

Total miles today: 52


 

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